Mystical Song Contest 23

The Mystical Song Contest #23 (also known as MSC 23) was the twenty-third edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, 🇮🇪 Ireland after Jay Pryor ft. Ida won in Tallinn, 🇪🇪 Estonia.

It was confirmed that 48 countries participated in the 23rd edition. 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands debuted. 🇲🇩 Moldova returned while 🇯🇵 Japan and 🇲🇹 Malta withdrew.

The top 6 of last edition 🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇷🇸 Serbia, 🇭🇺 Hungary, 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇳🇿 New Zealand and 🇱🇹 Lithuania 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.

Dublin
Dublin (/ˈdʌblɪn/, locally /ˈdʊb-/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath [ˈbˠalʲə aːhə ˈklʲiə; ˌbʲlʲaː ˈklʲiə]) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on a bay on the east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, it lies within the province of Leinster. It is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin) as of 2016 was 1,347,359. The population of the Greater Dublin Area was 1,904,806 per the 2016 census.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha −, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

The name Dublin derives from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, from dubh ([d̪uβ], [d̪uw], [d̪uː]) meaning black, dark, and lind ([lʲiɲ(d̪ʲ)]) pool, referring to a dark tidal pool. This tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from County Dublin show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn [ˈd̪ˠiːlʲiɲ]. The original pronunciation is preserved in the names for the city in other languages such as Old English Difelin, Old Norse Dyflin, modern Icelandic Dyflinn and modern Manx Divlyn as well as Welsh Dulyn. Other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicised as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b, rendering Duḃlinn or Duiḃlinn. Those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are also found in traditionally Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland (Gàidhealtachd, cognate with Irish Gaeltacht), such as An Linne Dhubh (the black pool), which is part of Loch Linnhe.

Hosts of the show
On July 27, 2019 it was announced that Ryan O'Shaughnessy was the host of Mystical Song Contest 23.

Ryan O'Shaughnessy (born 27 September 1992) is an Irish singer-songwriter and former actor from Loughshinny, Skerries, Dublin. He portrayed Mark Halpin in the popular TV series Fair City for nine years (2001-2010). In January 2012, he appeared in the inaugurative season of The Voice of Ireland and in May 2012, he took part in sixth series of Britain's Got Talent making it to the final and finishing fifth place. He represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song Together finishing 16th.

Ryan was born in 1992 in Loughshinny, a small village in North County Dublin, Ireland. He is the youngest of three children. He has an elder brother named Graham and sister named Apryl. His uncle Gary O'Shaughnessy represented Ireland in Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song Without Your Love.

Ryan studied at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), also undertaking a music course as part of BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) in Dublin, Ireland. He describes himself as a versatile singer. He joined the Billie Barry Stage School when he was 4, and believes this is where he learnt his craft. He plays guitar, piano and saxophone while producing and writing for various artists.

O'Shaughnessy played the role of Mark Halpin, the young son of Marty Halpin (played by Paul Lee) and Tess Halpin (played by Sabina Brennan) in the long-running Irish soap series Fair City. The Halpin family was gradually introduced in the early 2000s. O'Shaughnessy was introduced into the series at age 9 as a child actor portraying Mark. He had two siblings in the series, brother Damien played by Maclean Burke and sister Laura Halpin played by Liana O'Cleirigh.

In the series, his mother Tess becomes a victim of domestic abuse and is ultimately strangled by her husband Marty who goes on to commit suicide after killing her. The children Mark, Damien and Laura are orphaned but continue on the series. O'Shaughnessy continued to act as Mark Halpin in Fair City for nine years from 2001 to 2010, when he was retired at age 18. He was replaced in the series by the actor Cal Kenealy who continued as Mark Halpin, as O'Shaughnessy said he needed to quit preferring to continue with a musical career after nine years of appearing in the series.

On 31 January 2018, O'Shaughnessy was announced as the Irish representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song Together. His entry was co-written by O'Shaughnessy with Mark Caplice and Laura Elizabeth Hughes. The song and the artist were internally selected in January 2018 by the Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) to represent the country at the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal. O'Shaughnessy qualified for the final, after finishing sixth in semi-final 1 with 179 points, making it the first time Ireland qualified to the finals since 2013 with Ryan Dolan.

Debuting/Withdrawing
On July 27, 2019 it was announced that 2 countries withdrew in the 23rd edition.


 * 🇯🇵 Japan : Japan withdrew due to bad results. The last participation of the country was in the 22nd edition.
 * 🇲🇹 Malta : Malta withdrew due to a bad interest of Maltese singers in the contest. The last participation of the country was in the 22nd edition.

It was also announced that 1 country debuted :


 * 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands : KVF the Faroese broadcaster has stated that Faroe Islands gained the full MBU membership and was allowed to debut in the contest to replace Japan.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 23rd edition.

Semi Finals
On July 28, 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 21 countries competed in each semi final and 10 countries qualified in both.

Semi Final 1
In this semi final 🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇭🇺 Hungary and 🇳🇿 New Zealand had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇷🇸 Serbia, 🇪🇸 Spain and 🇱🇹 Lithuania had to vote.

Grand Final
On August 3, 2019 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the grand final.