Mystical Song Contest 39

The Mystical Song Contest #39 (also known as MSC 39) was the thirty-ninth edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam,  The Netherlands after Devan ft. Mila won in Tel Aviv, 🇮🇱 Israel.

It was confirmed that 48 countries participated in the 39th edition. No debuted, 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands withdrew while 🇹🇷 Turkey returned.

The top 6 of last edition  The Netherlands, 🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇰🇷 South Korea, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇵🇹 Portugal and 🇸🇪 Sweden were automatically pre qualified for the Grand Final of this edition. The 42 other countries that participated were split into 2 semi finals.

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

Rotterdam
Rotterdam (/ˈrɒtərdæm/, UK also /ˌrɒtərˈdæm/; Dutch: [ˌrɔtərˈdɑm] (listen)) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, at the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas channel leading into the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270, when a dam was constructed in the Rotte. In 1340, Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland. The Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 13th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country.

A major logistic and economic centre, Rotterdam is Europe's largest seaport. In 2020, it had a population of 651,446 and is home to over 180 nationalities. Rotterdam is known for its university, riverside setting, lively cultural life, maritime heritage and modern architecture. The near-complete destruction of the city centre in the World War II Rotterdam Blitz has resulted in a varied architectural landscape, including skyscrapers designed by architects such as Rem Koolhaas, Piet Blom and Ben van Berkel.

The Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt give waterway access into the heart of Western Europe, including the highly industrialized Ruhr. The extensive distribution system including rail, roads, and waterways have earned Rotterdam the nicknames "Gateway to Europe" and "Gateway to the World".The settlement at the lower end of the fen stream Rotte (or Rotta, as it was then known, from rot, "muddy" and a, "water", thus "muddy water") dates from at least 900 CE.[citation needed] Around 1150, large floods in the area ended development, leading to the construction of protective dikes and dams, including Schielands Hoge Zeedijk ("Schieland’s High Sea Dike") along the northern banks of the present-day Nieuwe Maas. A dam on the Rotte was built in the 1260s and was located at the present-day Hoogstraat ("High Street").

On 7 July 1340, Count Willem IV of Holland granted city rights to Rotterdam, whose population then was only a few thousand. Around the year 1350, a shipping canal, the Rotterdamse Schie was completed, which provided Rotterdam access to the larger towns in the north, allowing it to become a local trans-shipment centre between the Netherlands, England and Germany, and to urbanize.

The port of Rotterdam grew slowly but steadily into a port of importance, becoming the seat of one of the six "chambers" of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), the Dutch East India Company.

The greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population, followed the completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg in 1872. The city and harbour started to expand on the south bank of the river. The Witte Huis or White House skyscraper, inspired by American office buildings and built in 1898 in the French Château-style, is evidence of Rotterdam's rapid growth and success. When completed, it was the tallest office building in Europe, with a height of 45 m (147.64 ft).

During World War I, the city was the world's largest spy centre because of Dutch neutrality and its strategic location in between Britain, Germany and German-occupied Belgium. Many spies who were arrested and executed in Britain were led by German secret agents operating from Rotterdam. MI6 had its main European office on de Boompjes. From there the British coordinated espionage in Germany and occupied Belgium. During World War I, an average of 25,000 Belgian refugees lived in the city, as well as hundreds of German deserters and escaped Allied prisoners of war.

During World War II, the German army invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Adolf Hitler had hoped to conquer the country in just one day, but his forces met unexpectedly fierce resistance. The Dutch army was forced to capitulate on 15 May 1940, following the bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May and the threat of bombing of other Dutch cities. The heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Some 80,000 civilians were made homeless and 900 were killed; a relatively low number due to the fact that many had fled the city because of the warfare and bombing going on in Rotterdam since the start of the invasion three days earlier. The City Hall survived the bombing. Ossip Zadkine later attempted to capture the event with his statue De Verwoeste Stad ('The Destroyed City'). The statue stands near the Leuvehaven, not far from the Erasmusbrug in the centre of the city, on the north shore of the river Nieuwe Maas.

Host of the show
On July 19, 2020 it was announced that Edsilia Rombley was the host of the Mystical Song Contest 39.

Edsilia Francisca Rombley (born 13 February 1978) is a Dutch singer and television presenter. She began her career in 1995, as a member of the Dutch girl group Dignity. Rombley began her solo career in 1996, after winning the Dutch talent show Soundmixshow, later winning the European Soundmix Show as well the following year.

In 1998, Rombley won Nationaal Songfestival 1998 and represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with the song "Hemel en aarde", placing fourth. She later represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song "On Top of the World", but did not qualify for the final. In 2009, Rombley hosted season one of the Dutch celebrity talent show Beste Zangers. She was due to host the cancelled Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam.

Throughout her career, Rombley has released eight studio albums and two top five singles in the Netherlands.

Rombley was born on 13 February 1978 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Her parents were from Aruba and Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles).

The career of Rombley started in 1995, with Gracia Gorré, Karima Lemghari and Susan Haps in the group called Dignity. The name Dignity stands for Dignified Individuals Giving New Insight To You. A year later the singles "Talk To Me" and "Hold Me" from the compilation album "No Sweat" entered the charts.

In 1996, Edsilia won the final of the Soundmixshow with a cover version of Oleta Adams' song, "I Just Had To Hear Your Voice". In 1997, her international reputation was established thanks to the profit of the European Soundmix Show, in which she sang the same song. That year she left Dignity and released her first solo single "Baby It's You". In 1997 she recorded her first album "Thuis" which was in assignment and exclusive for Douwe Egberts.

In 1998, Edsilia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham, United Kingdom, where she gained 150 points and placed 4th with the song "Hemel en aarde" ("Heaven and earth"). This was the best result the Netherlands had achieved since their win in 1975 with Teach-In until The Common Linnets' second place finish in 2014. The song was written by Fluitsma & Van Tijn and reached twelfth place in the top 40. Her debut English album was released shortly after her Eurovision participation. Edsilia Rombley singing during the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki Edsilia represented the Netherlands again at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in May 2007 in Helsinki, Finland with the song "On Top of the World", but was eliminated in the semi-finals. The Dutch original is titled "Nooit Meer Zonder Jou". She also announced the votes from the Netherlands for the Eurovision Final in 1999, in 2015, and in 2007 with Paul de Leeuw.

On 4 December 2019, she was announced one of the three presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam alongside Chantal Janzen and Jan Smit. She later co-hosted Het Grote Songfestivalfeest (English: the Big Songfestival Party), a live concert show featuring artists from the past sixty-four years, at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam as a pre-event prior to the 2020 Contest. The concert was broadcast on Dutch TV on New Year's Day 2020.

Debuting/Withdrawing
On July 17, 2020 it was announced that 1 country won't participate in the 39th edition.


 * 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands : KVF, the Faroese broadcaster, stated that the country won't participate in the 39th edition because "it's time for the country to withdraw" said the head of delegation. The last participation of the country was in the 38th edition.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 39th edition.

Semi Finals
On July 19, 2020 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 21 countries competed in each semi final and 10 countries qualified in both.

Semi Final 1
In this semi final The Netherlands, 🇰🇷 South Korea and 🇵🇹 Portugal had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇮🇹 Italy and 🇸🇪 Sweden had to vote.

Grand Final
On August 2, 2020 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the Grand Final.