ETNW 2011: The Rules

After last year's shall we say 'comprehensive' approach, I'll try and keep things brief this time round... :)

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1. Neither your song nor singer should have taken part in Eurovision or a national selection process. (I'd prefer if the composers hadn't either, but I won't enforce it.)

2. Songs can be in any language and any length.

3. Songs from any country and any year can be entered for any country and any year. (For example, if you really want to, you can enter a Serbian song released in 2008 as Latvia 1959.)

4. No cover versions.

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There, how's that for brief!

I would just remind everyone, however, that the point of ETNW is to enter songs that make people think "yeah, that sounds like something Monaco might have entered in 1965" or "hmmm, I can see Ukraine picking that kind of thing in 2001". The more unlikely your combination - as in the example in point #3 above - the less likely most people are to view it as 'authentic'.

And of course that brings us to the most important but unwritten rule of ETNW: when you vote, it's not just about what you like or don't like, but also what you think comes across as most authentic based on the year and country a song's been allocated to. I know this is subjective, and proved to be a bit of a bone of contention last year, but the results showed that most people were happy to go along with it. It's the point of the contest, after all.

The submission period isn't open yet, but just as a reminder, here's what you need to submit:

1. An MP3 of your entry
2. The name of your song and singer
3. The year and country you're allocating it to
4. Your MB nickname

I'll repeat this info when the submission period opens. In the meantime, get your thinking caps on, but don't get overexcited!

If anything's not covered in the rules (!) and you want to ask about it, the best place to do so is on the MB. Indeed, until I set up a new email address for the contest, that's the only place to ask me! You could ask me via Facebook or MSN, I suppose, but other people might be wondering the same thing, so let's keep it all public.

Stay tuned for updates! :)