History of Kaledonii in the Internatia Song Contest

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Internatia Song Contest 11

Eva & the Heartmaker – "Traces of You"
Eva & the Heartmaker "Traces of You"

Kaledonii debuted at the Internatia Song Contest 11, which was held in the Marvelian capital of Amor.

As the decision to participate in the contest came right before the submission deadline for the contest, it was decided that an internal selection would be the most prudent to choose the first Kaledonii representative. After a grueling seven-hour meeting at the RTK Studios in Kāra, the national broadcaster's professional juries chose Eva & the Heartmaker and their song "Traces of You" to represent Kaledonii in Amor. RTK's Head of Delegation, Ján Dobrovodský, said of the duo, "They've exhibited a remarkable level of professionalism both before and during the selection process. From the moment the duo submitted their song to our juries, they were a favorite in the minds of the jurors. They are excited to represent the nation in the ISC."

Eva & the Heartmaker participated in the second semi-final, where they placed sixth and qualified — they would go on to place fifth in the grand final held in the Amor Palace. Their final score of 89 points is the lowest score for a fifth-placed entry in the Internatia Song Contest since the semifinal era began; the Kaledonii duo was certainly lucky to participate in this edition.

Internatia Song Contest 12

Diandra – "Prinssesalle"
Diandra "Prinssesalle"

Kaledonii participated for the second time at the Internatia Song Contest 11, which was held in Platonia, Novatlantida.

In the run up to the contest, Radio Television Kaledonii opted for a national final to choose the participant for Novalantida, as well as any future Kaledonii entries barring unforeseen restrictions to the RTK budget. The Kaledonii Song Festival was created as the selection method for this purpose. While the festival was not as prevalent as the Head of Delegation Ján Dobrovodský predicted, 14 editions of the contest as well as several more joint national finals have been used to select the Kaledonii entry to the Internatia Song Contest as of ISC 45. The Kaledonii Song Festival 01 was held on April 30, 2013 and featured six acts. The KSF 01 featured a novel scoring system that was ultimately not featured in any subsequent festival: each Internatian country gave 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 points to the six competing acts. 50% of the score came from this Internatian vote, and 50% from the Kaledonii televote.

Singer Diandra Flores eventually triumphed with her cover of Johanna Kurkela's song "Prisessalle", scoring 410 points in the KSF 01, a margin of 62 points over her nearest rival, Lenka with the song "Everything At Once". Lenka would go on to compete as Kaledonii's debut entry in the Internatia Second Contest 02, which was held on July 12, 2013. She placed fifth with 67 points. Flores performed in the first semifinal of the Internatia Song Contest 12. While "Prinssesalle" had reached number 1 on the Kaledonii charts, the rest of Internatia was not as enthused about the song; Kaledonii placed 15th in the semifinal and consequently did not qualify to the final.

Internatia Song Contest 13

Lisa Gerrard – "Now We Are Free"
Lisa Gerrard "Now We Are Free"

Kaledonii participated for the third time at the Internatia Song Contest 13, which was held in Siegeslinde, Spirevo.

Several factors contributed to the decision by RTK to decide not to hold a national final. The major factor was a series of unforeseen budget cuts imposed on the broadcaster by the national government; it was felt as the limited ISC budget could be better spent on promotion and staging rather attempting to spread this budget thin and holding a national final as well. In addition, in an interview to RTK, Ján Dobrovodský stated that RTK was not happy with the format of the Kaledonii Song Festival, and that the broadcaster wished to spend more time planning and reworking the format of the festival to better suit the Internatian market.

Despite the budget cuts, RTK successfullly approached one of Kaledonii's national icons: Lisa Gerrard. The singer had released several best-selling albums prior to the contest and was very amendable at performing at the Internatian stage representing her home country.

Similar to the previous edition, Gerrard's entry "Now We Are Free" quickly reached number 1 in the country and actually became one of the best-selling singles of all time Kaledonii. At the Internatian stage, Kaledonii performed in the second semifinal in Siegeslinde placing eleventh and thereby qualifying to the final. In the final however, Gerrard was only able to muster 53 points — 12 of which came from Alexandria — and place 22nd.

Internatia Song Contest 14

Aphrodite's Child – "Spring, Summer, Winter & Fall"
Aphrodite's Child "Spring, Summer, Winter & Fall"

Kaledonii participated for the fourth time at the Internatia Song Contest 14, which was held in Lovendalen, Luzzze in August 2013.

Similar to the previous edition, RTK again opted to go for an internal selection to choose the Kaledonii entry. Progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child was chosen to represent the nation in Luzze. Their entry "Spring, Summer, Winter & Fall" peaked at number 1 on the Kaledonii charts and is considered a classic in Kaledonii.

