Mystical Song Contest 37

The Mystical Song Contest #37 (also known as MSC 37) is the thirty-seventh edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It takes place in Minsk, 🇧🇾 Belarus after Uzari won in Tórshavn, 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands.

It was confirmed that 48 countries will participate in the 37th edition. No debuting, withdrawing or returning.

The top 6 of last edition 🇧🇾 Belarus,  The Netherlands, 🇫🇮 Finland, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇷🇺 Russia and 🇦🇹 Austria were automatically pre qualified for the Grand Final of this edition. The 42 others participating countries were split into 2 semi finals.

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

Minsk
Minsk (Belarusian: Мінск [mʲinsk], traditional Belarusian: Менск [mʲensk], Russian: Минск, Polish: Mińsk, Lithuanian: Minskas) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislač and the Nyamiha Rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region (voblasć) and Minsk District (rajon). The population in January 2018 was 1,982,444, (not including suburbs) making Minsk the 11th most populous city in Europe. Minsk is the administrative capital of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and seat of its Executive Secretary.

The earliest historical references to Minsk date to the 11th century (1067), when it was noted as a provincial city within the Principality of Polotsk. The settlement developed on the rivers. In 1242, Minsk became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It received town privileges in 1499.

From 1569, it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodeship, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of a region annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, in the Soviet Union. In June 2019, Minsk hosted the 2019 European Games.

The Old East Slavic name of the town was Мѣньскъ (i.e. Měnsk < Early Proto-Slavic or Late Indo-European Mēnĭskŭ), derived from a river name Měn (< Mēnŭ). The direct continuation of this name in Belarusian is Miensk (pronounced [mʲɛnsk]).

The resulting form of the name, Minsk (spelled either Минскъ or Мѣнскъ), was taken over both in Russian (modern spelling: Минск) and Polish (Mińsk), and under the influence especially of Russian it also became official in Belarusian. However, some Belarusian-speakers continue to use Miensk (spelled Менск) as their preferred name for the city.

When Belarus was under Polish rule, the names Mińsk Litewski 'Minsk of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania' and Mińsk Białoruski 'Minsk in Belarus' were used to differentiate this place name from Mińsk Mazowiecki 'Minsk in Masovia'. In modern Polish, Mińsk without an attribute usually refers to the city in Belarus, which is about 50 times bigger than Mińsk Mazowiecki; (cf. Brest-Litovsk and Brześć Kujawski for a similar case).

The area of today's Minsk was settled by the Early East Slavs by the 9th century AD. The Svislach River valley was the settlement boundary between two Early East Slav tribes – the Krivichs and Dregovichs. By 980, the area was incorporated into the early medieval Principality of Polotsk, one of the earliest East Slav principalities of Old Rus' state. Minsk was first mentioned in the name form Měneskъ (Мѣнескъ) in the Primary Chronicle for the year 1067 in association with the Battle on the River Nemiga. 1067 is now widely accepted as the founding year of Minsk. City authorities consider the date of 3 March 1067, to be the exact founding date of the city, though the town (by then fortified by wooden walls) had certainly existed for some time by then. The origin of the name is unknown but there are several theories.

In the early 12th century, the Principality of Polotsk disintegrated into smaller fiefs. The Principality of Minsk was established by one of the Polotsk dynasty princes. In 1129, the Principality of Minsk was annexed by Kiev, the dominant principality of Kievan Rus; however in 1146 the Polotsk dynasty regained control of the principality. By 1150, Minsk rivaled Polotsk as the major city in the former Principality of Polotsk. The princes of Minsk and Polotsk were engaged in years of struggle trying to unite all lands previously under the rule of Polotsk.

Host of the show
On May 31, 2020 it was announced that Yuri Naurotski will be the host of the Mystical Song Contest 37.

Yuri Naurotski (Russian: Юрий Навроцкий; Belarusian: Юрый Наўроцкі; born 11 May 1991 in Minsk), better known by his stage name Uzari (Russian: Юзари, Belarusian: Юзары), is a Belarusian singer and songwriter. He represented Belarus at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with Maimuna with the song "Time".

Previously, he competed in the Belarusian national final in 2012 with the song "The Winner", coming in 5th place, and in 2013 with the song "Secret", coming in 8th place. He was also one of Anastasia Vinnikova's backing singers at Eurovision Song Contest 2011.

He co-composed Belarus's entry into the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014, "Sokal" by Nadezhda Misyakova which came in 7th place out of 16th with 71 points

Uzari and Maimuna represented Belarus at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, but failed to qualify for the final. They finished 12th in semi-final 1 (13th Televote/ 8th Jury).

Uzari was born in a family of musicians in the third generation. His mother is a singer, a soloist of the National academic concert orchestra, and his father is a holder of higher musical education in the trumpet class. Uzari studied in several schools: General education, theater and music. In 2008 he entered the St. Petersburg University of culture and arts at the jazz Department and successfully graduated in 2013

In 2008, Uzari started working in the theater "Music Hall" and was seen by the Directors: he played the role of Kai and Raven in the musical "Snow Queen". The first public composition of Yuri was "What is between us", which in 2011 was awarded the "Song of the year of Belarus". In the same year in the summer Uzari became the representative of Belarus at the International competition of young performers of popular music "New wave". Earlier Uzari went to the Eurovision song contest 2011 as a bacing singer Anastasia Vinnikova.

In 2012 and 2013 Uzari participated in the selection for Eurovision and reached the finals with the songs "The Winner" and "Secret". In 2014, he became a producer, composer and arranger of the song "Sokal", which Nadezhda Misyakova performed at the Junior Eurovision song contest. Finally, in 2015 Uzari together with Belarusian violinist Maimuna presented Belarus at Eurovision 2015 with the song "Time". Although the song did not reach the final, Uzari said that the Eurovision song contest was "only one of the European competitions", which was a big and significant step for him.

Uzari is the winner of the award of ONT channel "Song of the year of Belarus" (2011-2016). In 2016, he founded his production company "Art Platform". In the same year, Yuri took part in the Ukrainian TV show "Voice of the country" (Ukrainian version of the show The Voice), hitting the team of Tina Karol.

Debuting/Withdrawing
No countries withdrew or debuted.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 37th edition.

Semi Finals
On May 31, 2020 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås has revealed the running order of both semi finals.

The big 6 members are assigned to a semi final where they have to vote.

A total of 21 countries compete in each semi final and 10 countries qualify in both.

Semi Final 1
In this semi final 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, 🇳🇿 New Zealand and 🇨🇦 Canada have to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands, 🇮🇹 Italy and 🇨🇿 Czech Republic had to vote.

Grand Final
On May 24, 2020 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås had revealed the running order of the Grand Final.