Avalon Song Contest 1

Avalon Song Contest 1 will be the first edition of the Avalon Song Contest, and will consist of one grand final in which all participants will compete. The contest will be held in the Adelhallen, located in the city of Adelberg in Fjallgard, the host country.

Twenty-six countries of the Avalon Broadcasting Organisation are making their debut in this edition, with the winner getting the right to host the second edition, and the bottom 3 relegated and forced to withdraw.

Location
The event will take place in Adelhallen, a concert hall in Adelberg, the capital city of Fjallgard. The arena has a capacity of approximately 15,000 attendees, with it being the first time the arena hosted the Avalon Song Contest.

Bidding phase
V1 and the ABO announced the conditions under which cities and venues could announce their interest in hosting the contest.


 * The host city has 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.

On 5 May, the capital city Adelberg announced interest in hosting the contest - naming Adelhallen as a possible venue. In the absence of other bids, it was announced on 18 May that the concert hall had been selected as the first venue of the Avalon Song Contest.

Host venue

Format
The contest will consist of one grand final in which all 26 participating countries will perform. The confirmation period for entry submissions began on 11 May, lasting a week before it ends on 21 May. Entries could be selected via national final events or internal selection, to the discretion of the national broadcaster for each country. The winning country is the one who has the highest-score in terms of points at the end of voting, with points being allocated from each country in a system of 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs. A country cannot vote for their own entry. The 3 countries receiving the least points will be relegated and will be forced to sit the next edition out.

The running order was decided by firstly drawing the place for the host, Fjallgard, who were allocated the 2nd performance slot. Then, the remaining countries would draw either first or second half, and the final running order is then decided from that by the producers of the show alongside approval of the ABO.

It was announced on May 18 by host broadcaster V1 that the three presenters selected by V1 to host the show are singer-songwriter Sarah Klang and reality television celebrity couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt.

Grand Final
Twenty-six participants competed in this edition. The recap and playlists can be found here.


 * a. The song also contains some words in English and Kimbundu.

Hospitalisation of Sarah Klang
On 22 May, during a dress rehearsal for the televised final, host Sarah Klang fell off the stage and was knocked unconscious and admitted to Blake Medical Centre, also hospitalising two audience members on whom she landed. Klang did not sustain any long-term injuries, and was able to return to her duties the following evening.

Misinformation regarding the incident appeared later the same evening on social media, being shared thousands of times by fans, alleging that a member of the Edish delegation was paid to intentionally harm Klang, in order to create media attention for the contest. On 23 May, the ABO later responded that they had investigated the claims by reviewing footage, and stated "There is no evidence of malice in regards to this incident. Klang simply tripped over, and we are pleased to hear that she is not seriously hurt. This is not a time to spread fake news".

Technical difficulties
During the broadcast of the Grand Final, a number of technical difficulties occurred. When the second and host entrant, Phoebe Ryan, came to the stage, the audio for "Flashback" played for a few seconds before being stopped and corrected. Later in the show, Zebra Katz, the artist representing Isibhamu, claimed they were given a faulty microphone which significantly reduced the volume of their vocals in relation to other artists. Contest producers claimed that they raised the volume by "twelve decibels" for the recap, though the song was noticeably quieter than the other entrants.

In addition, during the first play of the recap during the Grand Final, Byzrakius was incorrectly listed as being represented by Rina Sawayama with the song "Dynasty", which in fact represented Nautilus instead. This was corrected when the recap played again, with the artist and song name correctly being displayed as Carla Wehbe with "Don't Tell Me". Additionally, in the last play of the recap, Guim's song was mistakenly played second in the recap for a few seconds, with the image flashing back to Fjallgard's performance around three seconds in.

Finally, during the voting sequence, the name of Glariona was mistakenly written as "Glariola", and was never corrected.

Freudian slip
Before the voting sequence began, in lieu of saying the traditional "Avalon, we have a result!" catchphrase, host Heidi Montag mistakenly stammered the non-existing place name "Fantasia" instead of Avalon. While not a big deal, the Freudian slip was the cause of widespread memes and mockery.

Comments of Isibhamian Delegation
After the reveal of Dibella's entrant The Pretty Reckless, a member of the Isibhamian delegation commented stating "Someone has to come last". The Dibellan delegation responded by calling the comments unnecessary and rude and received support from Meridia and Saint Lauderdale who backed up their statement. The Isibhamian delegation issued an apology, claiming that the comments were meant as a joke rather than a serious attack, and no further escalation took place.

Later during the rehearsal period, another member of the delegation made a prediction that Saint Lauderdale would finish in last place. After the country finished 5th overall on the night of the contest, Lauderdalan Head of Delegation Ashley "Sparkle Queen" Now took to social media and began taunting the Isibhamian delegation, calling them "clowns". The tweet received millions of likes, including a retweet from Zuvish Chancellor Christiane Nyamena who commented "Ashley always destroys the twinkies!". The response was quickly deleted by her media team.

Voting and spokespersons
Each edition, countries appoint a voting spokesperson to announce their points. They are listed here in the voting order determined by the producers, which was the reversed running order from the show.


 * Abed Nadir
 * Christiane Nyamena
 * Alexa Bliss
 * Heidi Montag
 * Jeff Probst
 * Dua Lipa
 * Justin Tranter
 * John Krasinski
 * Dara O’Briain


 * Marilyn Lluisma
 * Idra Kayne
 * Bad Bunny
 * Jessie Ware
 * Elettra Lamborghini
 * Robert Alfons
 * Sindy Nguyen
 * Professor Tox
 * Saffiyah Khan

Due to Llanwyn and Lyonesse not selecting a spokesperson, host Heidi Montag announced the two countries' votes herself.
 * Naomi Campbell
 * Heidi Montag
 * Rosa
 * Pnk Dymond
 * Hildur Kristín Stefánsdóttir
 * Heidi N Closet
 * Rose McGowan
 * Shura