Mystical Song Contest 56

The Mystical Song Contest #56 (also known as MSC 56) was the fifty-sixth edition of the Mystical Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, 🇦🇹 Austria after Idathehoney won in Incheon, 🇰🇷 South Korea.

It was confirmed that 52 countries participated in the 56th edition. No one debuted, withdrew or returned.

The top 6 of last edition 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇲🇩 Moldova, 🇺🇸 United States, 🇮🇩 Indonesia, 🇮🇪 Ireland and 🇭🇷 Croatia were automatically pre qualified for the Grand Final of this edition. The 46 other participating countries were split into 2 semi finals and a Pre-Qualification Round which consists of the countries which ended in the bottom 4 of each semi final of the previous edition.

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

Vienna
Vienna (/viˈɛnə/ (listen); German: Wien [viːn] (listen); Austro-Bavarian: Wean [veɐ̯n]) is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, with about 2 million inhabitants (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger. Additionally, Vienna is known as the "City of Music" due to its musical legacy, as many famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said to be the "City of Dreams", because of it being home to the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.

Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver and San Francisco) for the world's most livable cities. Between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne. Monocle's 2015 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within." Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Vienna fourth on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within" (up from sixth in 2011 and eighth in 2010). The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and sixth globally (out of 256 cities) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index, which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas: culture, infrastructure, and markets. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the world's number-one destination for international congresses and conventions. It attracts over 6.8 million tourists a year.

The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from vedunia, meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German uuenia (wenia in modern writing), the New High German wien and its dialectal variant wean.

Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic extraction Vindobona, probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, vindo-, meaning "bright" or "fair" – as in the Irish fionn and the Welsh gwyn –, and -bona "village, settlement". The Celtic word vindos may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who survives in Irish Mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak and Polish names of the city (Vídeň, Viedeň and Wiedeń respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.

The name of the city in Hungarian (Bécs), Serbo-Croatian (Beč; Cyrillic: Беч) and Ottoman Turkish (Beç) has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.

Host of the show
On September 12, 2021 it was announced that Cesár Sampson will be the host of Mystical Song Contest 56.

Cesár Sampson (born 18 August 1983 in Linz) is an Austrian singer, songwriter, producer, dancer and model. He was also a social worker and fitness coach. He represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Nobody but You", winning the jury vote, coming in 13th place in the televote and finishing in third place overall.

At the age of seventeen, he started touring locally and internationally. He was a backing singer on Austrian version of Dancing With the Stars.

In the music production domain, he is part of the music formation Symphonix or Symphonix International, a musical production and events project, mostly active in Austria, Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. Borislav "Boby" Milanov is the CEO with the other members being Johan Alkenäs, Joacim Persson and Cesár Sampson himself. Symohonix has been involved in launching of a number of songs particularly for Eurovision Song Contest including "Dance Alone" by Macedonian singer Jana Burčeska, "Bones" by Bulgarian band Equinox, "Beautiful Mess" by Bulgarian singer Kristian Kostov and Cesár Sampson's own entry for Austria "Nobody but You".

Sampson also worked with the formation Electric Church.

Sampson performed backing vocals for the Bulgarian acts for two consecutive years in the Eurovision Song Contest. In Eurovision 2016, he was backing Poli Genova in "If Love Was a Crime". The song finished 4th place overall. And in Eurovision 2017, he was Kristian Kostov´s vocal coach and support vocalist for his performance of "Beautiful Mess". The song finished second overall behind the winning song from Portugal.

On 5 December 2017, he was announced as the Austrian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. He sang "Nobody but You". The song is composed by Sampson himself as well as Boris Milanov and Sebastian Arman, who have been involved in the composition of a number of songs for Bulgaria. He went on to win the jury vote with 271 points, but finished third overall, after taking into account the televoting where he ranked 13th with 71 points, thus preserving him the third overall position, with the public vote favouring Israel as the winner and Cyprus as the runner-up. This was the third highest ranking of all Austrian entries after its two Eurovision winning songs, first in Eurovision 1966 with "Merci, Chérie" by Udo Jürgens and 48 years later in Eurovision 2014 with "Rise like a Phoenix" with Conchita Wurst. Later that year, he appeared as a guest star in the Christmas edition of the Spanish TV program Operación Triunfo.

Sampson was born in Linz, Austria. His father is a choreographer and pilates master teacher and introduced pilates in the German-speaking countries.[citation needed] Sampson himself became a personal trainer and strength and mobility coach in pilates. His mother was a pianist, singer and songwriter most famous for co-writing and performing the theme song of the popular Austrian TV series Inspector Rex (German: Kommissar Rex). Sampson is also the nephew of Helen "Pepsi" DeMacque from the 1980s duo Pepsi & Shirlie. He also sang as a lead vocalist for Mike Oldfield.

Sampson worked for many years as a social worker. He studied sports sciences getting a diploma and starting at age 20, he worked for several years as a physical therapist, and in particular, worked with people with disabilities and handicaps. Sampson has done modeling, and is signed to a Slovak model agency. He is a vegetarian.

Debuting/Withdrawing
No countries withdrew or debuted.

Returning Artists
Here is the list of the returning artists for the 56th edition.

Pre-Qualification Round
On September 11, 2021 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the Pre-Qualification round.

Semi Finals
On September 12, 2021 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 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇮🇩 Indonesia and 🇭🇷 Croatia had to vote.

Semi Final 2
In this semi final 🇲🇩 Moldova, 🇺🇸 United States and 🇮🇪 Ireland had to vote.

Grand Final
On September 28, 2021 the supervisor of the contest ESC Thømås revealed the running order of the Grand Final.