In Lovendalen, Aphrodite's Child unfortunately did not meet the expectations that had been set upon them following their chart success — they received only 11 points in the semifinal and consequently placed 23rd. Only the last-minute disqualification of Canedonia saved Kaledonii from placing last in the semifinal.

Internatia Song Contest 15

Kejsi Tola – "Perendeshe e Fantazise"
Kejsi Tola "Perendeshe e Fantazise"

Kaledonii participated for the fifth time at the Internatia Song Contest 15, which was held in Tramadi, Tikata in September 2013.

Kejsi Tola performing "Perendeshe e Fantazise" at ISC in Tramandi, Tikata.

After a two edition absence, the Kaledonii Song Festival 02 was held on August 18, 2013 to choose the Kaledonii entry. Seven acts — the largest ever Kaledonii national final — competed for the right to represent Kaledonii in Tikata. 50% of the score came from the Internatian juries, who awarded 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 points to their favorite songs, and 50% came from the Kaledonii televote. Singer Kejsi Tola handily won the festival with 112 points, 22 points ahead of the second placed entry by Passion Pit.

Tola's entry, "Perendeshe e Fantazise", was drawn into the first semifinal in Tikata. She unfortunately failed to qualify, placing 15th with 51 points. The second placed entry at the KSF 02, Passion Pit's "Take A Walk" went on to represent Kaledonii at the Internatia Song Second Chance Contest 04, where they placed 8th with 63 points.

After three editions of dissapointing results, Ján Dobrovodský decided to resign from his position as Kaledonii's Head of Delegation following the failure to qualify in Tramadi. He was replaced by Sanāthana Samudara.

Kaledonii Song Festival 02

Draw Artist Song Jury Televote Place Total
1 United States Shinedown "Second Chance" 26 30 4 56
2 Australia Missy Higgins "Where I Stood" 26 10 6 36
3 Canada Lights "February Air" 16 7 16
4 United States Taylor Swift "I Knew You Were Trouble" 22 40 3 62
5 United States Passion Pit "Take A Walk" 40 50 2 90
6 United States Smallpools "No Story Time" 28 20 5 48
7 Albania Kejsi Tola "Perendeshe e Fantazise" 52 60 1 112

International Jury Votes

Draw Artist Song Lost Islands Alexandria Monteverde Irdminia Spitzenbergen Place Total
1 United States Shinedown "Second Chance" 4 6 8 8 5 26
2 Australia Missy Higgins "Where I Stood" 8 12 6 4 36
3 Canada Lights "February Air" 10 2 2 2 7 16
4 United States Taylor Swift "I Knew You Were Trouble" 2 4 6 10 6 22
5 United States Passion Pit "Take A Walk" 8 10 10 4 8 2 40
6 United States Smallpools "No Story Time" 6 4 2 12 4 3 28
7 Albania Kejsi Tola "Perendeshe e Fantazise" 12 12 6 10 12 1 52

Kaledonii Televote

Draw Artist Song Votes Place Percentage
1 United States Shinedown "Second Chance" 29,077 4 14.22%
2 Australia Missy Higgins "Where I Stood" 9,692 6 4.74%
3 Canada Lights "February Air" 7,856 7 3.84%
4 United States Taylor Swift "I Knew You Were Trouble" 38,769 3 18.96%
5 United States Passion Pit "Take A Walk" 48,462 2 23.71%
6 United States Smallpools "No Story Time" 19,386 5 9.48%
7 Albania Kejsi Tola "Perendeshe e Fantazise" 51,197 1 25.04%

Internatia Song Contest 16

Elán – "Od Tatier k Dunaju"
Elán "Od Tatier k Dunaju"

Kaledonii participated for the seventh time at the Internatia Song Contest 16, which was held in Pensa, Anselmsuusonia in October 2013.

An internal selection was used to choose the Kaledonii entry for Pensa. Initially, Céline Dion was chosen to represent the country however scheduling conflicts meant that she was unable to participate in ISC 16. Instead, Dion would represent the country the next edition in Yazminia.

Rock band Elán was chosen to represent Kaledonii in Anselmsuusonia with their 1989 hit "Od Tatier k Dunaju" and were drawn into the first semifinal. Unfortunately, Elán failed to get a single point in the semifinal and placed 23rd. While Kaledonii was saved from the last place due to Volnytaria's disqualification, this song remains to date the only song ever to get nul points in the Internatia Song Contest.

Following the country's humiliation on the international stage, newly chosen Head of Delegation Sanāthana Samudra was fired from her position by the Radio Television Kaledonii Board of Directors. She was replaced by Siiri Nevalainen for the Internatia Song Contest 17.

Internatia Song Contest 17

Céline Dion – "Loved Me Back To Life"
Céline Dion "Loved Me Back To Life"

Kaledonii participated for the eighth time at the Internatia Song Contest 17, which was held in Liechgrado, Yazminia in November 2013.

