Mystical Song Contest 27

The Mystical Song Contest #27 (also known as MSC 27) was the twenty-seventh edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Cork, 🇮🇪 Ireland after Empara Mi won in Skopje, 🇲🇰 North Macedonia.

It was confirmed that 48 countries participated in the 27th edition. No one one debuted, returned or withdrew.

The top 6 of last edition 🇮🇪 Ireland, The Netherlands, 🇰🇷 South Korea, 🇳🇿 New Zealand, 🇸🇬 Singapore and 🇲🇰 North Macedonia 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.

Cork
Cork (/kɔːrk/; Irish: Corcaigh, pronounced [ˈkoɾkɪɟ], from corcach, meaning marsh) is the second largest city in Ireland. Located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster, since an extension to the city's boundary in 2019, its population is c.210,000.

The city centre is an island positioned between two channels of the River Lee which meet downstream at the eastern end of the city centre, where the quays and docks along the river lead outwards towards Lough Mahon and Cork Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in the world.

Originally a monastic settlement, Cork was expanded by Viking invaders around 915. Its charter was granted by Prince John in 1185. Cork city was once fully walled, and the remnants of the old medieval town centre can be found around South and North Main streets. The third largest city by population on the island of Ireland, the city's cognomen of the rebel city originates in its support for the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses. Corkonians sometimes refer to the city as the real capital, a reference to its opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the Irish Civil War.

Cork was originally a monastic settlement, reputedly founded by Saint Finbarr in the 6th century. Cork achieved an urban character at some point between 915 and 922 when Norseman (Viking) settlers founded a trading port. It has been proposed that, like Dublin, Cork was an important trading centre in the global Scandinavian trade network. The ecclesiastical settlement continued alongside the Viking longphort, with the two developing a type of symbiotic relationship; the Norsemen providing otherwise unobtainable trade goods for the monastery, and perhaps also military aid.

The city's charter was granted by Prince John, as Lord of Ireland, in 1185. The city was once fully walled, and some wall sections and gates remain today. For much of the Middle Ages, Cork city was an outpost of Old English culture in the midst of a predominantly hostile Gaelic countryside and cut off from the English government in the Pale around Dublin. Neighbouring Gaelic and Hiberno-Norman lords extorted Black Rent from the citizens to keep them from attacking the city. The present extent of the city has exceeded the medieval boundaries of the Barony of Cork City; it now takes in much of the neighbouring Barony of Cork. Together, these baronies are located between the Barony of Barrymore to the east, Muskerry East to the west and Kerrycurrihy to the south.

Hosts of the show
On November 9, 2019 it was announced that Laoise & Niall Horan were the hosts of Mystical Song Contest 27.

Laoise is a 22-year-old electropop artist from Galway, Ireland.

She was born on January 20, 1997.

Niall James Horan (/ˈnaɪəl ˈhɒrən/; born 13 September 1993) is an Irish singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence as a member of the band One Direction. In 2010, Horan auditioned as a solo contestant for British singing competition The X Factor. After being eliminated as solo performers, Niall, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Harry Styles were put together in a band.

Following the band's hiatus in 2016, Horan signed a recording deal as a solo artist with Capitol Records. His singles This Town and Slow Hands from his debut studio album Flicker (2017) reached the top 20 in several countries. The album debuted at number one in Ireland and the United States, as well as charting within the top three in Australia and the UK. He embarked on the Flicker Sessions tour (2017) and the Flicker World Tour (2018) to support the album. Niall James Horan was born on 13 September 1993 in Mullingar, Ireland. He has an older brother, Greg Horan. His parents, Bobby Horan and Maura Gallagher, divorced when he was five years old, so he and his brother, Greg, lived with their mother for a year. After spending a year apart from their father, they later decided to move in with him. He had asthma as a child. He attended St. Kenny's National School, a primary school, and Coláiste Mhuire, a Catholic boys school, which are both located in Mullingar.

Horan tried to play the guitar that his brother got for Christmas, but was not able to play it. Horan, then aged 11, taught himself how to play the guitar by following YouTube tutorials. His aunt discovered his talent one day when she was in the car with Niall as he started singing. She originally thought the radio was on. As a teenager, he performed at the Mullingar Arts Centre during a fund-raiser for the local football team, the Shamrocks. He was also bagging a support slot with former X Factor contestant Lloyd Daniels at the Academy club in Dublin.

In 2010, at sixteen years old, Horan auditioned for the seventh series of The X Factor in Dublin. He sang So Sick and received mixed comments from the judges. Louis Walsh was in his favour, but Cheryl Cole and guest judge Katy Perry felt that he needed some time to grow. Simon Cowell voted to let him through, Cole said no, Walsh said yes, and Perry decided to vote yes. Horan was then put through to bootcamp.

At bootcamp, he sang Champagne Supernova, but failed to qualify for the category. After a suggestion from guest judge Nicole Scherzinger, Horan was put in a group with four boys who also failed to move on in the competition, and since they were too good to let go, the judges decided to agree with Scherzinger. Horan along with Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik formed One Direction. Styles came up with the band name, which he thought would sound good when announcer Peter Dickson read their name out on the live shows.

The group got together for two weeks to get to know each other and to practice. For their qualifying song at the judges' houses and their first song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of Torn. Simon Cowell later commented that the performance convinced him that the group were confident, fun, like a gang of friends, and kind of fearless as well. Within the first four weeks of the live shows, they were Cowell's last act in the competition. During the competition, the band performed different songs such as Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You and Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart, quickly gaining popularity in the Silver Islands. They finished in 3rd place, behind runner-up Rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt Cardle.

Following The X Factor, One Direction was signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco record contract. They began recording their debut album in Los Angeles in January 2011. That February, a book licensed by One Direction, One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), was released and topped The Sunday Times' Best Seller list. That same month, the band and other contestants from the series participated in The X Factor Live Tour. During the tour, the group performed for 500,000 people throughout the UK. After the tour concluded in April, the group continued working on their debut album. Recording took place in Stockholm, London, and Los Angeles, as One Direction worked with producers such as Carl Falk, Savan Kotecha, Steve Mac, and Rami Yacoub.

One Direction's debut single, What Makes You Beautiful, was released in September 2011. A global and commercial success, the song reached number one in several countries. Subsequent singles, Gotta Be You, One Thing, and More than This, had moderate success, with the first two becoming top ten hits in the UK.

Debuting/Withdrawing
On November 9, 2019 it was announced that no countries debuted/withdrew in the 27th edition.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 27th edition.

Semi Finals
On November 11, 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 🇰🇷 South Korea, 🇸🇬 Singapore and 🇲🇰 North Macedonia had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇮🇪 Ireland, The Netherlands and 🇳🇿 New Zealand had to vote.

Grand Final
On November 21, 2019 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the grand final.