Wonderful Song Contest 75

Wonderful Song Contest 75 will be the seventy fifth edition of the Wonderful Song Contest. The contest will take place in Norway after the Norwegian victory in the 74th edition. A total of 50 countries competed in Wonderful Song Contest 74. The 74th edition was won by and their song "Rear View" by Moyka, which got a total of 462 points. Prequalified countries for this edition are:, , , ,  and. They are directly qualified to the final, while the other competing countries are split into two semifinals. The Semi Final allocation draw took place on February 2023 at the WBU headquarters in Prague.

Information


On 21st April 2023 it was announced that Trondheim will serve as the host city of the Wonderful Song Contest 75.

Host City
Trondheim, is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and was the fourth largest urban area. Trondheim lies on the south shore of Trondheim Fjord at the mouth of the River Nidelva. Among the major technology-oriented institutions headquartered in Trondheim are the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF), and St. Olavs University Hospital. The settlement was founded in 997 as a trading post, and it served as the capital of Norway during the Viking Age until 1217. From 1152 to 1537, the city was the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros; it then became, and has remained, the seat of the Lutheran Diocese of Nidaros, and the site of the Nidaros Cathedral. It was incorporated in 1838. The current municipality was formed in 1964, when Trondheim merged with Byneset, Leinstrand, Strinda and Tiller, and further expanded 1 January 2020, when Trondheim merged with Klæbu.

Trondheim has a mild climate for its northerly latitude, resulting in moderate summers and winters that often remain above the freezing point in seaside areas. At higher elevations, though, the microclimate is colder and snowier.

The city functions as the seat of the County Mayor of Trøndelag county, but not as its administrative centre (which is Steinkjer). This is designed to avoid making the county administration too centralized.

Trondheim is home to football club Rosenborg, Norway's most successful team, as well as Granåsen Ski Centre which has hosted the World Championship in Nordic Skiing.

Trondheim was named Kaupangen (English: market place or trading place) by Viking King Olav Tryggvason in 997 CE. Shortly thereafter it came to be called Nidaros. In the beginning it was frequently used as a military retainer (Old Norse: "hird"-man) of King Olav I. It was also frequently used as the seat of the king, and was the capital of Norway until 1217.

People have been living in the region for thousands of years, as evidenced by the rock carvings in central Norway, the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures and the Corded Ware culture. In ancient times, the kings of Norway were hailed in Trondheim at Øretinget, the place for the assembly of all free men by the mouth of the River Nidelva. Harald Fairhair (865–933) was hailed as the king here, as was his son, Haakon I, called 'the Good'. The battle of Kalvskinnet took place in Trondheim in 1179: King Sverre Sigurdsson and his Birkebeiner warriors were victorious against Erling Skakke (a rival to the throne). Some scholars believe that the famous Lewis chessmen, 12th century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory that were found in the Hebrides and are now at the British Museum, may have been made in Trondheim.

From 1152, Trondheim was the seat of the Archbishop of Nidaros for Norway, which operated from the Archbishop's Palace. Due to the introduction of Lutheran Protestantism in 1537, the last archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson, had to flee from the city to the Netherlands; he died in what today is Lier, Belgium.

From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the city was repeatedly ravaged by fires that caused widespread damage, since many of its buildings were made of wood. The worst of these occurred in 1598, 1651, 1681, 1708, 1717 (twice), 1742, 1788, 1841 and 1842. The 1651 fire destroyed 90% of all buildings within the city limits. After the "Horneman Fire" in 1681, there was an almost total reconstruction of the city, overseen by General Johan Caspar von Cicignon, who was originally from Luxembourg. Broad avenues, such as Munkegata, were created, without regard for private property rights, with the aim of limiting the damage from any future fires. At the time, the city had a population of under 10,000 inhabitants, with most living in the downtown area.

After the Treaty of Roskilde on 26 February 1658, Trondheim and the rest of Trøndelag became Swedish territory for a brief period, but the area was reconquered 10 months later. The conflict was finally settled by the Treaty of Copenhagen on 27 May 1660.

During the Second World War, Trondheim was occupied by Nazi Germany from 9 April 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway, until the end of the war in Europe, 8 May 1945. The German invasion force consisted of the German cruiser Admiral Hipper, 4 destroyers and 1700 Austrian Mountain troops. Except for a coastal battery that opened fire, there was no resistance to the invasion, which began on 9 April at 5 AM. On 14 and 17 April, British and French forces landed near Trondheim in a failed attempt to liberate Trondheim, as part of the Namsos Campaign. During the occupation, Trondheim was the home of the notorious Norwegian Gestapo agent, Henry Rinnan, who operated from a nearby villa and infiltrated Norwegian resistance groups. The city and its citizens were subjected to harsh treatment by the occupying power, including the imposition of martial law in October 1942. During this time, the Germans turned the city and its environs into a major base for submarines (which included building the large submarine base and bunker DORA I), and contemplated a scheme to build a new city for 300,000 inhabitants, Nordstern ("Northern Star"), centred 15 kilometres (9 miles) southwest of Trondheim, near the wetlands of Øysand on the outskirts of Melhus municipality. This new metropolis was to be accompanied by a massively expanded version of the already existing naval base, which was intended to become the future primary stronghold of the German Kriegsmarine. A start was made on this enormous construction project, but it was far from completed when the war ended, and today, there are few physical remains of it.

