Mystical Song Contest 1

The Mystical Song Contest #1 (also known as MSC 1) was the first edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Paris, 🇫🇷 France.

It was confirmed that 42 countries participated in the 1st edition. The participants were the 42 founding countries of the Mystical Broadcasting Union (MBU).

The prequalified countries for the first edition were decided by the creator of the contest, ESC Thømås. He decided that the top 6 of the previous edition will be prequalified. For the first edition, 🇧🇪 Belgium, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇫🇷 France, 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇪🇸 Spain and 🇨🇭 Switzerland were chosen as the prequalified countries of the contest.

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

Paris
Paris ( French pronunciation: ​[paʁi] (listen)) is the capital and most populous city of France, with a population of 2,148,271 residents (official estimate, 1 January 2020) in an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles). Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science and the arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2020 population of 12,278,210, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion ($808 billion) in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018.

The city is a major railway, highway and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle (the second busiest airport in Europe) and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily; it is the second busiest metro system in Europe after the Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, but the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is especially known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was among most visited art museums in the world in 2019, with 9.6 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay, Musée Marmottan Monet, and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe, and the Musée Rodin and Musée Picasso exhibit the works of the two noted Parisians. The historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site, and popular landmarks in the city centre included the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, now closed for renovation after the 15 April 2019 fire. Other popular tourist sites include the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité; the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889; the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, built for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900; the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, and the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur on the hill of Montmartre.

Paris received 24.5 million visitors in 2018, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and China. It was ranked as the second most visited travel destination in the world in 2018, after Bangkok. The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris. The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. The city hosted the Olympic Games in 1900, 1924 and will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, as well as the 1960, 1984 and 2016 UEFA European Championships were also held in the city; every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes there.

Host of the show
On May 1, 2018 it was announced that Amir was the host of Mystical Song Contest 1.

Laurent Amir Khlifa Khedider Haddad (Hebrew: לורן עמיר חליפה חדידר חדד‎, born 20 June 1984 in Paris, France), better known as Amir Haddad (Hebrew: עמיר חדד‎), or simply as Amir, is a French-Israeli singer and songwriter. He took part in 2006 in the Israeli music competition Kokhav Nolad, released his album Vayehi in 2011 and was a finalist in French competition The Voice: la plus belle voix as part of Team Jenifer finishing third in the competition. He represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "J'ai cherché", which finished in 6th place.

Haddad was born in Paris, France to Maghrebi Jewish parents from Tunisia and Morocco. He grew up in Sarcelles (Val-d'Oise) and immigrated to Israel in 1992 at the age of 8 as part of Aliyah residing in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv district. He sang as a young child in the synagogue and in various social events.

Amir was born with a hearing loss of 50% and only hears the left side.

He came to fame in 2006 with his participation in the fourth season of the Israeli song competition Kokhav Nolad (in Hebrew כוכב נולד meaning A Star is Born), the Israeli equivalent of the Pop Idol held May to September 2006. He was the first candidate to sing mostly French language songs during the audition. He advanced for 4 stages before being eliminated.

The series was won by Jacko Eisenberg. Not winning in the season, he finished his obligatory military service in the Israeli Defence Forces and continued his studies in dentistry in Hebrew University of Jerusalem graduating in 2012. His song "Kache limtso milim", the Hebrew version of Patrick Bruel's French hit "J'te l'dis quand même", came alongside a music video. Bruel loved Amir's rendition so much he invited him to sing it with him in a grand event in Raanana Park on 23 May 2008 in front of 8000 spectators. He sang it yet again much later in 2013, during the gala in tribute of Anaelle Ledoroth in Paris on 27 May 2013.

In 2011, Amir Haddad released his debut studio album Vayehi co-written by himself and Omri Dagan during the years when Amir was a university student. The album included his already popular version of "Kache limtso milim". He also revived a 1990s hit "Désenchantée" by French artist Mylène Farmer. Haddad's version was produced by the famous Israeli producer Offer Nissim. Meanwhile, he pursued his passion in music.

At the end of the competition, Haddad was signed to a French label, creating a following in France, Switzerland, the United States and Brazil in addition to Israel. He cooperated with a number of artists, notably Shlomi Shabat, Haim Moshe, Dudu Aharon, Gad Elbaz and Eyal Golan.

Semi Finals
On May 1, 2018 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 18 countries competed in each semi final and 10 countries qualified in both.

Semi Final 1
In this semi final 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany and 🇨🇭 Switzerland had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇧🇪 Belgium and 🇪🇸 Spain had to vote.

Grand Final
On May 5, 2018 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the Grand Final.