The inaugural ABU Song Contest has been delayed until early 2020, as the ABU continues to work on the competition.
The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union has confirmed to Eurovoix World, that the inaugural edition of the ABU Song Contest has been delayed until 2020. The first contest was due to be held this October in Qingdao, China, with a Semi-Final and Grand Final held over the course of three nights on October 17 and October 19.
The ABU had given participating broadcasters until March 20th to apply to compete and then June 30th to select the act they would be competing with. To date a total of five broadcasters across the Asia-Pacific region had confirmed their participation in the contest, they are:
- Brunei – RTB
- China – Shandong Television
- Indonesia – TVRI
- Vanuatu – VTBC
- Vietnam – VTV
The ABU has confirmed to Eurovoix World, that the competition will still be held in Qingdao, China in 2020. The new dates of the contest are:
- Semi-Final – April 16
- Grand Final – April 18
The ABU is currently working on creating a detailed plan and a revised schedule for preparations which will be published soon.
How will the ABU Song Contest work?
Each broadcaster will select their participant for the competition, the singer must be 16 years old or over. All singers must perform live at the contest and can perform a song in any genre. Songs may be original or popular songs, but cannot be about sensitive issues. Songs may not exceed 3 minutes in length.
All participants apart from those from the host nation must compete in the semi-final. Qualifiers will be selected from the semi-final to compete in the Grand Final.
The qualifiers and the winner will be decided by the votes of audience juries and an International Professional Jury. The International Professional Jury will be located in the venue, while the Audience Juries are formed by each participating broadcaster. Each audience jury is formed of 100 people.
Source: ABU
