Mystical Song Contest 45

The Mystical Song Contest #45 (also known as MSC 45) was the forty-fifth edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Cluj-Napoca, 🇷🇴 Romania after Karmen ft. Bruja won in Turku, 🇫🇮 Finland.

It was confirmed that 48 countries participate in the 45th edition. No withdrawing, returning or debuting.

The top 6 of last edition 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇷🇺 Russia, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, 🇫🇷 France, 🇸🇪 Sweden and 🇧🇬 Bulgaria were automatically pre qualified for the Grand Final of this edition. The 42 others participating countries were split into 2 semi final.

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

Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca ( Romanian: [ˈkluʒ naˈpoka] (listen); German: Klausenburg; Hungarian: Kolozsvár [ˈkoloʒvaːr] (listen)), commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (324 kilometres (201 miles)), Budapest (351 km (218 mi)) and Belgrade (322 km (200 mi)). Located in the Someșul Mic river valley, the city is considered the unofficial capital to the historical province of Transylvania. From 1790 to 1848 and from 1861 to 1867, it was the official capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania.

As of 2011, 324,576 inhabitants lived within the city limits (making it the country's second most populous at the time, after the national capital Bucharest), marking a slight increase from the figure recorded at the 2002 census. The Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area has a population of 411,379 people, while the population of the peri-urban area (Romanian: zona periurbană) exceeds 420,000 residents. The new metropolitan government of Cluj-Napoca became operational in December 2008. According to a 2007 estimate provided by the County Population Register Service, the city hosts a visible population of students and other non-residents—an average of over 20,000 people each year during 2004–2007. The city spreads out from St. Michael's Church in Unirii Square, built in the 14th century and named after the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Cluj-Napoca. The boundaries of the municipality contain an area of 179.52 square kilometres (69.31 sq mi).

Cluj-Napoca experienced a decade of decline during the 1990s, its international reputation suffering from the policies of its mayor at the time, Gheorghe Funar. Today, the city is one of the most important academic, cultural, industrial and business centres in Romania. Among other institutions, it hosts the country's largest university, Babeș-Bolyai University, with its botanical garden; nationally renowned cultural institutions; as well as the largest Romanian-owned commercial bank. Cluj-Napoca held the titles of European Youth Capital in 2015 and European City of Sport in 2018.

On the site of the city was a pre-Roman settlement named Napoca. After the AD 106 Roman conquest of the area, the place was known as Municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napoca. Possible etymologies for Napoca or Napuca include the names of some Dacian tribes such as the Naparis or Napaei, the Greek term napos (νάπος), meaning "timbered valley" or the Indo-European root *snā-p- (Pokorny 971-2), "to flow, to swim, damp".

The first written mention of the city's current name – as a Royal Borough – was in 1213 under the Medieval Latin name Castrum Clus. Despite the fact that Clus as a county name was recorded in the 1173 document Thomas comes Clusiensis, it is believed that the county's designation derives from the name of the castrum, which might have existed prior to its first mention in 1213, and not vice versa. With respect to the name of this camp, it is widely accepted as a derivation from the Latin term clausa – clusa, meaning "closed place", "strait", "ravine". Similar senses are attributed to the Slavic term kluč, meaning "a key" and the German Klause – Kluse (meaning "mountain pass" or "weir"). The Latin and Slavic names have been attributed to the valley that narrows or closes between hills just to the west of Cluj-Mănăștur. An alternative hypothesis relates the name of the city to its first magistrate, Miklus – Miklós / Kolos.

The Hungarian form Kolozsvár, first recorded in 1246 as Kulusuar, underwent various phonetic changes over the years (uar / vár means "castle" in Hungarian); the variant Koloswar first appears in a document from 1332. Its Saxon name Clusenburg/Clusenbvrg appeared in 1348, but from 1408 the form Clausenburg was used. The Romanian name of the city used to be spelled alternately as Cluj or Cluș, the latter being the case in Mihai Eminescu's Poesis. In 1974, the communist authorities added "-Napoca" to the city's name as a nationalist gesture, emphasising its pre-Roman roots. The full name is rarely used outside of official contexts. The nickname "treasure city" was acquired in the late 16th century, and refers to the wealth amassed by residents, including in the precious metals trade. The phrase is kincses város in Hungarian, given in Romanian as orașul comoară.

