Mystical Song Contest 19

The Mystical Song Contest #19 (also known as MSC 19) was the nineteenth edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Vilnius, 🇱🇹 Lithuania after Krewella ft. KSHMR won in Plovdiv, 🇧🇬 Bulgaria.

It was confirmed that 42 countries participated in the 19th edition. No one debuted, returned or withdrew.

The top 6 of last edition 🇱🇹 Lithuania, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇵🇱 Poland, 🇳🇿 New Zealand, 🇦🇹 Austria and 🇷🇺 Russia were automatically pre qualified for the Grand Final of this edition. The 36 other countries that participated were split into 2 semi finals.

The running orders were made by the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås.

Vilnius
Vilnius ( Lithuanian pronunciation: [ˈvʲɪlʲnʲʊs] (listen), see also other names) is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 580,020 as of 2020. The population of Vilnius functional urban area, that stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 697,691 (as of 2017), while according to statistics of Vilnius territorial health insurance fund, there are 723,016 permanent inhabitants (as of June 2019) in Vilnius city and Vilnius district municipalities combined. Vilnius is in the southeast part of Lithuania and is the second largest city in the Baltic states. Vilnius is the seat of the main government institutions of Lithuania and the Vilnius District Municipality.

Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies, and is known for the architecture in its Old Town, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. Before World War II, Vilnius was one of the largest Jewish centres in Europe. Its Jewish influence has led to it being described as the Jerusalem of Lithuania and Napoleon named it the Jerusalem of the North as he was passing through in 1812. In 2009, Vilnius was the European Capital of Culture, together with the Austrian city of Linz.

The name of the city originates from the Vilnia River from Lithuanian to surge. The city has also been known by many derivative spellings in various languages throughout its history: Vilna was once common in English. The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include: Polish: Wilno, Belarusian: Вiльня (Vilnya), German: Wilna, Latvian: Viļņa, Russian: Вильна (Vilna), Ukrainian: Вільно (Vilno), Yiddish: ווילנע‎ (Vilne). A Russian name from the time of the Russian Empire was Вильна (Vilna), although Вильнюс (Vilnyus) is now used. The names Wilno, Wilna and Vilna have also been used in older English, German, French and Italian language publications when the city was one of the capitals of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later an important city in the Second Polish Republic. The name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew. Wilna is still used in German, along with Vilnius.

Host of the show
On April 23, 2019 it was announced that Marijonas Mikutavičius was the host of Mystical Song Contest 19.

Marijonas Mikutavičius (born 19 April 1971) is a Lithuanian singer, musician and songwriter, a television journalist, a comedian and a talk show host from Vilnius. He is best known for his sports anthem Trys Milijonai as well as an official Eurobasket 2011 song Celebrate Basketball and for representing his country at Eurovision Song Contest 2006 as part of LT United.

Born in Lazdijai, at the age of nine Mikutavičius moved with the family to Vilnius where he later entered, and in 1994 graduated the Faculty of Communication of the Vilnius University as a master in journalism.

While studying at the university, Mikutavičius worked for periodicals and as a Vakaro žinios (Evening News) reporter for Lithuanian television. He also played in a rock band Bovy, toured around Europe and sang in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Eastern Europe, and gained recognition as the best vocalist at the Liepājas dzintars (Liepāja's amber) music festival in 1995.

He has been working as a screenwriter and a participant in a variety of programs, usually youth oriented, on Lithuanian National Radio and Television and on major commercial TV channels LNK and Lithuanian TV3. He has hosted Vakaras su Marijonu (An Evening with Marijonas), a talk show on LNK. He also works as a Lietuvos rytas daily (Lithuanian Morning) correspondent.

Mikutavičius is the author of a number of hit songs which stand at the top of the music charts in Lithuania. As the author of the popular song Trys Milijonai, he became a Bravo 2000 music award winner (Bravo is a Lithuanian analogue of BRIT Awards voted by the music industry people); he is also a recipient of the Radiocentras music award (voted by the listeners).

In 2004, a Lithuanian music recording company Intervid released his album Pasveikinkit vieni kitus (Greeting Each Other), which included two versions of Trys Milijonai. This album reached the platinum award for sales in Lithuania (sold 20,000 copies early in 2004 and more than 30,000 copies by 2005). In February and March 2005, saw a controversy in the media, which arose from the rumors that Mikutavičius apparently, unilaterally sold the rights of the song for five years to Intervid.

Debuting/Withdrawing
On April 23, 2019 it was announced that no countries withdrew/debuted in the 19th edition.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 19th edition.

Semi Finals
On April 26, 2019 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of both semi finals.

The big 6 members were assigned to a semi final where they had to vote.

A total of 18 countries competed in each semi final and 10 countries qualified in both.

Semi Final 1
In this semi final 🇱🇹 Lithuania, 🇩🇪 Germany and 🇷🇺 Russia had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇵🇱 Poland, 🇳🇿 New Zealand and 🇦🇹 Austria had to vote.

Grand Final
On May 1, 2019 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the grand final.