World Hit Festival 29

World Hit Festival 29

Music Is Life
Dates
Date	December 31, 2016
Host
Location	Vodiznad, Izmedu
Venue	Dragulj Arena
Presenter	Apolonija Dukic
Executive Supervisor	Ivan Sandic
Executive Producer	Dora Vidakovic
Host Broadcaster	Radio-Televizija Izmedu (RTI)
Opening Act	Theme: "Liberation" by Arijana Kovac Act: "Coming Home" by Arijana Kovac & Luka Dosen
Interval Act	"Grad Vodiznad" by Ozana
Participants
Number of Entries	10
Debuting Countries	Cosneolta
Returning Countries	Polkopia West Phoencia
Withdrawing Countries	Darkmania Diarcesia & Laoshuyin United Arab Republics The Eight Republics
Vote
Voting system	Each country awards a set of points ranging from 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 to their five favorite songs.
Nul points	None
Winner	Izmedu "Remedy"

The World Hit Festival 29 was the 29th edition of the World Hit Festival. It took place for the first time in Izmedu following Arijana Kovac & Helena Dakovic's 2nd place in Telgrad, Arioslavia for the 28th World Hit Festival after Arioslavia declined hosting rights. The contest was held in Vodiznad, Izmedu in the Dragulj Arena, consisting only of a lone grand final that took place at New Year's Eve 2016. The show was hosted by Apolonija Dukic, an Izmeduan television personality. 10 countries participated in the contest, two less than the previous contest. Cosneolta were debutantes. Polkopia and West Phoenicia returned to the contest after a long absence and short break respectively. Darkmania, Diarcesia & Laoshuyin, United Arab Republics and United Arab Republics withdrew from the contest.

Izmedu won the contest for the first time with Anamarija Lubina's "Remedy." This was Izmedu's first win after 14 editions and three consecutive top 2 finishes. The festival also saw Polkopia and Kalosia achieve high placings, with Polkopia being the runner-up after a tiebreaking process and Kalosia finishing 3rd.

Location

The contest took place for the first time in Izmedu, following the country's runner-up position in Telgrad, Arioslavia with Helena Dakovic & Arijana Kovac's "Damaged Hearts." The hosting rights were passed down to the country following Arioslavia's decision to focus on the WorldVision Song Contest.

Venue

The Dragulj Arena in Vodiznad is a multi-purpose arena originally built to house the first arena performances for popular Izmeduan artists in the country's earliest years, with a maximum capacity of 13,500 people. In more recent years, the Dragulj has then been expanded and renovated to accommodate for indoor sporting events championships as well as conferences. The Dragulj Arena is located in the northern reaches of Vodiznad, where the city's more industrial and finance-related sectors are located. However, the Dragulj Arena is connected to the VIA (Vodiznad International Airport) and other Vodiznad hotspots through metro.

Host City Selection

On the night following Arioslavia's second victory in Telgrad, the rights to the 29th World Hit Festival were officially passed down to Izmedu. Izmeduan broadcaster Radio-televizija Izmedu (RTI) would then accept the hosting rights to organize the 29th festival. Following these turn of events, RTI would work closely with RTVK and the then Kalosian overseer to ensure that the hosting process would go smoothly. Early comments made by RTI General-Director, Dora Vidakovic, and the then Izmeduan Head of Delegation, Pavao Sintic, suggested that the selection of Vodiznad was assured and that the contest would be held in its newest arena (the La Cianta Arena). However, these were rectified by saying that a short, but formal internal bidding process was to occur. Following internal discussion with RTVK and studying past World Hit Festivals, RTI sent out a short list of requirements to all interested cities about the requirements to host the World Hit Festival.

• A suitable venue must be able to seat a minimum of 8,000 attendees up to a maximum of 16,000.
• An international press centre that is able accommodate an appropriate number of journalists from participating and non-participating nations.
• The host city must have a good distribution of hotel rooms for delegations, journalists, and regular contest-goers. These hotel rooms must also be reasonably priced.
• The host city must be able to provide a working and modern transportation infrastructure. Including, but not limited to, a nearby international airport with an ease of access to the city, venue, and hotels via metro.

Besides Vodiznad, two other cities expressed an interest in hosting and were confirmed to have submitted bids for the 29th World Hit Festival: Gralicna and Rajvosa. Additionally, the cities of Mousiki and Sastavak also indicated an interest, but were revealed to not have been shortlisted or withdrew their bids to host the World Hit Festival.

