Asiavision Song Contest 2019

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The Asiavision Song Contest 2019 was the 1st edition of the annual Asiavision Song Contest. It took place in İstanbul, Turkey in an attempt to bridge Eurovision, the famous European song contest, to Asiavision, a new Asian spin off. The contest consisted of two semi-finals and a grand final. 51 countries initially confirmed their participation, performer(s) and song, however Russia withdrew shortly after announcing that Lika Kosta would perform 'Lambada' for the country in İstanbul.

The contest was won by Jordanian singer Adham Nabulsi with the song ‘Howeh el hob’ representing Palestine with 501 points. Palestine won the televote with 399 points, followed by Sri Lanka with 393 points and Oman with 329 points respectively. These three made up the top 3 overall. South Korea was the jury winner with 251 points, later finishing 7th, Uzbekistan came second with the jury with 215 points, later finishing 10th overall, and Macau rounded off the jury top 3 with 214 points, finishing 5th overall. Northern Cyprus finished 4th with the televote and placed fourth overall, one point ahead of Macau.

Location
The contest took place in İstanbul, Turkey at the Abdi İpekçi Arena.

İstanbul is a city on the European side of Turkey. It is the largest city in Europe by population. Istanbul is also the 3rd largest European city in size. It was the capital city of the old Ottoman Empire until 1923. The city has been known since ancient times by the older names Byzantium and Constantinople. Being a seaport, Istanbul is the main trade center of Turkey.

Part of Istanbul is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Istanbul faces the Golden Horn and the Bosporus strait. The Bosphorus connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and separates Europe and Asia. The city is actually in both Europe and Asia. One third of the people live on the Asian side. Its population is between 11 and 15 million people, making it one of the largest cities in Europe. Many people migrate to Istanbul every year.

Its original name was Byzantion in the Greek language, known as Byzantium in the Latin language. Byzantium was originally settled as a colony by Greeks from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king, Byzas. In 196 AD, Byzantium was damaged by the Romans, then rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. Constantine the Great thought this city was in a nice location, and in 330, moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to there, as New Rome, renaming the city Constantinople, after his name.

When the Roman Empire was later divided into two, the East Roman Empire was known as the Byzantine Empire, and its capital was in Constantinople where Hagia Sophia had been built. Although it was captured by Crusaders for a time, it continued as one of political, cultural, religious and economical centers of Europe until it finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

After the Ottoman Empire ended, the Republic of Turkey was started with its capital at Ankara.

Semi-Final 1
22 countries took part in semi-final 1 with China, Japan and host country Turkey voting as well. 10 countries qualified and advanced to the Grand Final. An error in vote counting meant that the televote had around twice as many points to give as the juries. Corrected scores were calculated however, there were no changes to the qualifiers list, so the changes were not updated.

Semi-Final 2
22 countries took part in the second semi-final, with India, Indonesia and United Arab Emirates voting as well. 10 countries qualified and advanced to the Grand Final. An error in vote counting meant that the televote had around twice as many points to give as the juries. Corrected scores were calculated however, there were no changes to the qualifiers list, so the changes were not updated.

Grand Final
26 countries performed in the Grand Final, the ‘Big 5’ (China, India, Indonesia, Japan and United Arab Emirates) and host country of Turkey automatically qualified for the final. 10 countries qualified from each semi-final. All participating countries were able to vote. There was no error with the televote in the grand final, so all results are correct and accurate.

Other Countries

 * Russia initially confirmed their participation with Russian-Armenian singer Lika Kosta and her song 'Lambada', however withdrew just 24 hours later for unknown reasons. The country stated that Lika Kosta would return to the contest, representing Russia in 2020.