Rules

Key points in bold.

1. You may only submit one (1) song.

2. The song you submit must not have been entered in the Eurovision Song Contest or any national final or open selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest, or withdrawn or disqualified from a national final or open selection process. In other words, your song can't have anything to do with Eurovision.

3. The artist performing the song you submit must not have performed an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest or any national final or open selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest, or an entry withdrawn or disqualified from a national final or open selection process. In other words, your performer can't be directly related to Eurovision in any way. (But for more on this point, read on.)

4. The composer(s) and lyricist(s) of the song you submit should preferably not have composed or written an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest or any national final or open selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest, or an entry withdrawn or disqualified from a national final or open selection process. In other words, the writers can have something to do with Eurovision, but it's recommended that they don't.

5. The song you submit can be of any length. In other words, there is no 3-minute limit.

6. The song you submit can be in any language. (But for more on this point, read on.)

7. The song you submit should, to you at least, sound like something you would expect to hear in the Eurovision Song Contest. Needless to say this encompasses a variety of genres and 50+ years, so your options are almost unlimited. (But for more on this point, read on.) No cover versions though, obviously.

8. The song you submit must be allocated to (i) a country and (ii) a year you think it could have represented and not sounded out of place at the Eurovision Song Contest. (This is an important consideration when it comes to the criteria for voting: for which, read on.)

9. The year to which you allocate the song you submit must not be earlier than the year of release of the song. In other words, if the song you submit was released in 1994, you cannot allocate it to any year between 1956 and 1993. However, it can be allocated to any year from 1994 onwards.

10. If your chosen combination of country and year has already been taken by the time you submit your song, you will be asked to allocate your song to another year and/or country. You may choose to do this or to submit a completely new song.

11. If the song you submit has already been submitted by another participant by the time you submit it, you will be asked to submit a new song.

12. The song you submit must be in MP3 format. Artist and title information does not need to be deleted from the file, although any indication of who submitted the entry should be deleted. I don't have the wherewithal to go converting files, so submit your entry as a ready-to-use MP3 or don't even bother ;-)

13. The song you submit must be accompanied in your email (sent to eurovisionthatneverwas@gmail.com) by your MB name and the following information about the song:
*Country and year allocated
*Title of song
*Name of artist
Format: Country Year ­– Song Title (Name of artist)
For example: United Kingdom 2006 – Hung Up (Madonna)

14. All submissions must remain anonymous to everyone other than you (as the sponsor) and me (as the organiser) until the revelation(s) of sponsors. If this is breached at any time prior to the revelation(s) of sponsors, whether through your own fault or otherwise, your song will be disqualified. Likewise, if you inadvertently learn about and reveal the sponsor of another entry, your song will also be disqualified. In other words, if someone reveals which song you submitted, or you reveal someone else's, you're out – no arguments. However, anyone whose song is disqualified, for whatever reason, will have the option of submitting another entry, provided the submission period is still open. A sponsor of a song disqualified after the submission period has closed will not be able to submit a replacement.

15. Should another participant provide proof that the song you submit was entered in the Eurovision Song Contest or any national final or open selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest, or withdrawn or disqualified from a national final or open selection process, your song will be disqualified. Likewise, should another participant provide proof that the artist perfoming the song you submit performed an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest or any national final or open selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest, or an entry withdrawn or disqualified from a national final or open selection process, your song will be disqualified. For the purposes of this clause, the performance of an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest or any national final or open selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest, or of an entry withdrawn or disqualified from a national final or open selection process, shall be considered to be the lead vocals and/or as credited (on screen or otherwise). In other words, if your song is by someone who once did backing vocals or dancing or something at Eurovision but was never the main artist, that's alright. But don't push it.

16. All sponsors will be required to vote in their respective semi-final (should there be more than one round due to the number of entries) or in the final (if there is only one round). Sponsors may not vote for their own entries. In the event of semi-finals, sponsors whose songs qualify for the final shall also be required to vote in the final. Sponsors may vote in the semi-final(s) they are not participating in, and non-qualifying sponsors may vote in the final, but are not required to (although their votes will count in full). Non-participants may vote in any round (although their votes will only form one combined non-participants' vote in each case).