On November 21st, RTI announced that Vodiznad had been selected as the host city. Vodiznad's bid overcame attempts from Gralicna and Rajvosa and additionally also disproved earlier rumors about the venue. Vodiznad submitted the Dragulj Arena as the only venue in their bid package.

    Host venue

Other Sites

In the lead up to the 29th World Hit Festival, RTI coordinated with the Kalosian overseer to help plan and organize the World Hit Festival village located around the area of 'old Vodiznad' as well as organizing the opening ceremony of the 29th World Hit Festival near the Adviant Palace and the symbolic handing over of hosting to the Mayor of Vodiznad. The World Hit Festival village was the site of both the World Fair and the World Hit Club.

The World Fair is a chance for participating countries to showcase their culture to the world by bringing in cultural artefacts and performances in an intimate setting. The World Hit Club is the official spot for delegations, journalists, and participants to engage in the World Hit Festival after parties. The Ganer Velikstav served as the official venue for the World Hit Club.

Format

Visual Design and Theme

The theme, unveiled on the night of the host city announcement's press conference, was Music is Life. The visual design of the contest emphasized a minimalist yet stylistic font, emphasizing a heavy style on the title of the festival as well as 'Life' on the slogan. The visual motif of the contest was a green headphone with red accents that sprouted an outgrowth of vines. This alluded to two of Izmedu's national colors (red and green), the country's history for primarily utilizing music as a way to advance its international reputation, as well as combining Izmedu's love of music with its love of nature. Each nation, for their postcard, would get a local variant of the headphones and the vines.

Presenters

On November 25th, RTI released the first hints of who the presenter/hostess of the 29th World Hit Festival would be. The contest would be solely hosted by Izmeduan television personality and past WorldVision spokesperson, Apolonija Dukic. She is primarily known in Izmedu to be the long-running of hostess of the late night television show, Ponocni Cas.

Running Order and Draw

For this edition, RTI elected to use a random draw to determine the final running order for the contest. This random order draw was conducted and verified by an independent notary and was done at the presentation of participating nations.

Opening and Interval Acts

The first details of the opening and interval acts were released by RTI near the lead-up to the night of the contest. The opening theme and act of the contest were primarily composed by Arijana Kovac, one-half of the duo that were runners-up in the previous World Hit Festival. Arijana Kovac performed the theme she composed for the contest, "Liberation," as well as debuting a collaboration with Luka Dosen in their newest single, "Coming Home." The interval act featured a popular Izmeduan singer, Ozana, singing "Grad Vodiznad."

Paricipating Countries

RTI announced on December 19th that 10 countries will participate in the contest. West Phoenicia and Polkopia were confirmed to have fully returned to the World Hit Festival while four countries from the 28th World Hit Festival would withdraw. Those countries would be Darkmania, Diarcesia & Laoshuyin, United Arab, Republics, and The Eight Republics.

Artists from WorldVision

Rick Leg, a regular participant from Missus X, was featured in Cosneolta's entry performing alongside Danny DingDong. Danny himself has also represented Cosneolta in a participating capacity in the WorldVision Song Contest. He performed as the interval act in Mercedini's hosting of the 52nd WorldVision Song Contest and represented Cosneolta in the 50th WorldVision Song Contest. Additionally, Arijana Kovac (who participated in both the WorldVision Song Contest and the World Hit Festival the edition prior) returns as the composer of the festival's main theme and a performer in the opening act.

List of Participants

Order	Country	Artist(s)	Song Name	Place	Points
01	West Phoencia	Bubblegum	Bubblegum Kisses	10	2
02	Anollasia	Audrey Leblanc	Feel	5	16
03	Mercedini	Imarla	Mine Tonight	8	12
04	Estogium	Liam Andreasson	Jump The Gun	6	14
05	Cosneolta	Danny DingDong ft. Rick Leg	Lemme Suck On That Cock	9	7
06	Izmedu	Anamarija Lubina	Remedy	1	24
07	Kalosia	Gianni Marino	Lë lusi di lë sita	3	20
08	Normandy and Picardy	Lisonard	L'appel	4	18
09	Polkopia	Nikolai Bartrov	Davai	2	24
10	Britonisea	Jayden Boise	Eihei	7	13

Scoreboard

5 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 5 points awarded to each other in the contest.