Outernatia Song Contest 9

Outernatia Song Contest 9 من خلال الحب الأشواك تصبح زهو Through love, thorns became roses
Dates
Final date	31 May 2015
Host
Host city	Rhea, Gandhara
Presenter(s)	Rita Hayek Malek Maktabi
Host broadcaster	RTG
Opening act	"Atlah" performed by Oumayma Taleb and Myriam Fares
Participants
Number of entries	21
Debuting	Fierce Kimmystan Republica Libera Tikata (guest) Timivar Waticania
Returning	Xara Khanate
Withdrawing	Monteverde
Participation map      Participating countries     Non-participants that have entered in the past
Vote
Voting system	10 favourites are awarded 12, 10, then 8 through 1 points by all participants.
Winning song	Noxus "De El Mi"
Outernatia Song Contest
◄8 10►

The Outernatia Song Contest 9 was the ninth edition of the Outernatia Song Contest. The contest took place in Rhea, Gandhara, following Myriam Fares' win in the 7th edition with the song "Aman". The contest was held on 31 May 2015 at the Minna Theater, and was presented by Rita Hayek and Malek Maktabi.

A record breaking twenty-one countries participated, with six countries making their first appearance, and Xara Khanate returning. Monteverde, however, withdrew with no further statements being given by their national broadcaster TVM.

After a tense voting process, Noxus won the contest for the first time, with Lilit Hovhannisyan's song "De El Mi". Noxus received only one point more than Ponásikwa, the smallest margin between a winning and a second-placed song to date. V became third.

Location

For more details on this topic, see Rhea and the host city.

Rhea

Kazmi

Manas

Locations of the candidate cities. The chosen location, Rhea, is marked in red.

On 31 March 2015, Gandhari public broadcaster RTG announced that it had chosen Rhea as the host city for the contest. The contest was held at the Minna Theater, which hosted several editions of the Gandhari national preselection Nights of Gandhara. It has an overall capacity of approximately 17,000 people.

Bidding phase

Two other cities, Manas and Kazmi, were also considered as possible host city of the contest. RTG requested proposals from the three cities concerning how they plan to organise the contest. Manas offered to host the contest in the International Convention Center, while Kazmi offered the Javeria Theater as a potential venue for the contest. The bid from Kazmi came together with plans to expand and upgrade the facility and surrounding infrastructure to meet the requirements set by host broadcaster RTG. The bids from Manas and Kazmi, together with the bid from Rhea to host the contest in the Minna Theater, were accepted. RTG ultimately chose the Minna Theater as the venue to stage the contest.

Format

The rules for the contest were released in April 2015, which detailed that twenty-one countries would participate, making it the largest number of participants to take part in the contest up to this point. The draw for running order was held on 3 May 2015 in Rhea, with Polland opening the show and Auspikitan performing last. There was also a change in the tie-break rules, which would now resolve such a case in favour of the nation that received a higher number of top scores (12 points) rather than taking into account the number of countries that voted for an entry.

Graphic design

On 31 March 2015, RTG released the logo for the Outernatia Song Contest 9, together with the slogan. The logo features three belly dancers in green, as belly dancing has its origins in the Middle East and plays an important role in the Gandhari culture. The slogan was revealed to be "Through love, thorns became roses" (Arabic: من خلال الحب الأشواك تصبح زهو).

In this contest, the scoreboard and the recap were designed by graphic designers from V. The stage design was created by Mohisa al-Mansouri. The stage used several light and video effects, including a video screen stage floor that could be used to give each entry a unique look.

Tie-break rules

During the previous editions of the contest the official rules of the Internatia Song Contest were followed. Under these rules, in the event of more than one country scoring the same total number of points, a count is made of the numbers of countries who awarded points to each of the tied countries, and the one who received points from the most countries is declared the winner. This edition, however, different tie-break rules were used. The rules did not include counting the numbers of countries awarding any points to tied countries, but only the amount of maximum points (12 points) each country received was counted. This caused some controversy after the show, because under the rules of the Internatia Song Contest Ponásikwa would have received 10 points instead of 8 points from the International Jury, which means that Ponásikwa would have won. The tie-break rules were approved by the OBU, but it was announced after the show that official rules will be made for upcoming contests in order to prevent the inconsistency of tie-break rules from edition to edition.

Presenters

The presenters Rita Hayek and Malek Maktabi.

On 1 April 2015, RTG announced that Rita Hayek and Malek Maktabi were the hosts of the contest. Rita Hayek previously presented the first edition of Nights of Gandhara, the Gandhari national preselection for the Outernatia Song Contest 3. Both presenters speak fluently English and French.

