UNITED SONG CONTEST
Live Voting/Daily Chatroom/History Years/4 Seasons
RULES
MAIN RULES
1§
United Song Contest main purpose is to create friendship and promote music all around Europe.
2§
Participation in United Song Contest requires commitment and dedication for the whole year. When signing in for United Song Contest 2007 you apply for the same country for all 4 editions (Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn) but it is possible to change country even though we prefer you stay with the same all year.
3§
- The artists have to be from the country they compete for. This rule replaces the old rule where the origin of the composers of the song was taken in consideration. However, there are some singers that have two nationalities or have been living for a long period of time in another country. This kind of artists will be additionally discussed by the management because there cannot be a single rule for all kinds. We will not consider any of the artists who have no relations to any of the countries with an EBU membership.
- We add the freedom of language to all the countries. This rule is new to the countries that can take performers from other countries, i.e.
- We add the freedom of language to all the countries. This rule is new to the countries that can take performers from other countries, i.e.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v. Vatican City can take songs from Italy.
- If two or more countries want to send the same artist, the country that represents the place where the artist lives, works and records has the advantage. This means that we will have only one song by the same artist in each edition.
- Songs sung by a duet can be taken from both countries that the artists represent, but not from the countries in bold mentioned in 1.a.
E.g. Andrea Bocelli feat. Carola (this song can be taken only from
- A song sung by a group can be taken from the country that represents the majority (at least 51%) of the members’ nationalities. If the proportion is 50:50, both countries can take the group (we will accept the country that will be the first to send the song). Groups with members that have 3 or more different nationalities are not allowed.
4§
Songs that has competed in United Song Contest before can not compete again.Not even in new version remixes etc.
5§
No ESC songs or ESC covers are allowed. Songs from the national finals are allowed
6§
The United Song Contest has a Final of 25-26 songs and if needed there will also be a semi final with a limit of 30 competing songs.
7§
The voting for the Final and the Semifinal will be conducted in the following way. Participants will send their votes to the organisation through mail to the organisers secretly and kept so until the live shows. All participating countries must vote in both Semifinal and Final. All participants are to vote ESC-style, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12p. In the semifinal the top 15 go through to the final and after semi only the points of the non-qualifyers will be revealed.
Sometimes it happens that someone does not vote. Until now, what happened in this case was that you lost the points you gave to the non-voting country. But from now on we will have 2-3 backup juries in every edition which will be used as a replacement for the non-voting countries (backup juries vote as a regular country). This way no one will lose their points. FOR THE SEMIFINALS:If a manager does not vote or send a song twice, s-he will be banned from USC.FOR FINALS:If a finalist doesn't vote, s-he is immediately out of USC and the country is free.
8§
All finalists are required to vote LIVE in the Final show unless they have a valid reason not to and have been given the organiser's permission to be absent. All participants must vote in both semi and final or face penelty of rule 44§-45§.
9§
The top(how many decide by management depending on the entries) best placed songs in one United Song Contest edition directly qualifies into the final of the next edition.
10§
The winning country will besides qualifying to the next edition's final also have the privilige to freely select the next host city and Arena.
PARTICIPATION RULES
11§
Participation in United Song Contest requires commitment and dedication for the whole year. When signing in for United Song Contest it is preferable that you select the same country for all the 4 editions (Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn).
12§
All countries that are members of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) can take part in the United Song Contest.
13§
As a participant you can apply for any country you like no matter where you are from as long as this country has not been taken already. A full list of possible and available countries can be found in the "Available countries" section. We recommend you apply for the country of your origine or a country whose music you love. LINK
14§
To participate you have to contact the organisers saying that you want to make an application. Then you will get a mail with a lot of questions that you need to answer and after returning it you wait for the answer. Look under “home” for different ways to contact organisers.
15§
As a participant you must keep DEADLINES. Check the "Calendar" section for important dates. LINK
All deadlines will be stricter than now. This means that we will not wait for all to vote in USC History, but we will stick to the deadline, plus 24 extra hours to receive e-mails with the votes (in case of any technical problems) will be added.
16§
As a participant you must also vote LIVE in the voting chatroom on the night of the final. If you have a valid reason not to be there you must ask permission from the organisers and they can cast your votes on your behalf if you have a valid reason to be absent. Read more in VOTING RULES section.
17§
There is a maximum of 45 participants in the United Song Contest at this moment. If you are accepted as a participant but all the 45 places we will probably increase the number of players by expanding semifinal futher.
18§
A user who has a particular country throughout a year has the privilage to sign in for the same country again the following year. It is allowed to swap countries with another user. If some participants leave, and should there be users that wish to play for that particular country, s-he will be asked or can ask to take over your country's organization from that moment onwards. Players who has their origine from a country will be first in line.
19§
At the end of the year there will also be a voluntary game of voting for “The United Song of the Year” in which all top 5 from the 4 editions will compete. All members are allowed to vote but not for their own entry.
20§
There is also an age limit. None of the participants can be under sixteen (16) years old. This is because of the occasional explicit content of the chat which can sometimes be seen as adult language. Talking with an adult language to a person that is younger than sixteen is against the law in some European countries.
SONG SELECTION RULES
§21
Songs that has competed in United Song Contest before can not compete again.
The artists have to be from the country they compete for. This rule replaces the old rule where the origin of the composers of the song was taken in consideration. However, there are some singers that have two nationalities or have been living for a long period of time in another country. This kind of artists will be additionally discussed by the management because there cannot be a single rule for all kinds. We will not consider any of the artists who have no relations to any of the countries with an EBU membership.
- We add the freedom of language to all the countries. This rule is new to the countries that can take performers from other countries, i.e.
- i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v. Vatican City can take songs from Italy.