Other, largely archaic names for the city include Latin Claudiopolis, Italian Clausemburgo, Turkish Kaloşvar and Yiddish קלויזנבורג Kloyznburg or קלאזין Klazin.

Host of the show
On December 1, 2020 it was announced that Ovidiu Cernăuțeanu will be the host of Mystical Song Contest 45.

Ovidiu Cernăuţeanu ( Romanian pronunciation: [oˈvidju t͡ʃernə.uˈt͡se̯anu]; born 23 August 1974), also known by his stage names Ovi Martin, Ovi Jacobsen, or simply Ovi, is a Romanian-Norwegian singer-songwriter, producer and musician. After being raised in Botoșani, he moved to Norway in 1995.

He rose to fame in Norway in 2006 when he first took part in the Melodi Grand Prix 2006 with the song "The Better Side of Me" where he did not qualify to the final. The next year he was a finalist of the Melodi Grand Prix 2009 with the song "Seven Seconds" but lost to Alexander Rybak. In 2010 he participated in the Selecția Națională 2010 for Romania alongside duet partner Paula Seling. They won with the song "Playing with Fire" with which they represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. They qualified for the grand final where they took the third position, only behind winner Germany and runner-up Turkey. After Eurovision, Ovi released a new duet with Seling; "We Got Something".

In 2012 he was back in the Melodi Grand Prix 2012 this time as a songwriter along with Thomas G:son and Tommy Berre for the song "High on Love" as performed by Reidun Sæther. The song qualified for the final. Apart from the European recognition, Ovi has also entered several music charts with songs like "Seven Seconds" (2009), "Playing with Fire" (2010) or "We Got Something" (2011) – the latter two are featuring Paula Seling. He is also the Popularity Award winner of the 2009 Golden Stag Festival in Romania.

In 2014 he returned to Eurovision Song Contest 2014 together with duet partner Paula Seling when they participated for Romania with the song "Miracle". The same year Ovi co-wrote the song She's After My Piano for the group 2 Fabiola who participated in the Belgium national selection for Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The song did not win in Belgium but became a major hit for 2 Fabiola. Later Ovi and Paula Seling recorded their own version of the song for Ovi's album A Bit of Pop Won't Hurt Anyone, 5 May 2014 (daWorks).

Cernăuţeanu represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 (as Ovi) in a duet with Paula Seling. They performed "Playing with Fire", which was composed by Cernăuţeanu himself. They passed the second semi-final, where they were the fourth. In the Grand Final, Seling and Ovi performed the nineteenth (after France and before Russia). At the voting, they got 164 points and classed the third that night, equaling the best result for Romania in the contest. They received 12 points from Moldova, 10 points from United Kingdom, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, etc. Only eight countries did not give the top ten points to them that night.

After Eurovision, Ovi recorded some new materials alongside Paula Seling and they released a duet album entitled Playing with Fire in Romania and Norway exclusively. The album did not fare well and neither did the singles promoted. The title song entered several European charts though, including the famous UK Singles Chart. The A side/B side release "Counting Down"/"Calling You (Hello, Hello)" was a little less successful. It was only promoted in Romania via live performances and the songs received no music video. The latter one entered the Romanian Top 100 in 2011. In late 2011, Ovi started a new musical project with Seling after a short hiatus.

Debuting/Withdrawing
No countries withdrew or debuted.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 45th edition.

Semi Finals
On December 1, 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 🇷🇺 Russia, 🇸🇪 Sweden and 🇧🇬 Bulgaria had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 🇫🇷 France had to vote.

Grand Final
On December 12, 2020 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the Grand Final.