WELCOME

The Symphonica Song Contest is an international competition where participants serve as Head of Delegation for one of the fifty competing countries, each aiming to lead their allocated nation to victory by selecting the best song!

HEADS OF DELEGATION RESPONSABILITIES

Each of the fifty Heads of Delegation will be assigned one of the competing countries through a random allocation draw held on the Contest Launch Day; Once allocated, they will be responsible for:

• Selecting the countries Act and Song.
• Voting in the Semi Finals and Grand Final as the countries National Jury.

WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN?

The contest will occur twice a year:

• Summer Edition : June – August
• Winter Edition : January – March

WHAT TO EXPECT

During each edition, numerous events will occur, including:

• Official Event Launch.
• Semi Final Allocation Draw Live YouTube Broadcast.
• Act and Song Selections and Announcements, both Internal and National Finals.
• Voting Week.
• Two Semi Finals and One Grand Final broadcasts Live on YouTube with performances, postcards and the all exciting scoreboard!

COMMUNITY

Symphonica will be a place where community comes first; a safe space for music fans across the globe to come together to share and celebrate each other, music and culture. Participants will join a private Facebook Group Page and Chat Room where they will be kept up to date on all the contest news, updates and special announcements – it will also be a dedicated space for everyone to stay connected with each other. Any offensive and poor behaviour by any participant will result in them being removed from the contest permanently.

WEBSITE

All contest information, including the rules, past results, acts and song selections, plus details on how to take part can all be found on the official website: www.symphonicasongcontest.com

PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES

Heads of Delegation will represent one of the following 50 participating countries:

• Albania
• Argentina 
• Armenia
• Australia
• Austria
• Azerbaijan
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Bulgaria
• Canada
• China
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czechia
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Mexico
• Moldova
• New Zealand
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• Puerto Rico
• Romania
• Serbia
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• Turkey
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Vietnam

HOW TO CHOOSE AN ACT AND SONG

Heads of Delegation can select their countries Act and Song one of two ways:

• Internal Selection – simply pick the song YOU think can win!
• National Final – host your own online song contest where friends, family, and other competing Heads of Delegations can vote!

WHICH ARTISTS/ACTS CAN BE SELECTED?

Any Act (solo artist or group) is eligible to represent a country provided they meet ONE of the following criteria:

1. At least ONE member of the Act was born in that country.

OR

2. At least ONE member of the Act is a legal citizen of that country.

Groups can have a maximum of 8 members.

All Acts must NOT have competed in the previous edition of the contest unless they were the winner and therefor can return to compete again as the representative of the Host Country.

WHAT SONGS CAN BE SELECTED?

Any song by the selected Act is eligible to represent their country provided they meet ALL of the following criteria:

• It was released within one year of the contests Launch date (as of 1st June 2025 for the next edition of the contest).
• It is an original song by the act (which can be a remix).
• It is between 2 – 4 minutes in length.
• It has a Music or Lyric Video on YouTube which is copyright free (this will be checked when submitted for approval).
• It has not competed in the Eurovision Song Contest (NOTE: songs that have competed in a National Finals but did not go to Eurovision are eligible).
• It has not competed in the Symphonica Song Contest (previous the All Stars Song Contest).

SONG SUBMITION & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Once a song has been chosen, the Head of Delegation must submit it to the Executive Producer for Approval.

Once approved, they will agree a date for the Executive Producer to reveal the song to the other Heads of Delegation and voting public.

All Heads of Delegation will have approximately 8 weeks to select and have their song approved; during this time, all entries will be revealed.

VOTING SYSTEM

• 50% of the vote will be made up by the 50 Heads of Delegation.
• 50% of the vote will be made up by 50 members of the Public who will each be allocated one of the 50 competing countries and will remain anonymous.

All Heads of Delegation & Public Voters will have one week to rank all competing songs from first to last (excluding their allocated country) which must be submitted to the Executive Producer; these rankings will be used to determine where every countries Semi Final and Grand Final points will be awarded (1 – 8, 10 & 12).

Note: Semi Final votes will be awarded to the Semi Final the country are NOT competing in. The host country will vote in BOTH Semi Finals.

Note: Discussing votes with any other participant will result in immediate disqualification and removal from the contest.

The Jury and Public points awarded in the Semi Finals will not be revealed until after the Grand Final; during each Semi Final, the qualifying countries will simply be revealed in a totally random order.

The Jury and Public points awarded in the Grand Final will be revealed separately;

• The Jury points awarded by each country will be revealed one Jury at a time; points 1 – 7 will be shown on the screen, followed by the 8, 10 and 12 points presented separately.
• Once all Jury points have been awarded, the total number of Public points received by each country will be awarded one country at a time, starting with the country who sits bottom of the scoreboard after all Jury points have been awarded.

COMPETITION SYSTEM

Semi Finals:

• The First Semi Final will include 25 countries, of which 12 will qualify for the Grand Final.
• The Second Semi Final will include 24 countries, of which 12 will qualify for the Grand Final.

Grand Final:

• The Grand Final will made up by the 24 Semi Final qualifiers plus the host country, making the total 25.

SEMI FINAL ALLOCATION DRAW

A special Semi Final allocation draw will be broadcast on YouTube. The show will determine which Semi Final the 49 Semi Finalists will compete in, and which half of the Running Order (1st half or 2nd half) they will perform in.

The host country will also have their direct running order position for the Grand Final drawn.

SEMI FINAL AND GRAND FINAL RUNNING ORDERS

Semi Finals:

• Once all songs have been chosen, the executive producer will decide on the Semi Final running orders.

Grand Final:

• Following each Semi Final, the executive producer will draw ONE of the following Grand Final running order options for each of the 12 qualifying countries (in order of qualification announcement):
• 1st Half (position 1 – 13)
• 2nd Half (position 14 – 25)
• Producers Choice (any position 1 – 25). Only 2 qualifiers can draw this and it will be done by whoever is drawn this option first – if none of the first 10 qualifiers draw this, then the remaining two countries will automatically be given this)

Once the above is complete, the executive producer will decide on the Grand Final running order.

THE WINNER!

The winning country will play host country for the next edition of the contest.

The winning Head of Delegation will also be asked to return and represent the winning country.