Zendari Song Contest 7

Zendari Song Contest 7 is the seventh edition of Zendari Song Contest. It will be hosted in Wallica, the winning country from the previous edition. The contest will consist of two semi-finals and a final.

44 countries participated in this edition, with 2 countries competing for the first time, 3 countries returning to the contest and 5 countries withdrawing from Zendari Song Contest.

Location
On the 1st of July 2018, a list of venues interested in hosting the seventh edition of Zendari Song Contest was revealed.

Bidding phase
Seven venues have been announced to have shown interest in hosting the contest. The ZBA announced the conditions under which cities and venues could announce their interest in hosting the contest.


 * The host city has to be near a major airport.
 * The venue must have good connections to public transport.
 * The venue must be available for at least six weeks before the contest and one week after the conclusion of the contest.
 * The venue must not be open-air, but an air-conditioned building with a capacity of at least 10,000 and a minimum ceiling height of 15 metres (49 ft), insulated for sound and light.
 * The green room must be located as close to the arena as possible (or within it), with a capacity of 300.

Host venue

Pots
Pots for the Zendari Song Contest are based off of voting patterns. The pots will be used for semi final allocations for the 7th edition of Zendari Song Contest.

Automatic Qualifiers
Although these countries are automatic qualifiers for this edition, each country has still been assigned a pot.


 * would have been in Pot A.
 * , and  would all have been in Pot B.
 * would have been in Pot D.

Semi Final 1
Olkenland, Wallica and Wo Xi were randomly drawn to vote in this semi-final.

A playlist can be found here, and a recap can be found here.

A full scoreboard of the voting can be found here, and the international jury scoreboard can be found here.

Semi Final 2
Cyan and Haña were randomly drawn to vote in this semi-final.

A playlist can be found here, and a recap can be found here.

A full scoreboard of the voting can be found here, and the international jury scoreboard can be found here.

Grand Final
A playlist can be found here, and a recap can be found here.

A temporary scoreboard showcasing each individual votes can be found here. The rest of the world voting scoreboard can be found here.

* - As the hosts of the contest, Wallica were randomly drawn to perform 8th.

Rigging claims
During the grand final, a screenshot of a private conversation between the Titonian and Junker delegations were leaked, where the Titonian delegation could be seen discussing the votes of the international jurors. The screenshot was written in Swedish, but was roughly translated to "Jojo's Reich is missing three points to qualify over Xobrania, if you can get the Zerox delegation to change their points to boost Jojo's Reich, they'll go to the final, unless someone votes last minute". This caused a massive uproar, and a massive amount of people started questioning the authenticity of the contest.

The Titonian delegation later issued an apology letter, where they stated that the messages "were authentic, but were taken out of context, however we can totally understand why people are interpreting the messages the way that they are".

"Those were words told by us. However, it's important to note that the entire management team has access to the international jury scoreboard, and can easily look at it and change their points if they wish. We did not mean to rig the contest, and if we did, why would we ask the Junker delegation to change the Zerox delegations' points? Cine was an international juror too, we could've easily asked them to change their points. Eitherway, we could go on for several hours about how they're wrong and we're right, but none of us are right in this situation. We shouldn't have messaged them to begin with, and they shouldn't have changed Zerox's points. That basically means that we made it happen, and we can't do anything other than to apologize to all affected parties, and to implement some changes." ~ The Titonian delegation

The upcoming edition saw a few changes, including no discussion of votes being allowed to anyone, as well as the scoreboards being closely monitored to ensure that no rigging was taking place. The affected country, Xobrania, was also offered an automatic qualifier spot in the upcoming edition, which they accepted.

Needless to say, this event caused massive uproar and a massive amount of withdrawals in the following edition.

International broadcasts and voting
The contest was broadcasted in over 50 countries.

Spokespersons

 * Calum Scott
 * Amanda Delara
 * Tea Tairovic
 * Matt Cardle
 * Kamil
 * Clara Henry & Jack Whitehall
 * George Michael
 * Shauna Sand
 * Ella Mai
 * Valentino Khan
 * Trevor Moran
 * Tika Prasain
 * Anggun
 * Lady Leshurr
 * Molly Kate Kestner
 * Elton Britt
 * Darin
 * Sunmi
 * Cécile Corbel
 * Joan Thiele
 * Elina Born
 * Eivør
 * Gustavo do Rosário
 * Hadise
 * Demy
 * Max Cooper
 * Nicky Tučková
 * Paloma Faith
 * Polina Gagarina
 * Miss Eaves
 * Olga Przybysz
 * Kirsten Joy
 * Michelle Visage & RuPaul
 * Mile Jedinak
 * Thorgy Thor
 * Emilia Ali
 * Janelle Monáe
 * Florence Welch
 * Natasza
 * Marketa Irglova
 * Khoudia Diop
 * Miss Keisha
 * Anastacia
 * Eva Simons

Other countries
Eligibility for potential participation in Zendari Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with an active ZBA membership that is be able to broadcast the contest. All countries with an active ZBA membership have been given an invitation to join this edition.

Active ZBA countries

 * - The Tribal Council of Mainland Technology Official Broadcasting Unit announced on the 29th of June 2018, that they would withdraw from the contest for a while, as they wish to make room for other television programs to be aired. It is assumed that they will return in the future.
 * - On the 23rd of June 2018, after a scandal involving their head of delegation, Coco Islands (along with Rose) was banned from entering the contest, after breaking the rules of the contest.
 * - Landland's participation in the seventh edition was unclear, since there were no announcements from LandTV regarding their participation. On the 2nd of July 2018, it was revealed that they were not on the final list of participants.
 * - The future participation of Orblein was unclear for a long period of time. Several sources were claiming that Orb Broadcasting Service were contemplating taking a break from the contest, but no official statement had been given as of then. On the 23rd of June 2018, OBS announced their withdrawal from Zendari Song Contest. No reason for the withdrawal was given.
 * - On the 23rd of June 2018, after a scandal involving their head of delegation, Rose (along with Coco Islands) was banned from entering the contest, after breaking the rules of the contest.

Inactive ZBA countries

 * - Despite applying to be apart of the contest (but failing to join, due to the current edition being full), Draydal submitted votes for the semi-finals, as an international juror.
 * - Elsendanto Ikano have expressed their interest in returning to Zendari Song Contest, but there are several issues that are hindering their return. An official statement was never published, and as a result, they were not on the final list of participanting countries.
 * - KDZ:TELEBACHENYA broadcasted Zendari Song Contest for the first time this edition. Kydziya submitted votes for the semi-finals, as an international juror. They also submitted votes for the grand final, as part of the Rest of the World jurors.
 * - Despite applying to be apart of the contest (but failing to join, due to the current edition being full), Rhosỳna submitted votes for the semi-finals and the final, as an international juror. They also submitted votes for the grand final, as part of the Rest of the World jurors.
 * - Despite applying to be apart of the contest (but failing to join, due to the current edition being full), Rosalina submitted votes for the semi-finals, as an international juror. They also submitted votes for the grand final, as part of the Rest of the World jurors.
 * - Even though Üsmile (formerly Oofaria) are still on the waiting list, they confirmed that they will vote again as a part of the 'Rest of the World' voters. At the same time, they confirmed that the commentators for the Oof TV broadcasting of this show would be Üsmile's Zendarifestivalen 4 representative, Ministarke. Üsmile submitted votes for the semi-finals.
 * - Despite applying to be apart of the contest (but failing to join, due to the current edition being full), Vendujo submitted votes for the semi-finals, as an international juror. They also submitted votes for the grand final, as part of the Rest of the World jurors.