Rules of the European Music Contest

Number of participating countries

As soon as the competition has reached it's maximum of 28 participating nations, and you're interested to take part, you'll be placed on a waiting list. 

Participants at this moment: 26

Registration

You can easily register for the European Music Contest by sending:

1. Your name
2. The country you would like to participate with
3. The artist(s) and song
4. An YouTube link of your chosen song + a chosen part of 00:30 seconds, that will be used in the video recap

In an email to: europeanmusiccontest@hotmail.com 

Countries

1. You have the freedom to choose a country in the Countries page, except the ones that are already taken, and therefore unavailable.
2. European territories such as the Åland Islands, Transnistria, Faroe Islands, Nagorno-Karabakh, Gibraltar and Vatican City are not allowed to take part.
3. Smaller European countries such as: Andorra, Cyprus, Luxembourg and San Marino are not eligible to take part with artist(s) from bigger neighbouring countries.
4. The country that you compete with is always reserved for you, unless you want to change that country.
5. If you win an edition of the contest, it is not possible to change your country for the upcoming edition.
6. You have to participate for your selected country for at least 3 editions, before having the opportunity to change.

Artist(s)

1. The artist(s) has to be born or live in the country you're participating with, or either one of the artist(s) parents has to be from there.

2. For a group, at least one of the bandmembers has to be born or live in the competing country.
3. It's not allowed to participate with the same artist(s) more than 3 times in 10 editions.

Songs

1. Participating songs can be sang in any language.

2. Participating songs must have been released in or after the year 2020.

3. Songs which competed at the Eurovision Song Contest are not allowed (including 2020).

4. Songs which competed at the American Song Contest are not allowed.

5. Covers of songs which competed at the Eurovision Song Contest are not allowed.

6. Songs that have competed in National Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest are allowed to take part, but please try to select these songs within proportion.

7. Covers of songs are allowed, but only if the original song hasn't competed already in an earlier edition.

8. Your chosen song has to have a video link on YouTube.

Voting procedure

1. The voting methode in the European Music Contest works the same as in the Eurovision Song Contest:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12 points are giving to your top 10.

2. Votes have to be send to our e-mail address: europeanmusiccontest@hotmail.com 

3. You have to vote before the deadline, otherwise you'll be losing all of your collected votes and get disqualified for further editions.
4. Once a country has voted, the votes cannot be changed, unless there has been a mistake in the votes of the delegation.

5. In the case of a tie, the current Eurovision Song Contest rule will be used (the one with the most country's that voted for them gets the higher position)

Running order

The running order of every edition is determined by a draw.

The countries that will be performing as opener and closing act will be drawn, together with the host country and the two countries of the EMC management.

Another draw will then decide in which half of the respective edition each country will perform.

A country will be placed in either the first or second half of the competition.

The exact running order will be determined by the EMC management later, after all the participating songs have been received.

Winning the competition

The winner of each edition will have the right to host the following edition and will be obliged to contact with the EMC management, and decide:

• Host city
• Presenter(s)
• Venue 

The rules above are applicable from 01-01-2024 until 31-12-2024