Congrats to all the finalists!
This is going to be a great final. :D

Some very good songs didn't make it though. :'(

In particular I am very surprised that Denmark, Lithuania and Portugal didn't make it, but that is the nature of the beast. :'(

Kinda expected to go out, didn't get as much of a good reception for our song as I thought...

Denmark and Portugal going out...Why do I have a feeling that those countries were the ones who missed the voting deadline?

Shame really, those two were in my top 10 for all songs...Definitely would've gotten points from me if they made it...

Thank you so much for voting Hungary, I didn't have so much faith but here I am.

Congrats to all the qualifiers, specially Austria, Morocco and Belarus who usually miss the grand final.

Macedonia, Bosnia, Greece, Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium... so many good songs robbed! WTF happened???

Btw, UK and Malta were the countries which didn't submit their votes.

No offense but that Portuguese song is dreadful. I don't get the hype. I'm not surprised that it didn't make it!!!!!

A little surprised about Denmark not qualifying from Semi 2 but not distraught. I'm more upset that the UK lost out on a potential qualification. Love that song!!

But tbh I think pretty much all the songs that qualified deserved to qualify,
I personally don't feel like there are any songs that outright don't deserve to be there. :)

Also thank you to the participants in Semi-Final 1 for voting for Estonia. :)

Just right in this moment the grand final has began, one day after finding out the 10 qualified countries from each semifinal, with surprising results. Once we already have the 25 finalists which will compete to reach the final prize, we can start with the voting process. Since now, all the participating countries, even though the non-qualifiers, must vote to choose the winner of this 28th edition in Luxembourg.

The voting will be open since today Thursday, 14th December until next Friday 22nd December. You must give 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point to the songs you like the most. On the following days after the deadline, the Grand Final will be celebrated.

You must send your votes to me. If you can't vote for any reason you should tell me as soon as possible to find a juror to replace you. The players who don't vote will lose 50% of their final scores and/or lose their countries.

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Please, if it's possible, send along with your votes, your SPOKESPERSON and city pictures.

Good luck to all the countries.

A fantastic final
Good luck everyone :)

12 countries out of 48, have already voted, there're 36 countries left to vote yet. (25% completed).

Deadline: Friday 22 December, 11:59 pm (CET)

Those who fail on voting on time, will lose 50% of their final score and will lose their countries.

DRAWS AND WITHDRAWALS

I've taken into consideration, since ESCT28 onwards, right after this edition finishes, all the countries that become free because of the owner don't want to participate with it or the owner doesn't vote on time, they will be drawn next edition, in other words, if any country withdraws after ESCT28, this country won't be drawn until ESCT30 and that country could participate in that edition.

Therefore, the only country that will be drawn in ESCT29 it will be Montenegro, due to it's the only free country now.

I took this decision to ease up the editions, because we are participating like 47-49 countries each edition and maybe there are too many countries in each semifinal and many robbs or injusticies are because of this. In principle, this won't affect any participant, just those who want to apply to new countries and don't have any yet, they will have just to wait one edition to participate.

So, the Pre-Semifinal Round (PSR) might desapear and the semifinals could possibly have less than 20 participants each.

What do you think about this?

I think that is a fair proposal.
When I think about the semis I don't think there it a song that didn't deserve to qualify that made it through.

So even though I thought Denmark, Portugal and Lithuania should have made it. I'm not mad at the songs that made it instead (for example Slovakia who was lower down that betting odds than Lithuania).

I think you have cultivated the contest where the standards are just so high.

We could have an internal draw between the current players if a big country becomes available. That way a big country gets used but we don't add any players.

14 countries out of 48, have already voted, there're 34 countries left to vote yet. (29,2% completed).

Deadline: Friday 22 December, 11:59 pm (CET)

Those who fail on voting on time, will lose 50% of their final score and will lose their countries.

Austria doesn't agree with the new availability of each country in the contest. I agree that if a country doesn't vote into a contest (Malta and UK as examples for this edition) should pe penalised and they could be disqualified one edition, but when a head delegation is changed, I don't see any reason to penalise a country. If I want to go into a draw next edition, I don't find it normal for Austria to not be available to participate. If I don't give the votes into the final, I agree, the country should be penalised because it didn't do its duty. And I don't think that we there should be targeted a decrease in the number of the countries, we should want every European country to be available to participate and not a lower number of entries.

That's why I think it is fairer for us to have internal draws for countries. That way we cut down the number of people, but we won't lose a country like the UK from the next contest, because let's be honest a lot of players would want the UK.

If you want to go into a draw next edition and you don't win the draw, you (Austria in this scenario) can participate as always, but if you win it, Austria would be free for the following edition, just to let this country rest for an edition.

That would help people to think about its participation with its current country for next edition. For exemple, me as Hungary, I know what to send for ESCT29, something that I think it's good, but then a country withdraws and I want it so bad, what should I do if I can apply for this new free country and win it for ESCT29? Should I waste the chance to send the song I like, or waste the chance to apply for the country I like?

In the other hand, I know that this supposed country is free for ESCT30, now I can send what I wanted to send for ESCT29 and then get ready for the draw of ESCT30. That's my vision of this idea. I hope I explained myself well haha.