Céline Dion was originally chosen to represent Kaledonii in the Internatia Song Contest 16 however scheduling conflicts had forced RTK and the singer to delay her participation by one edition. Her entry "Loved Me Back To Life" was released alongside her new album and was a major hit in Kaledonii, peaking at number 4 in the Kaledonii charts.

Dion was drawn to perform in the first semifinal in Liechgrado; she placed 14th which normally would have resulted in Kaledonii's nonqualification. However, due to strong support among the International Jury where she placed fifth, Kaledonii qualified to the final where Dion placed 9th with 108 points — the most at the time for Kaledonii. To date, Dion's placing in the final is among the best placings ever for an International Jury qualifier in ISC; normally these qualifiers tend to place in the bottom-10 entries.

Internatia Song Contest 18

The Piano Guys – "Khushnuma" (feat. Shweta Subram)
The Piano Guys (feat. Shweta Subram) "Khushnuma"

The ninth participation of Kaledonii in the Internatia Song Contest, held in Astrée, Kosma in December 2013, is considered a watershed moment for several reasons. A new format for the Kaledonii Song Festival was introduced and the country achieved its first and (to date) only victory in the Internatia Song Contest.

The Kaledonii Song Festival 03 was a six song affair held on November 2, 2013. The format of the festival featured three elimination rounds where the points awarded by each of the juries to the eliminated songs were redistributed among the remaining songs. In the final round, The Piano Guys triumphed with their Hindi-Sanskrit rendition of "Khushnuma" featuring singer Shweta Subram. Second placed act Lee Ann Womack would go onto represent Kaledonii at the Internatia Second Chance Contest 06 where she placed 12th with 62 points. Third placed act Adriiana would represent Kaledonii in the Internatia Song Contest 19.

Kaledonii was drawn into the second semifinal in Astrée; they would go onto win the semifinal with 85 points — a feat which has occurred only once more, in the Internatia Song Contest 28. In the final, Kaledonii faced some tense voting as The Piano Guys and Shweta Subram fended off challenges to the victory from Irdminia. Eventually, the final voter awarded Kaledonii the victory; the collaboration scored 163 points.

Kaledonii Song Festival 03

Artist Information: Elimination Rounds Grand Final
Draw Place Artist Song Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Int. Juries Kaledonii Televote Total
06 01 United States Canada The Piano Guys (feat. Shweta Subram) "Khushnuma" 16 16 18 12 12 24
04 02 United States Lee Ann Womack "I Hope You Dance" 6 8 10 4 8 12
02 03 Canada Adriiana "Made Your Heart Break" 12 12 13 8 4 12
05 04 Sweden Daniel Adams-Ray "Precis Som Jag" 7 7 9 N/A
03 05 Estonia Elvin's Tales "Winds Are Silent" 6 7 N/A
01 06 United States Capital Cities "Safe And Sound" 2 N/A

Internatia Song Contest 19

Following Kaledonii's victory in the Internatia Song Contest 18, RTK announced that they would be conducting an internal selection to choose the representative for the 19th edition of the contest.

This decision was done in order to allow the broadcaster to allocate the maximum amount of resources to hosting the 20th edition of the contest in Śanti, Kaledonii.

Soon after announcing the lack of a national final, RTK came forward with the Kaledonii entrant at ISC 19, Adriiana—the third-placed entrant at the Kaledonii Song Festival 03. Her song, "Made Your Heart Break" was chosen to compete in Rosetown, Pebbleland.

Unfortunately for Kaledonii, there was a sound system failure roughly 20 seconds into Adriiana's performance. Despite being granted a reprise at the end of the semi-final, Adriiana was unable to deal with the stress, and consequently did not perform as well as she could have.

Kaledonii finished 20th in the semi-final with only 38 points. High points were received from Ova Anova and Aonach.

Internatia Song Contest 20

For the host entry to the Internatia Song Contest 20, RTK decided to host the fourth edition of the Kaledoni Song Festival to choose the nation's representative.

Not content with the "hugeness" and rather non-intimate nature of the previous editions, RTK reduced the previously six or seven artist competition into to a much smaller two artist event.

Each international juries voting had one vote to give to their favorite act; the Kaledoni televote had five votes. By reducing the size of the KSF, RTK hoped to increase international as well as domestic interest and participation in the song festival.

The two acts in this edition of the song festival were Palbasha Siddique with her Bengali song "Praan" and Violina feat. Birgit Õigemeel with their entry "Sea of Life".

Just as RTK had hoped, the smaller festival increased both international, and domestic interest in the Internatia Song Contest. The eventual voting for the competition were 10 votes for Palbasha Siddique to 3 votes for Violina feat. Birgit Õigemeel. Unfortunately, RTK's broadcast of the competition was corrupted in the broadcaster's archives, and the complete voting breakdown is unknown. However, it is known that the Kaledonii televote went to Palbasha Siddique, and that the Irdminian international jury voted for Violina feat. Birgit Õigemeel.

