Mystical Song Contest 23

The Mystical Song Contest #23 (also known as MSC 23) was the twenty-third edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, 🇮🇪 Ireland after Jay Pryor ft. Ida won in Tallinn, 🇪🇪 Estonia.

It was confirmed that 48 countries will participate in the 23rd edition. No one debuted, returned or withdrew.

The top 6 of last edition 🇮🇪 Ireland, 🇷🇸 Serbia, 🇭🇺 Hungary, 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇳🇿 New Zealand and 🇱🇹 Lithuania were automatically pre qualified for the Grand Final of this edition. The 42 others participating countries were split into 2 semi finals.

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

Dublin
Dublin (/ˈdʌblɪn/, locally /ˈdʊb-/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath [ˈbˠalʲə aːhə ˈklʲiə; ˌbʲlʲaː ˈklʲiə]) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on a bay on the east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, it lies within the province of Leinster. It is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin) as of 2016 was 1,347,359. The population of the Greater Dublin Area was 1,904,806 per the 2016 census.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

The name Dublin derives from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, from dubh ([d̪uβ], [d̪uw], [d̪uː]) meaning "black, dark", and lind ([lʲiɲ(d̪ʲ)]) "pool", referring to a dark tidal pool. This tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from County Dublin show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn [ˈd̪ˠiːlʲiɲ]. The original pronunciation is preserved in the names for the city in other languages such as Old English Difelin, Old Norse Dyflin, modern Icelandic Dyflinn and modern Manx Divlyn as well as Welsh Dulyn. Other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicised as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b, rendering Duḃlinn or Duiḃlinn. Those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are also found in traditionally Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland (Gàidhealtachd, cognate with Irish Gaeltacht), such as An Linne Dhubh ("the black pool"), which is part of Loch Linnhe.

Hosts of the show
On July 3, 2019 it was announced that Ryan O'Shaughnessy will be the hosts of the Mystical Song Contest 23.

Ryan O'Shaughnessy (born 27 September 1992) is an Irish singer-songwriter and former actor from Loughshinny, Skerries, Dublin. He portrayed Mark Halpin in the popular TV series Fair City for nine years (2001-2010). In January 2012, he appeared in the inaugurative season of The Voice of Ireland and in May 2012, he took part in sixth series of Britain's Got Talent making it to the final and finishing fifth place. He represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Together" finishing 16th.

Debuting/Withdrawing
On July 3, 2019 it was announced that no countries will withdraw/debut in the 22nd edition.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 22nd edition.

Semi Finals
On July 3, 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 21 countries competed in each semi final and 10 countries qualified in both.