If two or more countries want to send the same artist, the country that represents the place where the artist lives, works and records has the advantage. This means that we will have only one song by the same artist in each edition.
- Songs sung by a duet can be taken from both countries that the artists represent, but not from the countries in bold mentioned in 1.a.
E.g. Andrea Bocelli feat. Carola (this song can be taken only from
§22
No ESC songs or ESC covers are allowed. Songs from the national finals are allowed
§23
Songs that will be in the process of being selected for the Eurovision Song Contest are not allowed until it is very clear that that song will not be competing in the next Eurovision Song Contest. This means that until a clear winner at the preselection process of your country has been determined, you will not be able to use any of the songs in your country's preselection programme.
§24
The song must be a vocal song with at least 24 words in the lyrics. Complete Instrumental pieces are not allowed. United Song Contest has a free language rule. Also Live or Demo versions are not allowed.
§25
The duration of the song can be at the most
§26
§27
Should there be a conflict between two countries that want to send the same song it will be solved this way. France has the right to select any song and both Monaco and Luxemburg must stand down and select another song in such case. Italy has the right to select any song and San-Marino must stand down and select another song in such case. Spain has the right to select any song and Andorra must stand down and select another song in such case. In all other cases it is the country that selects the song first that will keep the particular song.
§28
The competing song must be uploaded in an mp3 format before the deadline to one of the organisers. The Soulseek usernames of organisers are _gobica_ ,greg09 , babis gr . Should the song be in any other format it must be converted into mp3 to be able to be considered and take part in United Song Contest. The United Song Contest organisation appreciates if participants also send a video of the participating song, music video or live video, in any video format. However this is optional.
§29
A song can be changed after it has been sent to the organization but ONLY once. If it turns out to violate rules 21§-26§, it is up to the organization to disqualify the song or allow the user to send in another one.
§30
It is entirely up to the participant to select a song through a national final selection process or internal election.
FINAL AND SEMI FINAL RULES
31§
25-30 countries will compete in the Grand Final of United Song Contest. The top best placed countries in one edition directly qualify to the final in the following edition. The remaining spots in the final will be filled with the best placed participants in the semi final.
32§
If at the end of the year a country directly qualifies to the next edition's final ( because of ending up as one of the best placed qualified songs) and the user of that particular country decides to swap countries for the next year's process, it is the country that remains in the final, not the user. And this applies to all privileges that it involves (city and arena).
33§
One of the biggest changes in regular USC editions is that we will have a big final if there will be less than 30 songs. This will save time to everyone and will give the opportunity to more countries to achieve a high placing. Also, these songs will be heard all in the same round, so no one will have the advantage of having been heard from the semi-final. However, there will be a semi-final if the number of songs will be higher than 30.
VOTING RULES
41§
All participants must download all songs in order to vote properly.
42§
All voting is conducted by mail and all votes must be kept secretly until they are made public by yourself at the Grand Final ( Final case), or made public by the organization (SemiFinal case)
43§
In both the Final and in the Semi final all participants must vote and do so ESC style 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12p before the DEADLINE. The 11 best placed countries will be announced in the semi final show where their spot in the final also will be drawn live.
44§
I Sometimes it happens that someone does not vote. Until now, what happened in this case was that you lost the points you gave to the non-voting country. But from now on we will have 2-3 backup juries in every edition which will be used as a replacement for the non-voting countries (backup juries vote as a regular country). This way no one will lose their points. If a manager does not vote or send a song twice, s-he will be banned from USC.
45§
If a finalist country fail to vote in the semi-final, s-he will loose her-is final spot. It will be the semifinalist country that finished in the semi that will advance into the final instead. If there was more than one finalist that failed to vote in semi the 13th and so on will also advance to the final. The 12th will take over the earliest start position and the 13th the next and so on. If a non qualifying semi-finalist fail to vote in the final his country may be given to other online song contest fan instead especially if this is repeated.
46§
In the Final all finalists must vote and do so ESC style 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12p before the DEADLINE
47§
In the Final all non qualifying participants must vote and do so ESC style 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12p before the DEADLINE.
48§
In the Final all participants are also required to vote LIVE in the Final show unless they have a valid reason not to and have been given the organisers permission to be absent.
49§
In the Final all finalists will vote in order of appearence. After the finalist's juryor all the non qualifyers will vote in the order of the semi results. The one with the highest scores start and the one finishing last in semi vote last.
WINNING RULES
51§
The Winner is the song that received the most points in the final.
52§
Should there be a draw the winner will be the one with most number of 12p received. If the songs in the draw situation has got an equal number of 12p the one with the most number of 10p received wins and so on downwards. Should this not be able to find a winner the song that has been voted by the major number of countries(current esc ebu rule for that case) will win.
53§
Should there be a draw for another position than the 1st place the 52§ applies also.
54§
The best placed songs in one United Song Contest edition directly qualifies into the final of the next Edition.
55§
The winning country will besides qualifying to the next edition's final also have the privilige to select the next host city and Arena.
EXTRAORDINARY RULES
61§
Should there be repeatedly and serious humiliating behavior or mistreatment from one participant towords another participant the organisers will exclude the violator from participation in the United Song Contest indefinatelly. The organisation sincearly hopes that this is a an exceptional measure we will not have to use.
62§
In order to avoid some unpleasantness we will limit the number of times when one can join, then leave, rejoin and leave again. After the second leaving, there will not be another chance to join again
Should there be unclear rules or contradicting rules or if a new situation that is not covered by the rules in the current format should occur it is the organisers right to make new rules or deside what is to be done.
64§
After 1/1/2008 all managers of USC must have at History the same country as they do at regular editions during the same year.That rule is also refering to the one that requires all managers to stay with same country during the year ( from 1/1 - 31/12).