National host broadcaster

During an initial meeting between the host broadcaster RTG and the OBU in late March 2015, the representatives of the core organising team were selected. Hamad al-Jazari, who is the Head of Entertainment at RTG, was announced as the executive producer.

Participants

Six countries made their debut this edition, the highest number of debutants since the first edition. Returning to the contest was Xara Khanate, who did not compete the previous edition. Monteverde withdrew from the contest. The deadline to apply to participate was on 2 May 2015.

Invitation of Tikata

On 2 April 2015, RTG announced that it had invited Tikata to take part in the contest, represented by A+ channel, an Associate Member of the OBU. Although Tikata is officially not eligible to enter, as only Outernatian countries can take part, the OBU accepted the participation of Tikata as a one-off event in honour of the strong ties between Tikata and Outernatia. Since this contest, the OSC host can use a wild card to invite a country not eligible to take part.

Results

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Place	Points
01	Polland	Ich Troje	"Dokąd idziesz Polsko"	18	31
02	Zeme Kūku	MIKA	"Last Party"	8	77
03	Waticania	We Are the In Crowd	"Reflections"	7	77
04	Xara Khanate	Gülşen	"Bangır Bangır"	5	82
05	RC Laranjeiras	Denise Rosenthal	"Fiesta"	19	30
06	Ponásikwa	Evermore	"Follow The Sun"	2	95
07	Gandhara (host)	Samira Said	"Mazal"	16	35
08	Victoria	Margaux Avril	"L'Air De Rien"	4	86
09	Kimmystan	Carina Dahl	"If That's The Only Way"	12	62
10	Noxus	Lilit Hovhannisyan	"De El Mi"	1	96
11	Republica Libera	Tove Styrke	"White Light Moment"	13	50
12	Tikata	Woodkid	"The Great Escape"	15	42
13	V	Vaults	"Vultures"	3	91
14	Timivar	Yvonne Catterfeld	"Pendel"	11	68
15	Dulcet Ebullience	Maia Hirasawa	"Lights Are Out"	9	74
16	Gebze	Safiye	"Come Come"	21	19
17	Thorway	Melissa Horn	"Du är nog den"	6	80
18	Lettuce	Galymzhan Zholdasbaj	"Kök Zhötel"	17	33
19	Rascia	Ana Stanić	"Nostalgija"	20	25
20	Fierce	Indiana	"Heart On Fire"	14	50
21	Auspikitan	Halsey	"Hurricane"	10	73

Scoreboard

		Results
	Polland	31		8										4	2	10	5		1				1
	Zeme Kūku	77	2		5		12	7	5	7		6	12	7			2				6			6
	Waticania	77	1	12		5	10	10			6	3	2		3			1					12	12
	Xara Khanate	82	3	5				12	7		7	8		10				12	7	1		10
	RC Laranjeiras	30				6			3	8		2					3	2	4		2
	Ponásikwa	95	12	4	12		8				4		7	8	10	1		7	10	3	1			8
	Gandhara	35				2					5	12		1		3			8			4
	Victoria	86	4		4		2	4	10		8		10	3	5	7				5	8	5	8	3
	Kimmystan	62					7	5	12				8	12			1				10	2	3	2
	Noxus	96	5	1		12	3	8	4	5	2			6			8	10	12	10		8	2
	Republica Libera	50			8	3	5				10	4					6			2		12
	Tikata	42		10	2								4		7	4	7				7			1
	V	91		7	3	1		3	6	6		5	6			12	10	6		8	3		10	5
	Timivar	68	8	6		8				10			3		1		4		6	12	4		6
	Dulcet Ebullience	74	10		7		4	6		4			5		12			5	3	4			7	7
	Gebze	19		2		4		1				10		2
	Thorway	80	7	3	6					12					4	6	12	0		7	12	7	4
	Lettuce	33				10			2			7			6	2		3	2			1
	Rascia	25				7	1		1	3	1					5						3		4
	Fierce	50			1		6			2	12							8	5	6	5		5
	Auspikitan	73	6		10			2	8	1	3	1	1	5	8	8		4				6		10

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
3	Thorway	Dulcet Ebullience, Rascia, Victoria
	Waticania	Auspikitan, International Jury, Zeme Kūku
2	Kimmystan	Gandhara, Tikata
	Noxus	Thorway, Xara Khanate
	Ponásikwa	Polland, Waticania
	Xara Khanate	Gebze, Ponásikwa
	Zeme Kūku	RC Laranjeiras, Republica Libera
1	Dulcet Ebullience	V
	Fierce	Kimmystan
	Gandhara	Noxus
	Republica Libera	Fierce
	Timivar	Lettuce
	V	Timivar