Since Kaledonii was hosting the Internatia Song Contest 20, Palbasha Siddique was pre-qualified to the Grand Final. In the final, despite receiving much acclaim from the Kaledonii audience, Siddique was unable to completely convince Internatian voters, and placed 24th with 70 points.

Kaledonii Song Festival 05

Following the conclusion of the Kaledonii Song Festival 04 to choose the Kaledonii entrant to ISC 20, RTK decided to hold the fifth edition of the Kaledonii Song Festival to choose the entrant to the 21st Internatia Song Contest under a similar format.

The two entrants in this edition of the festival were Ben Rector and his song, "Beautiful", and Lee Scott with his song, "Net 'n Bietjie Meer Tyd". Eventually, Ben Rector emerged victorious among the International Juries, and won the fifth edition of the Kaledonii Song Festival.

Similarly to the previous edition of the festival, the RTK broadcast was corrupted in the RTK Archives and the voting breakdown of the competition is unknown.

After the results of the festival were announced, RTK made the decision to initially push Ben Rector's entry to the Internatia Song Contest from the 21st edition, to the 23rd edition, before eventually putting his entry to ISC "on-hold". It is unknown if his entry will ever be present in the song contest.

Internatia Song Contest 21

Following its hosting of the Internatia Song Contest 20, RTK decided to hold another internal selection to choose their entry for the Internatia Song Contest 21.

Singer John Martin, who had previously provided the vocals for Kaledonii's victorious entry in ISC 18, was chosen to represent the nation in Monteverde.

Despite placing sixth in the semi-final, and fourth in the International Jury vote, Martin was unable to replicate his semi-final success, placing 17th in the Grand Final with 105 points.

Internatia Song Contest 22

Kaledonii Song Festival 06

RTK chose to hold the Kaledonii Song Festival 06 in order to choose the nation's entry to the Internatia Song Contest 22 in Tuscan City, Beige. As a result of the broadcaster's disappointment with the format of the previous two Kaledonii Song Festivals, RTK chose to revert to a format similar to the Kaledonii Song Festival 02, which was used to choose the Kaledonii entry to ISC 15.

This edition of the KSF was the most watched edition ever, roughly 449,000 Kaledonii citizens voted in the competition and roughly 500,000 more watched the festival. Both the International Juries and the Kaledonii televote had decisive winners; the International Juries strongly favored The Fray and their song, "Love Don't Die" whereas the Kaledonii televote favored Marina Maximilian's entry, "Two Pigs". In the end, these two songs tied with 104 points each after the International Juries and the Kaledonii televote had been added together. Following KSF rules, the votes of the International Juries prevailed, and The Fray were chosen to represent Kaledonii at the Internatia Song Contest 22.

Marina Maximilian ironically placed both first, and last in the Kaledonii televote with her two entries.

Results

Draw Artist Song Jury Televote Place Total
1 Israel Marina Maximilian "Tango" 50 8 6 58
2 United States The Fray "Love Don't Die" 72 32 1 104
3 Mexico Jacqueline Fuentes "Amo La Vida" 48 24 5 72
4 Israel Marina Maximilian "Two Pigs" 56 48 2 104
5 Georgia (country) Kahaberi & Khanums "Gandagana N2" 52 40 3 92
6 United States Magic Man "Paris" 58 16 4 74

International Jury Votes

Draw Artist Song Alexandria Nicolas' Neighbour Kosma Tonallán Tikata Irdminia Lost Islands Spitzenbergen Place Total
1 Israel Marina Maximilian "Tango" 4 12 4 2 8 12 6 2 5 50
2 United States The Fray "Love Don't Die" 12 8 12 12 10 10 4 4 1 72
3 Mexico Jacqueline Fuentes "Amo La Vida" 6 2 10 10 4 2 8 6 6 48
4 Israel Marina Maximilian "Two Pigs" 8 10 2 6 12 4 2 12 3 56
5 Georgia (country) Kahaberi & Khanums "Gandagana N2" 2 6 8 8 2 6 12 8 4 52
6 United States Magic Man "Paris" 10 4 6 4 6 8 10 10 2 58

Kaledonii Televote

Draw Artist Song Votes Place Percentage
1 Israel Marina Maximilian "Tango" 8,162 6 1.82%
2 United States The Fray "Love Don't Die" 96,837 3 21.58%
3 Mexico Jacqueline Fuentes "Amo La Vida" 59,853 4 13.34%
4 Israel Marina Maximilian "Two Pigs" 148,245 1 33.03%
5 Georgia (country) Kahaberi & Khanums "Gandagana N2" 119,526 2 26.63%
6 United States Magic Man "Paris" 16,202 5 3.61%