Mystical Song Contest 34

The Mystical Song Contest #34 (also known as MSC 34) is the thirty-fourth edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Ottawa, 🇨🇦 Canada after The Weeknd won in New York, 🇺🇸 United States.

It was confirmed that 48 countries participated in the 34th edition. No countries returned, withdrew, or debuted

The top 6 of last edition 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇵🇹 Portugal, 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇧🇾 Belarus, 🇸🇪 Sweden and 🇮🇪 Ireland 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.

Ottawa
Ottawa (/ˈɒtəwə/ (listen), /ˈɒtəwɑː/; French pronunciation: ​[ɔtawa]) is the capital city of Canada. It stands on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA) and the National Capital Region (NCR). As of 2016, Ottawa had a city population of 934,243 and a metropolitan population of 1,323,783 making it the fourth-largest city and the fifth-largest CMA in Canada. In June 2019, the City of Ottawa estimated it had surpassed a population of a million.

Founded in 1826 as Bytown, and incorporated as Ottawa in 1855, the city has evolved into the political centre of Canada. Its original boundaries were expanded through numerous annexations and were ultimately replaced by a new city incorporation and amalgamation in 2001 which significantly increased its land area. The city name "Ottawa" was chosen in reference to the Ottawa River, the name of which is derived from the Algonquin Odawa, meaning "to trade".

Ottawa has the most educated population among Canadian cities and is home to a number of post-secondary, research, and cultural institutions, including the National Arts Centre, the National Gallery, and numerous national museums.

With the draining of the Champlain Sea around ten thousand years ago, the Ottawa Valley became habitable. Local populations used the area for wild edible harvesting, hunting, fishing, trade, travel, and camps for over 6500 years. The Ottawa river valley has archeological sites with arrow heads, pottery, and stone tools. Three major rivers meet within Ottawa, making it an important trade and travel area for thousands of years. The Algonquins called the Ottawa River Kichi Sibi or Kichissippi meaning "Great River" or "Grand River".

Étienne Brûlé, widely regarded as the first European to travel up the Ottawa River, passed by Ottawa in 1610 on his way to the Great Lakes. Three years later, Samuel de Champlain wrote about the waterfalls in the area and about his encounters with the Algonquins, who had been using the Ottawa River for centuries. Many missionaries would follow the early explorers and traders. The first maps of the area used the word Ottawa, derived from the Algonquin word adawe ("to trade", used in reference to the area's importance to First Nations traders), to name the river. Philemon Wright, a New Englander, created the first European settlement in the area on 7 March 1800 on the north side of the river, across from the present-day city of Ottawa in Hull. He, with five other families and twenty-five labourers, set about to create an agricultural community called Wrightsville. Wright pioneered the Ottawa Valley timber trade (soon to be the area's most significant economic activity) by transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Quebec City. Bytown, Ottawa's original name, was founded as a community in 1826 when hundreds of land speculators were attracted to the south side of the river when news spread that British authorities were immediately constructing the northerly end of the Rideau Canal military project at that location. The following year, the town was named after British military engineer Colonel John By who was responsible for the entire Rideau Waterway construction project.

Host of the show
On April 15, 2020 it was announced that The Weeknd was the host of Mystical Song Contest 34.

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer.

The Weeknd began his recording career in 2010, anonymously uploading several songs to YouTube. A year later, he released the mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, and quickly earned a following and critical recognition from several mainstream publications due to his dark style of R&B and the mystique surrounding his identity. In 2012, The Weeknd signed with Republic Records, and re-released the mixtapes as part of the compliation album Trilogy (2012), which went triple platinum in the U.S.

He followed it with his debut studio album Kiss Land (2013), and followed that with Beauty Behind the Madness (2015); the latter became a global bestseller, and contained the number-one singles "Can't Feel My Face" and "The Hills". Beauty Behind the Madness also won Best Urban Contemporary Album and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 56th Grammy Awards. The Weeknd's third album, Starboy (2016), spawned similar commercial success, including the number-one single of the same name, while it also won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 60th Grammy Awards. His fourth album, After Hours (2020), was critically acclaimed, and featured the number-one singles "Heartless" and "Blinding Lights".

The Weeknd has won three Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, nine Juno Awards, and has been nominated for an Academy Award. He holds several chart records, being the first artist to simultaneously hold the top three positions on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart with "Can't Feel My Face", "Earned It", and "The Hills". As a businessman, he founded the record label XO in 2012, while his other ventures include fashion design and esports. One of the most successful Canadian recording artists, The Weeknd was awarded the Allan Slaight Award by Canada's Walk of Fame for "making a positive impact in the fields of music, film, literature, visual or performing arts, sports, innovation or philanthropy".

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born on February 16, 1990 in Toronto, Ontario, and was raised in the district of Scarborough, in the city's east end. He is the only child of Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye, who were Ethiopian immigrants to Canada in the late 1980s.

Tesfaye was raised by his grandmother and mother after his parents split up. While living with his grandmother Tesfaye learned Amharic, which he also spoke with his mother, and attended Ethiopian Orthodox church services. When asked about his father in an interview, Tesfaye stated: "I saw him vaguely when I was six, and then again when I was 11 or 12, and he had a new family and kids. I don't even know where he lived — I'd see him for, like, a night. I'm sure he's a great guy. I never judged him. He wasn't abusive, he wasn't an alcoholic, he wasn't an asshole. He just wasn't there."

Tesfaye describes his teenage years as the film "Kids without the AIDS". Tesfaye states he began smoking marijuana at age 11, and later moved on to harder drugs. Tesfaye claims he often shoplifted to supplement his use of ecstasy, oxycodone, xanax, cocaine, psilocybin, and ketamine.

Tesfaye attended West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, from which he did not graduate, leaving altogether in 2007, after which he also left home. Tesfaye moved to the Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto. Tesfaye has credited his stage name as being inspired by his high school dropout status, claiming "after [he] left one weekend and never came home", though producer Jeremy Rose claims the name was his idea. The spelling was modified in order to avoid trademark issues with the Canadian band The Weekend.

Debuting/Withdrawing
No countries withdrew or debuted.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 34th edition.

Semi Finals
On April 16, 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 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇷🇴 Romania and 🇸🇪 Sweden had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇵🇹 Portugal, 🇧🇾 Belarus and 🇮🇪 Ireland had to vote.

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