CONTEST RULES & INFORMATION

The All Stars Song Contest is an online Eurovision themed competition that occurs three times a year:

• SPRING (between February – April)
• SUMMER (between June – August)
• WINTER (between October – December)

Each edition follows many similar traditions as the Eurovision Song Contest, including:

• Artist and Song Announcements
• Internal Selections and Online National Finals
• Live Broadcasts of both Semi Finals and the Grand Final which all follow the Eurovision format: postcards, performances, interval acts, and of course the exciting voting sequences!

HOW DOES IT WORK?

• The contest is open to fans of Eurovision who are dedicated to taking part in an online musical extravaganza! Participants will represent a country (one per person allocated at random) and act as Head of Delegation.
  
  

HEAD OF DELEGATION RESPONSIBILITIES:
As Head of Delegation, you will be responsible for:

• Selecting the Artist/Act and Song that will represent your country by following the rules that apply (see below).
• Submitting your allocated countries National Jury votes for the Semi Finals and the Grand Final (despite Grand Final qualification)…
• Any Delegate that misses a deadline to submit their countries votes in the Semi Finals or Grand Final will result in losing the power to vote; this will be given to a member of the voting public chosen at random.
  
  

ARTIST/ACT SELECTION RULES:

To be eligible, Artist/Act MUST fit ONE of the following criteria (please note if you are selecting a group, only ONE member needs to fit ONE of the following criteria):

• Have been born in your allocated country
• Be a legal citizen of your allocated country
• Have competed in one of the following:

          -   The Eurovision Song Contest (representing the country you have been allocated).

          -   The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (representing the country you have been allocated – they must now be 16 or over).

          -   The All Stars Song Contest (representing the country you have been allocated).

          -   A National Final or a similar audition process that selects the act/artist to represent your allocated at the Eurovision Song Contest, or Junior Eurovision Song
              Content.

• Artists MUST NOT have competed in the previous edition of All Stars but can have competed in any earlier editions [check list at escallstars.com].
• Artists MUST be alive.
• Groups/Bands can have a maximum of 8 members - please note only one member of the group has to apply to the criteria above, including DJ's that feature on the song.

In the event of two countries wanting to select the same artist/act (if eligible) it will be offered to the delegation that submits their selection first.

SONG SELECTION RULES:
When choosing your Song, you must follow these criteria:

• Songs MUST be between 2 – 4 minutes in length (including the Music or Lyric Video)
• Songs MUST have a Music or Lyric video on YouTube or another public online platform as this will be used during the broadcast of the Semi Finals and Grand Final (subject to qualification)

          -   If your chosen artist/act HAS NOT represented or tried to represent your allocated country in either the Eurovision Song Contest, Junior Eurovision Song     
              Contest or All Stars Song Contest then the song chosen must have been released within 365 days prior to the launch date of the All Stars Song Contest; the
              launch date of All Stars 10 is Monday 8th September 2025, therefore chosen songs MUST NOT have been released before 8th September 2024.

          -   If your chosen artist/act HAS represented or tried to represent your allocated country in either the Eurovision Song Contest, Junior Eurovision Song Contest
              or All Stars Song Contest then the song can have been released at any time.

• Songs MUST NOT have competed in any previous edition of All Stars [check list at escallstars.com].
• Songs MUST NOT have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest or Junior Eurovision Song Contest but can have competed in a National Final or a similar selection process.
• Songs MUST be an original by the chosen Artist/Act and not a cover.
• Songs can be a remix of an original song by the chosen Act/Artist.
• Songs MUST be copyright free across Europe on YouTube (please note most YouTube content is blocked in Russia & Belarus which is allowed);
• The Executive producer will check this for internal selections, however if you are planning to host a national final you will be responsible for checking all competing songs are copyright free by recording/downloading them and uploading them back on to YouTube – YouTube will inform you if the songs are ok to use.
• Songs can include samples of other songs if it is listed as a sample and not a cover.

