Mystical Song Contest 17

The Mystical Song Contest #17 (also known as MSC 17) was the sixteenth edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Sofia, 🇧🇬 Bulgaria after 4 Magic won in Canberra, 🇦🇺 Australia.

It was confirmed that 42 countries will participate in the 17th edition. No one debuted, returned or withdrew.

The top 6 of last edition 🇧🇬 Bulgaria, 🇨🇾 Cyprus, 🇲🇹 Malta, 🇯🇵 Japan, 🇦🇱 Albania and 🇷🇴 Romania were automatically pre qualified for the Grand Final of this edition. The 36 others participating countries were split into 2 semi finals.

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

Sofia
Sofia (/ˈsoʊfiə, ˈsɒf-, soʊˈfiːə/ SOH-fee-ə, SOF-; Bulgarian: София, romanized: Sofiya, IPA: [ˈsɔfijɐ] (listen)) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. The city is at the foot of Vitosha Mountain in the western part of the country. Being in the centre of the Balkans, it is midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and closest to the Aegean Sea.

Sofia is the 15th largest city in the European Union. The city is surrounded by mountains, such as mountain Vitosha by the southern side, Lyulin by the western side, and the Balkan Mountains by the north, which makes it the 2nd highest European capital after Madrid. The city is built on the Iskar river, and has many mineral springs, such as the Sofia Central Mineral Baths. Sofia has a humid continental climate.

Sofia has been described as the 'triangle of religious tolerance'. This is due to the fact that three colossal temples of the three world major religions - Christianity, Islam and Judaism, reside inside the borders of the city, which are the Sveta Nedelya Church, Banya Bashi Mosque and Sofia Synagogue.

Being Bulgaria's primate city, Sofia is a hometown of many of the major local universities, cultural institutions and commercial companies. Sofia is one of the top 10 best places for start-up businesses in the world, especially in information technologies. Sofia was Europe's most affordable capital to visit in 2013. In 1979, the Boyana Church in Sofia was included onto the World Heritage List, and it was deconstructed in the Second Bulgarian Empire, holding a lot of symbolic heritage to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

With its cultural significance in Eastern Europe, Sofia is home to the National Opera and Ballet of Bulgaria, the National Palace of Culture, the Vasil Levski National Stadium, the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the National Archaeological Museum, and the Serdica Amphitheatre. The Museum of Socialist Art includes a lot of sculptures and posters that educate visitors about the lifestyle in communist Bulgaria.

The population of Sofia declined down from 70,000 in the late 18th century, through 19,000 in 1870, to 11,649 in 1878 and began increasing. Sofia hosts some 1.23 million residents within a territory of 492 km2, a concentration of 17.5% of the country population within the 200th percentile of the country territory. The urban area of Sofia hosts some 1.54 million residents within 5723 km², which comprises Sofia City Province and parts of Sofia Province (Dragoman, Slivnitsa, Kostinbrod, Bozhurishte, Svoge, Elin Pelin, Gorna Malina, Ihtiman, Kostenets) and Pernik Province (Pernik, Radomir), representing 5.16% of the country territory. The metropolitan area of Sofia is based upon one hour of car travel time, stretches internationally and includes Dimitrovgrad in Serbia. Unlike most European metropolitan areas, it is not to be defined as a substantially functional metropolitan area, but is of the type with "limited variety of functions". The metropolitan region of Sofia is inhabited by a population of 1.68 million and is made up of the whole provinces Sofia City, Sofia and Pernik, comprising more than 10,000 km².

Host of the show
On March 30, 2019 it was announced that Nina Dobrev will be the host of the Mystical Song Contest 17.

Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva ( pronounced [ˈnikolinɐ ˈdɔbrɛvɐ]; born January 9, 1989), known professionally as Nina Dobrev (/ˈdoʊbrɛv/ DOH-brev), is a Canadian actress. Her first acting role was as Mia Jones in the drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation. She later became known for portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce on The CW's supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries.

Dobrev has also appeared in several feature films, including the 2012 coming-of-age drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the 2014 action comedy Let's Be Cops, the 2015 horror comedy The Final Girls, the 2017 action thriller XXX: Return of Xander Cage, and the 2017 science-fiction drama Flatliners.

She was born in Bulgaria but immigrated with her family to Canada at age two and grew up in Toronto. She studied sociology at Ryerson University, but left early to pursue her acting career. Dobrev lives in Los Angeles.

Dobrev was born Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva in Sofia, Bulgaria, and moved to Canada at age two, where she was raised in Toronto, Ontario. She has an older brother, Aleksandar Dobrev. Her father, Kamen Dobrev, is a computer specialist and her mother, Michaela Dobreva (née Radeva), is an artist.

Dobrev attended Vradenburg Junior Public School and J. B. Tyrrell Sr. Public School, where she started ballet and jazz classes and competed in rhythmic gymnastics. She took acting classes at Armstrong Acting Studios in Toronto. Dobrev subsequently attended the arts program at Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Scarborough until her graduating year.

Dobrev entered post-secondary studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, majoring in Sociology, though her pursuit of an acting career prevented her from graduating.

Dobrev speaks English, French and Bulgarian. While filming The Vampire Diaries, Dobrev lived in Atlanta, but moved to Los Angeles after leaving the series in 2015.

Dobrev's first major acting role was as Mia on the teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation, a role she played for three seasons starting in 2006. She appeared in several feature films in the mid-2000s, including Fugitive Pieces and Away from Her. Dobrev also headlined a number of television films, including Sci Fi Channel's Never Cry Werewolf, MTV's The American Mall, and two Lifetime original movies. In 2007 she appeared in the music video of "You Got That Light" performed by Wade Allain-Marcus and David Baum.

Debuting/Withdrawing
On March 30, 2019 it was announced that no countries will withdraw/debut in the 17th edition.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 17th edition.

Semi Finals
On April 1, 2019 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås had 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 18 countries competed in each semi final and 10 countries qualified in both.

Semi Final 1
In this semi final 🇧🇬 Bulgaria, 🇲🇹 Malta and 🇷🇴 Romania have to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇨🇾 Cyprus, 🇯🇵 Japan and 🇦🇱 Albania have to vote.

Grand Final
On April 5, 2019 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås had revealed the running order of the grand final.