17. All voting shall take place in typical Eurovision style, with points allocated from 1-8, then 10 and 12. At the end of the voting in the final, the song which has received the most points will be declared the winner. In the event of a tie in rankings at the end of the voting, in any round, the Eurovision rules shall apply: the song which received points from the most voters shall prevail; if this is the same, then the song which received the most 12s; if this is the same, then the song which received the most 10s (and so on, down to 1 point); and if at this point two or more songs still cannot be separated, a tie shall be declared.

18. The number of semi-finals (should there be more than one round due to the number of entries) shall be determined on the basis of the number of songs submitted. The number of songs qualifying for the final from the semi-finals shall be determined on the basis of the number of semi-finals.

19. These and other details – including the schedule of potential semi-finals and the final – shall be confirmed at the end of the submission period.

20. Have I missed anything? If so, it might be covered in the next bit.


VOTING CRITERIA

There are various criteria which participants should consider when voting, but unlike in similar contests the main one in The Eurovision That Never Was is how authentic you think the songs sound as allocated to their countries and years by their sponsors. In this sense, whether the songs themselves are good or bad is less important – the contest it not designed to select the highest quality or most popular entry per se. However, it may still affect how people vote, so also bear this in mind.

How authentic an entry sounds in terms of where and when its sponsor allocates it to is largely objective, but this is where your choice of language and genre will come in.

Obviously, styles of music which have never or rarely been entered in the Eurovision Song Contest will probably seem less authentic, or at least it will be harder to convince people that they are. If you're not sure, consider the precedents: when and how often have songs in the style of your entry been heard at the contest? Which countries have tended to submit entries in such genres? Not that this should dictate your choice necessarily, but you might want to consider it.

Language is also an issue: you can choose a song in any language to represent any country in any year, although if you follow the language conventions of the day you will probably stand a better chance of your entry seeming more authentic. Songs in English could represent virtually anyone in the mid-70s and since 1999, and to a lesser extent in the early days before anyone had considered language restrictions; but submitting a song in, say, Albanian to represent Ireland might be an odd choice. At the same time, there might be an argument for a song in, say, Punjabi representing the UK. Don't limit yourself, but do think about it.

The final couple of points I would make are about the country and year you choose and the composers and writers of the song you submit (although this last bit has nout to do with the 'authenticity' thing).

You don't have to restrict yourself to the Eurovision timeline, which saw e.g. Yugoslavia participating until 1992 and only then saw the debuts of Croatia, Bosnia et al. You might have a Macedonian song from 1987 and want to submit it as FYR Macedonia 1988. Likewise, you might have a song you want to represent San Marino in 1959, or Estonia in 1972, or whatever. It is The Eurovision That Never Was, after all. Having said that, your only restriction is that you have to pick a country that has actually participated in the contest at some point (so no Lebanon, say, or Liechtenstein) to maintain at least some authenticity.

(Incidentally, in the cases of the former Yugoslavia and USSR I recommend – but will not enforce – that you eschew the use of those names and instead pick a particular country, since otherwise it may limit the number of songs that can represent a certain year. For example, if you submit an entry as USSR 1968, it will preclude anyone else from submitting songs for countries within the USSR for that year. Then again, that might be a good tactic. It's up to you, but I would still say don't do it if your only thought is that it might give you some advantage. Play nice.)

Me saying that I would prefer the producers of the song you submit not to have anything to do with Eurovision is not about authenticity – since obviously songwriters and composers who have worked on songs for the contest are probably more attuned to its musical quirks – but about emphasising the core idea of The Eurovision That Never Was: I'm encouraging you to find songs that wouldn't have sounded out of place in the contest, but had nothing whatsoever to do with it; and to show a broader musical appreciation, which is something Tore, to whom the whole thing is dedicated, had in spades.

In any case, voters might frown on your entry if it comes from a Eurovision stable, so avoid it if you can. Also, if all we end up with is a Swedish schlager-fest, people may well go for something else. (I will be issuing Angel-Chiaras in regard to country, just so you know.) They might also frown on your entry if it's by a famous artist who would never be or would never have been likely to take part in the contest – as in the case of my example of Madonna for the UK! – but that's another matter...

In other words, you should base your voting first and foremost on how 'authentic' you think the entries seem; then on how good or bad you think the songs are; then on whatever other criteria you normally judge these things on. Don't get too caught up in second-guessing who submitted what: it's still meant to be about the songs. And simply having a bit of fun, obviously :) Enjoy!