Online Music Song Contest

The Online Music Song Contest, often shortened to OMSC is a song contest on Discord in which every country in the world is eligible to compete. The competition is based upon the existing Eurovision Song Contest held among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956. The current and official executive supervisor is PelotoMagic.

Each country's head of delegation submits an original song to be performed, then the countries get to vote for each show (pre-qualification round, semi-finals or final) to determine the qualifiers and the winner of the edition.

Origin
The first ever Online Music Song Contest started on 29ᵗʰ August 2020. Italy was the first ever country to host the Online Music Song Contest, in fact it was held in the largest city of Southern Italy, Naples. Eighteen nations took part in the first edition of the contest each submitting one entry to the contest. Each country awarded twelve points to their favorite, ten points to their second favourite and then eight points to one point for the rest. The first contest was won by Jiydesh Idirisova who sung in Kyrgyz her song "Narinay (Наринай)". Then, in the second edition which was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan won again with Aidana Deka and her song "Ergüü (Эргүү)" sung in Kyrgyz as well. That made Kyrgyzstan the first country winning twice and two times in a row. The third edition was held again in Bishkek and was won by Portugal, the first European country to win the contest, while the sixth edition, held in Hastings was won by Kiribati, making it the first Oceanian country to win. The twelfth edition, held in Kraków, was won by Ukraine by Artem Pivovarov, who became the first male artist to win the competition, while the thirteenth edition held in Odessa, was won by Glowie and iLL BLU, who became the first collaboration to win the contest. In the thirteenth edition, Glowie and iLL BLU became the first collaboration to win the contest. They won with the song "Tribalist (Get To Know), sung in English, which won with 131 points. Evelina, from Finland, participated in the fourteenth edition held in Reykjavík. She won with her song "Sireniit" which receved a record amount of 198 points. It also achieved the record for the biggest margin with the runner-up, made of 72 points. The eighteenth edition was held in Oslo and was won by Guadeloupe, the first American country to win the contest, who broke the "European Curse": the streak of victories held by European countries from OMSC 7.

Participation
Main article: List of countries in the Online Music Song Contest (A-L)

Main article: List of countries in the Online Music Song Contest (M-Z)

Main article: List of members in the Online Music Song Contest

196 countries participated in the Online Music Song Contest since it started. Winners of the contest have come from nineteen of these countries (Armenia, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom). The contest is held in the winning country of the previous edition. Broadcasters from different countries submit songs to the event and cast votes to determine the most popular in the competition.

Format
As more countries joined the contest, the more changes were made to the contest. In the third edition semi-finals were added and two semi-finals and a final were held. Seventeen countries in total advance to the final and join the big three, the top three countries from the previous edition. Since the ninth edition, every edition with more than fourty participants would have in total twenty-six countries in the final. Since the fifteenth edition a pre-qualification round was introduced, consisting in the bottom five from the previous edition's first and second semi-final. The four countries with the highest score advanced to the semi-finals.

Since the very first edition the winning country of each edition is automatically chosen to be the host of the next edition. As the host broadcaster, the heads of delegation can decide where to host the competition, present the logo and other things. However if a broadcaster cannot afford to host the competition or withdraws, the runner-up will take its place.

Voting
The voting system used in the contest has been in place since the beginning, and is a positional voting system. Each country awards one set of twelve, ten, eight-one points to their ten favourite songs. Any country who failed to vote in any event is punished by having half of their points halved. A notable example of this rule occured in the third edition when China's points were halved.

In case of a tie between two or more countries, the country that received the most twelve points wins the tie. However, if the countries received the same number of twelve points, the number of ten points is counted and if they are still tied it goes on until the tie breaks. A notable tie in the contest was the tie for the second place between Algeria and Ukraine in the second edition; both countries scored 76 points but due to tie-breaking rules, Ukraine placed a position higher than Algeria. Another notable tie include the one between between the Faroe Islands, Germany and Sweden for the eleventh place, in the third edition; the three countries had 53 points but due to tie-breaking rules, Sweden placed a position higher than Germany which in turn placed a position higher than the Faroe Islands. In the twenty-first edition a tie for the third place occured: both Australia and the Philippines scored 117 points but, due to the tie-breaking rule, the Philippines placed third becoming the third automatic qualifier of the twenty-second edition.

Expansion of the Contest
From the original eighteen countries which entered the first contest in September 2020, the number of countries participating each edition has grown steadily, from 18 in OMSC 1 to over 40 in OMSC 9. In that occasion a record of 46 countries participated, while in OMSC 2 a record of just 14 countries participated, making it the edition with the smallest number of participants since the start of the contest so far. As the number of contestants has risen, preliminary competitions and relegation have been introduced, to ensure that as many countries as possible get the chance to compete.

After Canada's withdrawal from the contest in OMSC 15, the United States of America are the only country that has participated in every edition. Other countries like India, Palau and Spain have only entered once. Some countries, such as Yemen and Mozambique, have attempted to enter the contest but withdrew before making a debut. Besides slight modifications to the voting system and other contest rules, no fundamental changes to the contest's format were introduced until OMSC 11, when events resulted in a growing interest from new countries. Since then the number limit of countries per continent rose from 10 to 15, allowing more countries from the same continent to compete.

An influx of new countries applying for the OMSC 3 contest resulted in the introduction of a semi-final from this edition on, making the contest last two weeks. The countries take part in one of the two semi-finals and compete for the 10 qualification spots. The 10 countries with the highest score in their semi-final would qualify automatically to the final, alongside the "Big Three". The "Big Three" are the countries that placed on the podium in the previous edition of each edition. It consist of the host nation, the runner-up and the 3ʳᵈ place. Originally brought in to ensure that the financial contributions of the contest's biggest financial backers would not be missed, since the introduction of the semi-finals in OMSC 3, now instead automatically qualify for the final along with the host country. Since OMSC 15 a limit of 50 countries per edition was introduced and with it also a pre-qualification round, consisting in the bottom five from the previous edition's first and second semi-final. The four countries with the highest score advanced to the semi-finals.

Winners
Main article: List of Online Music Song Contest winners

Languages
Main article: List of Online Music Song Contest languages