Who finished the next highest after FSR Rontvia/FARC who is in Semi-Final 1? Can't they AQ and we get the 11 Countries who have voted in SF1 to replace their vote?

Just waiting on the mods to confirm, but hopefully Semi 1 voters would be understanding that there is one more DNQ than in Semi 2, considering the circumstances, if that is what they decide. As numbers wise, the withdrawal effectively becomes like a DNQ for that semi.

Edited December 4Dec 4 by gooddelta

Withdrawal is essentially a DNQ surely? I don’t really think it needs to get more complicated than that 🤷🏻‍♂️

It’s an unfortunate circumstance but I imagine most people are understanding x

Omg the dramz Like the good ol' days.

Sad to see you pull out Addy, but completely understandable given the circumstances

I don’t see any other way apart from having one less DNQ or leveling out the playing field by picking the 4th place (since Hushkunamatata don’t enter this month) aka POPhub to qualify as well as they are in the other semi.

Update from the mods:

• Bøtanikkä will not submit votes for this contest but will not be banned from BJSC 181.

• The song will be removed from consideration for voting in the semi-final and any countries who have already voted for it will be contacted and asked to amend their votes.

• It will still remain on the 'Songs of BJSC' list, in line with precedent set by previously disqualified entries, and thus will not be eligible to be sent again in the future. It will be marked as 'WD' (withdrawn).

• FARC will remain an auto-qualifier and semi-final 2 will still have 20 qualifiers as planned.

With the above in mind, Semi 2 finalists may resume voting.

Due to the fact that you haven't been able to vote for a day, as my schedule doesn't allow me to delay the dates easily, I will accept ALL votes for BOTH semis up to 2pm GMT on Saturday 6th December with no penalty. Results are still scheduled to follow on Saturday evening. Hopefully the extra 14 hours helps people. No further votes will be accepted past this point and nations who fail to vote will have their score deducted by 33%.

I'll update the opening post with the new deadline.

Edited December 4Dec 4 by gooddelta

1 hour ago, pavi said:

I don’t see any other way apart from having one less DNQ or leveling out the playing field by picking the 4th place (since Hushkunamatata don’t enter this month) aka POPhub to qualify as well as they are in the other semi.

mods it’s still not too late to do this

I think what’s been agreed seems to be the least disruptive to this contest/future contests so sounds like the sensible decision to me. Yes percentage wise it’s very slightly easier to qualify from SF2, but that’s what happens at Eurovision and this is also in response to an unusual circumstance.

I think let’s make it even and just get rid of a song from Semi 1, let’s really go for even and fair xxxx

Maybe the one with the least points so far…. BYE!!!!!

WTFF cumulonimbia had no right sending such a banger

seems like the most sensible decision, thanks as always for the updates!

addy deserves a hug, Botanikka have had a really unfortunate second half of the year 😔

27 minutes ago, Klumzee said:

I think what’s been agreed seems to be the least disruptive to this contest/future contests so sounds like the sensible decision to me. Yes percentage wise it’s very slightly easier to qualify from SF2, but that’s what happens at Eurovision and this is also in response to an unusual circumstance.

Yes this is basically my thinking here - it's not ideal to have uneven semis but at the end of the day 20/29 vs. 20/28 isn't exactly that bad of an imbalance to accept for one contest in what we very much hope will be a one off occurrence, obviously it's the first time it's happened in 18 years! We'll just have one person who's maybe getting lucky in semi 2 (and who's to say AY YOLA would have been a guaranteed qualifier anyway... I know Rich named it as a winner contender but shh). Any further intervention would just be causing more disruption that I don't think would really be worth it for such a minor discrepancy.

The closest thing we have to a precedent here is from all the way back in BJSC 16 when Fortunia and Mykanovia were disqualified due to the original aliasgate and that also just went ahead with the usual number of qualifiers so 14/25 qualified from semi 1 and 14/23 from semi 2 (arguably effectively 14/22 because that semi also contained a song that I believe had been sent as an intentional attempt to get 0 points, and ended up with 1 point - Martina's 'Idi Leđa Mi Okreni', perhaps Pavi will remember the lore around that better being the one person who blocked it from being our first nul pointer which we'd then have to wait a further 127 contests to see xx).

I will just say that between this and copperplate-gate last month, and with the general state of the world and music industry right now, it may be a good idea for anyone who may be sensitive about this kind of thing to take a little time to do some ~background checks~ themselves, I probably should have seen the AY YOLA thing during research myself as it's not exactly well hidden information (it's mentioned quite prominently on Wikipedia!) but alas I didn't quite find the time to do research as thoroughly as I usually do this month. Using myself as an example, I sent an Israeli act last month and my first thought, as unfortunate as it is to have to consider this kind of thing these days, was to make sure I wasn't accidentally platforming someone advocating a genocide :') (which thankfully turned out to be very much the opposite of the case from a scouring of the artist's social media). Obviously Addy's withdrawal here has been 100% voluntary and we're not going to start being the moral police denying entries from artists who may hold some dodgy views (trusting no one is ever going to intentionally send an openly hateful song ofc) but just something to think about.

Hopefully that's the end of any dramz~ this month and we'll look forward to Addy being back with a clean slate again in January x

I just want to say thank you to the mods and the host for dealing with this situation midway contest :clap:

Seems like the most sensible solution is being implemented!!!

Also thanks to everyone for kind words, you all are so sweet , and looking forward to start fresh next year for BJSC181. Fair and square!!! Love you all <3

EDIT:

And regardless my withdrawal, I will still follow this contest closely, and will cheer for my faves

Edited December 4Dec 4 by Addy!

2 hours ago, Brer said:

(arguably effectively 14/22 because that semi also contained a song that I believe had been sent as an intentional attempt to get 0 points, and ended up with 1 point - Martina's 'Idi Leđa Mi Okreni', perhaps Pavi will remember the lore around that better being the one person who blocked it from being our first nul pointer which we'd then have to wait a further 127 contests to see xx).

Still one of my proudest moments.

Freidland have voted!

Voted, I moved at least 8 songs I didn't end up voting for in and out of my votes; there's such a good baseline of quality in this contest and I hope as many of those as possible get enough to be in.

Doing my relisten of semi 2 now - I've just realised I completely forgot to rank one of my favourites during my first listen so thank god I didn't send my votes then...!

Voting now, there are about 6 songs that are closely fighting for my 1 and 2 pointers so definitely quite a tough semi to vote in. Sending big hypes to Bronzil, Elëdan, Skall and Sovarasma but another strong semi x

22 of 59 votes in now, looks like some songs in both semis have reached the Q zone already! All votes due in by 2pm tomorrow please.