HOW  TO SELECT YOUR ARTIST AND/OR SONG:
Participants can select their Artist/Act and Song by either:

• Internal Selection.
• Hosting an online National Final in which any other participants competing in the contest can vote in, plus anyone else you wish.

Delegations will have approximately 5 weeks to find their song. Once chosen, they must send it to the contest’s Executive Producer to be approved.

HOW DOES THE VOTING WORK?

When it comes to the voting, the points will be split 50/50 as follows:

• NATIONAL JURY (50%) – the National Jury vote is made up by the Heads of Delegation. Once all songs have been revealed, Heads of Delegation will have 1 week to rank all entries from 1st to last place  [excluding their own country]. These rankings will be used to determine where each countries  points will be awarded in the Semi Finals and Grand Final.
• Points will be awarded to each delegates 10 highest ranked songs competing in the Semi Final they have been allocated to vote in. The same will be applied for the Grand Final [Points awarded: 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1].
• For the Grand Final; Past Participants not competing in the contest will also award points as the National Jury for a country not competing in the contest but eligible to (one person per country).
• A ‘Rest of the World’ jury made up of a small group of music professionals will also award points in both Semi Finals and the Grand Final.
• National Jury points will be presented only during the Grand Final - National Jury Points awarded in the Semi Finals will be revealed after the Grand Final.

• PUBLIC VOTE (50%) – the public vote is made up by 100 people chosen from various Eurovision Fan Groups. For both Semi Final’s and the Grand Final each public voter will have 20 votes to award across as many songs as they like, however they can only award a maximum of 5 votes to any one country. These votes are counted and converted into the points awarded to each country.
• Public points will be presented only during the Grand Final - Public points awarded in the Semi Finals will be revealed after Grand Final.
• For both Semi Finals, only the 10 highest scoring songs will qualify for the Grand Final where they will join the Automatic Qualifiers (the Big 5): France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, as well as the Host Country (previous contest winner).

THE WINNER:

The Head of Delegation for the winning country will defend their title and represent the same country in the following contest (should they wish to participate). Should the same person win two contests consecutively, they will be given the power to select the country they wish to represent in the next edition.

HOW ARE THE RUNNING ORDERS DECIDED?

There is often a lot of hype and speculation around the Running Order for the Semi Finals and Grand Final! The running orders are decided by the Executive Producer, however a select few countries will draw their direct running order positions in the Grand Final...

The system works as follows:

• Semi Final: prior to the Semi Final’s, an allocation draw is used to determine which countries will compete in each Semi Final; all Semi Finalists will be randomly drawn one of the following:

          -   FIRST Semi Final – 1st Half
          -   FIRST Semi Final – 2nd Half
          -   SECOND Semi Final Two – 1st Half
          -   SECOND Semi Final Two – 2nd Half

• The Automatic Qualifiers & Host Country will also be randomly drawn a Semi Final to vote in.
• Once the above allocation draw is complete the Executive Producer will decide the Running Orders for both Semi Finals.
  
  
• Grand Final: during the Semi Final allocation draw the Host country will be randomly drawn their direct position in the Grand Final Running Order. The remaining Automatic Qualifiers will draw where in the Grand Final they will be placed; they will be randomly drawn one of the following:

          -   1st Half
          -   2nd Half
          -   DIRECT Position (Only 1 of the Automatic Qualifiers will be drawn their direct position in the Grand Final Running Order – this will be offered to the first
               country to draw option).

• After each Semi Final, the 10 qualifying countries will draw where in the Grand Final they will be placed; they will be randomly drawn one of the following:

          -   1st Half
          -   2nd Half
          -   DIRECT Position (Only 2 of the 10 Qualifiers will be drawn their direct position in the Grand Final Running Order – this will be offered to the first 2
               countries to draw option).

Once the above process  is complete, the Executive Producer will decide the Grand Final Running Order.

Please note: the Executive Producer takes into account the following factors to ensure ALL countries have a fair and equal chance at success, and to ensure exciting, diverse and well-balanced running orders for both Semi Finals and the Grand Final: 

• Genre of Music
• Style of Song
• Gender of Performer(s)
• Running Order History