Aobour Fest

Aobour Fest is a joint national final that is used to select the representatives of both the nations of Aonach and Nicolas' Neighbour at the Internatia Song Contest. It was organised by the broadcasters of both nations, the Aonachian broadcaster RTVRA and the Neighbourian broadcaster BNN, to select their representatives due to the close cultural and political ties between the two nations, as well as to improve their results at the contest.

Aobour Fest has been hosted twice so far, selecting representatives for the Internatia Song Contest 26 and Internatia Song Contest 29. Both finals generated high viewing figures in their respective nations, and the national final is credited with the rising viewing figures in Aonach, where interest in ISC was said to be at an all-time low before the Internatia Song Contest 26.

Origin of the contest

Due to poor results achieved by the Aonachian broadcaster RTVRA, it was decided by members of the Internatia Song Contest to change the selection of the Aonachian entrant. Internal selections of well-known Aonachian artists was not a formula for success at the contest since the 18th edition. Therefore, RTVRA approached the broadcaster from Nicolas' Neighbour, BNN, to come together and produce a high-quality national selection that would select both nations' entrants at the contest. Both nations have very close cultural and political ties, as well as the fact that singers from both nations being popular in the other nation.

Hosting

It was decided that the contest would not be used for every Internatia Song Contest, but for every third contest. The contest would be hosted in Láirge, Aonach for the inaugural edition. The second contest was hosted in the capital city of Nicolas' Neighbour, Baus-Ia. It was therefore decided to rotate the hosting of the contest i.e. Aonach will host the 3rd contest.

Voting

The current voting format is a positional voting system similar to that used at the Internatia Song Contest. Televoting is held in both nations for the national final. Each nation awards 12, 10, 8 & 7 points to the other nation's songs. Each nation cannot give points to its own songs, but both nations allow the televoters to vote for their own songs to see which song is the televoting favourite of each nation.

Regional juries from each of the nations competing at the Internatia Song Contest are invited to vote in the national final, and they must rank the songs from 1st to 8th place, using the same positional voting system. The song with the most points at the end is declared the overall winner. The song that came first for each nation is the song that will go to the Internatia Song Contest.