OMSC 28

Online Music Song Contest 28, often referred to as OMSC 28, was the twenty-eighth edition of Online Music Song Contest, held in Tel Aviv, after Israel won the previous edition of the contest.

The Pre-Qualification Round of OMSC 28 occured on the 19ᵗʰ June 2022, the Semi-Finals on the 26ᵗʰ June 2022 while the Final occured on the 3ʳᵈ July 2022. Fifty-five countries participated in the twenty-eighth contest, under the slogan “To The End Of The World!”.

Location
After it’s victory in the previous edition, the broadcaster IPBC chose to host the contest in the second most populous of Israel, Tel Aviv, which has a population of 460,000 inhabitants. Israel is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, in central Israel, the historic land bridge between Europe, Asia and Africa. The city is located 60 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem and 90 kilometers south of the city of Haifa. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv lies on land that used to be sand dunes and as such has relatively poor soil fertility. Its most notable geographical features are bluffs above the Mediterranean coastline and the Yarkon River.

Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a Jewish suburb of the mainly Arab Jaffa. Tel Aviv’s founders were mainly middle-class immigrants who set out to build a European-style suburb with modern urban infrastructure and services. In 1917 the entire population of Tel Aviv and the Jewish population of nearby Jaffa were expelled northward by the Ottoman military authorities. The city’s residents returned home in late 1917, after Jaffa and Tel Aviv were taken by the British. Growth during the period of the British mandate in Palestine was largely influenced by waves of Jewish immigration into Palestine and by rounds of violence between Arabs and Jews in the 1920s and 1930s. This led to an increasing separation between the two populations, especially after the anti-Jewish riots of 1921. Separation between Arabs and Jews was virtually completed in the late 1930s when a general strike in the port of Jaffa led to the establishment of a separate port in Tel Aviv.

In that period Tel Aviv started emerging as the centre of the Jewish population in Palestine. The historical nucleus of Tel Aviv developed into a thriving business centre, to the point that the population of Tel Aviv surpassed that of Jaffa. According to the United Nations’ 1947 resolution on the partition of Palestine, Jaffa was meant to remain an Arab enclave within the Jewish state. However, in 1948, days prior to Israel’s declaration of independence, the Jewish military forces took control of Jaffa, and the Arab population fled. Jewish immigrants soon settled in the largely deserted city. Jaffa was amalgamated with Tel Aviv in 1950, and the united municipality became officially known as Tel Aviv–Yafo.

In the 1990s, Tel Aviv experienced renewed growth and economic restructuring, as well as security problems associated with the Israeli-Arab conflict and peace process. During these years, Tel Aviv suffered a number of violent attacks; among them were Iraqi missile assaults during the Persian Gulf War and several terrorist attacks. Nowadays the city has the third- or fourth-largest economy and the largest economy per capita in the Middle East and, as it was the capital of Israel from 1948 to 1949, it is still home to most of the foreign embassies. This is because Israel's proclamation of Jerusalem as its capital is not recognized by several resolutions of the Security Council of Nations.

Participants
Fifty-five countries participated in the twenty-eighth edition of the contest: fifteen European countries (Åland Islands, Andorra, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine), fifteen Asian countries (Abkhazia, Afghanistan, Armenia, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, North Korea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Turkmenistan, Yemen), eleven American countries (Anguilla, Argentina, Aruba, Canada, Chile, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, United States of America, United States’ Virgin Islands), nine Oceanian countries (American Samoa, Australia, French Polynesia, Fiji, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga) and five African countries (Algeria, Canary Islands, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone).

In this edition Andorra, Niue and the Solomon Islands participated for the first time.

Returning Artists
This edition featured nine representatives who had performed previously as lead vocalists for a country in the contest.

Egzod

Dream Catcher

Banks

Somi

Neoni

Stefania

Ashe

Milica Pavlović

Yuna

Withdrawing Countries
These countries confirmed their non-participation in the twenty-eighth edition of the contest:

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Other Countries
These countries confirmed their non-participation in the twenty-eighth edition of the contest:

• Isle of Man – On the 5ᵗʰ June 2022, the Isle of Man's broadcaster Manx Radio announced that they were planning a debut in OMSC 28. However, it was later confirmed on the same day that the island would not debut in this edition of the contest.

• Jersey – On the 6ᵗʰ June 2022, Jersian broadcaster Channel Television (ITV) announced that the nation had interest in the competition and was planning a debut in OMSC 28, after failing their debut in OMSC 23. However, it was later confirmed in the following days that the country would not debut in this edition of the contest.

• Mozambique – On the 5ᵗʰ June 2022, the Mozambican broadcaster Televisão de Moçambique (TVM) announced that they were planning a debut in OMSC 28, after their attempt in OMSC 5. However, it was later confirmed on the same day that the country would not debut in this edition of the contest.