Rules of Sentile Song Contest

The official rules for the Sentile Song Contest can be found here, and all SBU countries are expected to follow these while participating in the contest.

How To Join The Contest
You can found it on this page.

Format
The contest will consist of a grand final, and in the case where there are more participants than can reasonably compete in one show, semi-finals will be introduced. The winning country will host the next edition and therefore be pre-qualified to the final as the hosts. In those cases where a country decline to host the contest, they can become pre-qualified as the winning country along with the host of that respective edition.

Everyone can compete in the contest (no limit). The amount of participating countries decide whether there will be a semi-final or not, and how many semi-finals, qualifiers and automatic finalists there will be:

Entries
Each participating country can send no more than one song per edition. It must also fit the following criteria:


 * It must be at least two minutes in length, and no longer than ten minutes in total. Exceptions can be made, however, permission must be approved first.
 * The song must not have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest or in a national final, also the sonf can't be cover, worldchart or overused.
 * The song cannot have been performed in the Sentile Song Content before, including if the song has been sung by a different artist.
 * Youtube links must be provided for the song you are submitting, which must consist of an official music video or lyric video or audio video if the music video is banned.
 * Songs with more than 100 million views on YouTube will not be allowed unless it is really unknown for most of us. This means that songs that can be famous in a specific country can be allowed despite having more than 100 million views.

Artists

 * An artist cannot be sent twice in the same contest. In the event of a dispute, the Reference Group of the SBU will reach a verdict - taking into account the time of submission, relevant wiki pages, and country info.
 * The artists can't be worldchart, overused or who already completed the Eurovision Song Cobtest.
 * There are no limits to how many times an artist can participate in the contest. But there are limitations when it comes to how often an artist can participate in the contest.

Selection
An entry can be selected either internally or by a national selection format. Each broadcaster is free to decide how they will select their entry.

The only rules regarding national selection events are that songs must abide with the contest rules, and in the event that international juries are asked to help with the national choice, their votes must not be tampered with. Any system of voting can be used in National Finals - be it a preferential ranking of the entries by televoting or juries (or a mixture of both), a tournament-style final, or something else. The host broadcaster is given full flexibility with the running of these programs, however voting from other users is optional and cannot be made compulsory.

Voting
All participating countries must vote before the given deadline or may incur penalties such as point reductions, disqualifications and withdrawal from the contest. This includes countries who have not qualified for final. The voting system in place for Sentile Song Contest is 12, 10, 8-1 points to the ten favourite songs. A country cannot vote for its own entry and cannot give two different points to a country.

Voting must be fair, free, and transparent. Members are absolutely not permitted to discuss their votes before they have been officially revealed and may face consequences if these rules are breached. They must also not try to influence the vote of other members or face permanent removal from the contest. When friend voting will happen again and again, then the SBU will remind them but if they continue it, then they may will be disqualified and banned from editions.

All direct finalists are obliged to vote in at least one of the two semi-finals, failing to do so will result in a disqualification of their entry.

Winning
The country with the highest score at the end of the contest will be crowned the winner of that edition. In the event of a tie, then a tie-breaker counts the total number of 12s received. Tie-breaks continue with ten points, eight points, and so on until the tie is resolved.

If the tie cannot be resolved after the number of countries which assigned one point to the song is equal, the song performed earlier in the running order is declared the winner unless the host country performed earlier (in which case the song performed later would be the winner). The same method will be used for other ties within the scoreboard.

Failing to vote
Strikes is a punishment given by the SBU to countries who fail to submit their votes:
 * Ban from one edition, if the country failed to vote in the final.
 * Ban from two edition, if the country failed to vote in the semi final and in the final.

Hosting
The winner of the previous edition of the contest is the country who will win the right to host the next contest, and they will do so in collaboration with the SBU.