Bidding phase
Only one main venue was announced as possible venue for the competition to be held. It has a capacity of 20,000 and several big concerts and sport events take place here.
 * The host city had to be near a major airport.
 * The venue must be available for at least six weeks before the contest and one week after the conclusion of the contest
 * The venue must not be open-air, but an air-conditioned building with a capacity of at least 10,000 and a minimum ceiling height of 15 metres (49 ft), insulated for sound and light.
 * The green room must be located as close to the arena as possible (or within it), with a capacity of 300.

Presenter(s)
On 2 April 2023 it was announced that Eden Alene, Assi Azir, Ella Lee will be presenters of the Wonderful Song Contest 74.

Eden Alene (born 7 May 2000) is an Israeli singer. Having won the seventh season of the singing competition HaKokhav HaBa, she had been set to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, with her song "Feker Libi", planned to be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. After the cancellation of the 2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was internally chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, this time with "Set Me Free". Alene was born in the neighborhood of Katamon in Jerusalem, to Ethiopian-Jewish parents who immigrated separately to Israel during the aliyah from Ethiopia. When she was two years old her parents divorced. Since then, she has not been in contact with her father. Alene attended religious Jewish elementary school and middle school, although she then attended the secular Jewish high school of the Hebrew University Secondary School and majored in theatre. She was enlisted in October 2018 as a soldier in to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and served in the military band of the Education and Youth Corps. She received an honorable discharge in October 2020. She was in a relationship with her Israeli boyfriend, Yonatan Gabay. The two broke up in February 2022. As of 2022, Alene had stopped working in the music industry, and currently works as a hostess in a restaurant in Tel Aviv.

Assi Azar (born 10 June 1979) is an Israeli television host. Assi Azar was born in Holon, Israel. He is of Bukharan-Jewish and Yemenite descent. In 2005, Azar came out as gay. Shortly after, he began to create the documentary film, Mom and Dad: I Have Something to Tell You. On 11 April 2016, Azar married his Spanish boyfriend Albert Escolà Benet at a ceremony in Barcelona. Azar is an LGBT rights advocate. In 2009, he was listed among the most 100 influential gay people in the world by OUT Magazine. In January 2022, the actor Yehuda Nahari alleged that Azar sexually harassed him during a job interview at Azar's home. He co-hosted Big Brother - Israel with Erez Tal until 2015 and The Next Star with Rotem Sela. He is also the creator of the romantic comedy TV series, Beauty and the Baker. His first program was online TV show KIK. In 2004–2005 Assi co-hosted TV youth show Exit. Later he participated in the programs The Show], Good Evening with Guy Pines and The Champion: Locker Room, as well as the satirical programs Trapped 24 and Talk to My Agent. Azar hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv alongside Lucy Ayoub, Erez Tal and Bar Refaeli. It was reported that Tal and Refaeli would be the main hosts, while Azar and Ayoub would host the green room. On 28 January, Azar and Ayoub hosted the contest's semi-final allocation draw at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Ella-Lee Lahav (born 2 June 2003), known as Ella-Lee, is an Israeli singer. In 2019 she became famous following her second place at the seventh season of Israel's HaKokhav HaBa LaErovizion (Rising Star to the Eurovision), the Israeli national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. In June 2020, on her 17th birthday, she released her debut single "Zot Ani", the single was ranking high on the Apple UK playlist and topped the Media Forest airplay chart. Ella Lahav was born and raised in Shoham, Israel, to a family of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Her parents are Yannai and Hagit, and she has two sisters. Towards an appearance in television singing competition she changed her first name from Ella to Ella-Lee, after consultation with a numerologist. In February 2022, she was enlisted to the Israel Defense Forces.



Provisitation list of Participants

 * Countries are in Prequalification Round next edition
 * Countries qualified to the grand final or semifinal
 * Country have won current edition
 * Country have finished on second place current edition
 * Country have finished on third place current edition
 * Country have finished on last place current editions final
 * Country have been disqualified from current editions final or semifinal
 * Country have in the final qualified to the semifinals or final

All Songs
All countries had to present their songs until 23rd April 2023 at 22:00 CEST.

First Semifinal
The deadline to vote in semifinals is 3 May 2023 at 22:00 CET. , and  have to vote in this semifinal.

Second Semifinal
The deadline to vote in semifinals is 3 May 2023 at 22:00 CET. , and  have to vote in this semifinal.

Grand Final
The deadline to vote in semifinals is 3 May 2023 at 22:00 CET. All countries from this edition have to vote in this grand final.