FSC 97

Forum Song Contest #97
Host	Barentsburg, Norway
Date	March 2017
Entries	32
Winner	Morocco
Debuting countries	India
Returning countries	Ireland ; Malaysia ; Morocco
Withdrawing countries	Brazil
	FSC
	< FSC #96 FSC #98 >

Following yet another win by Norway in FSC 96, we gather for another Norwegian hosting. This time, however, the host city is the small Russian mining town of Barentsburg, on the Svalbard Islands. This is in recognition of Russia's close second place in the previous edition.

This edition sees the debut of India in FSC, as well as the return of Ireland, Malaysia and Morocco. The only country to withdraw is Brazil, giving a total of 32 participants.

For the second time in FSC history, Morocco emerged as the winner. Second place went to Italy and Croatia came third.

The Host City[]

Barentsburg is a small predominently Russian coal mining community on the island of Spitsbergen in the island group of Svalbard in the arctic region, which is part of the Kingdom of Norway. We meet here in neighbourly friendship and positive fraternization , after a very competitive FSC 96-edition & Russia’s near-win.

Named after Dutch explorer Willem Barents, Barentsburg is a mining town, situated on the eastside of Grønfjorden, with coal mining conducted by the Soviet company Arktikugol since 1932.

Although Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty, the unique Svalbard Treaty of 1920 allows citizens of signatory countries equal rights to exploit natural resources. Russia , along with Norway maintains mining operations on Svalbard as a result. Russia maintains a consulate in Barentsburg , northernmost diplomatic mission of any kind, in the world.

Barentsburg started as a Dutch mining town in the 1920s. In 1932 the Dutch sold their concession to the Soviet Union. The town relies entirely on mainland Russia , for food and coinage. The population has declined over the decades; in its heyday over 1000 citizens inhabited Barentsburg while today’s population , is about half of that, around 500 persons according to the latest figures.

The town has mostly old Soviet style architecture, a Culture center and a Community center that caters for some activities for the local residents and visitors. It also has a school , a library , an old church , a sports center , docks, a hotel, a souvenir shop and several monuments (most famous the world's second northernmost Lenin-statue, and a monument to coal/mining).

The Venue[]

The venue for FSC March 2017 is the Barentsburg Kulturhus. It is mostly used by Russian and Ukrainian residents & visitors, but also some Norwegians and others visiting the settlement. It's very popular for smaller events, like Christrmas celebrations for families and children but is at times also used for bigger cultural events & some concerts. They are proud to host this FSC Show from their Culture Center, an intimate but warm & welcoming concert hall , & are happy to welcome all participating countries, artists & delegations to Barentsburg.

The Hosts[]

Our lovely hosts this evening are Kygo and Julia Savicheva.

Kygo (or Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll), born 1991, is a Norwegian DJ, EDM-artist & record producer. He has accumulated 300 million+ views on his music on SoundCloud and YouTube , and world attention & success in recent years. In 2014, he released the single ‘Firestone’ which was a huge success. Since then he has released several other popular songs, featuring guest vocalists & also an album in 2016 . He has had a worldwide tour and continues to impress world audiences.

Julia Savicheva, born 1987, is a Russian singer, best known in the West for having represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Turkey. She was born into a family of musicians in the city of Kurgan on the edge of Siberia east of the Ural Mountains. In 2003 she took part in Star Factory, a Russian talent show. Her first album was released post-ESC in 2005 . In the following years, she performed in concerts , and released more albums with some success and popularity . Her latest albums were released in 2012, and in 2014.

The Show[]

Nr.	Jury	Artist	Song	Rank	Points
01.	United Kingdom	Sody	Sorry	16	60
02.	Finland	Samu Haber ft. Niila	A hundred years	26	41
03.	Japan	Lecca	Believe	24	45
04.	Israel	Idan Amedi	Part of the time	12	68
05.	Latvia	Catalyst	Howl	6	90
06.	Sweden	Sabina Ddumba	Time	4	105
07.	United States	Christina Grimmie	Invisible	20	56
08.	Hungary	Halott Pénz ft. Agebeat & Kovary	Élnünk kellett volna	29	36
09.	Turkey	BÖ & Serhat Durmus	Sari Gelin	21	53
10.	India	A.R. Rahman & Sanah Moidutty	Tu Hai	9	76
11.	Denmark	Aura	Love Somebody	8	77
12.	Netherlands	Lena Fayre	Cry	10	75
13.	Estonia	Grete Paia	Öö meid saadab veel	27	36
14.	Poland	Sonar	Vaga	32	16
15.	Bulgaria	Zhana Bergendorff	Dokray	11	70
16.	Taiwan	831	Roll your eyes	22	49
17.	Malaysia	Shila Amzah ft. Alif Satar	Selamanya Cinta	28	36
18.	Norway	Hanne Vatnøy	Elysium	15	60
19.	Romania	Delia	Cine m-a facut om mare	13	62
20.	Serbia	Ceca	Nevinost	7	80
21.	Ukraine	The Hardkiss	Antarktida	5	101
22.	Indonesia	Angela Vero	Work it	31	23
23.	South Africa	Jesse Clegg ft. Shekhinah	Breathing	14	61
24.	Russia	Milena & Natasha Treya	M for Milena	23	49
25.	Australia	Isaiah Firebrace	It's gotta be you	17	60
26.	Morocco	Bouchra	Blanc ou noir	1	131
27.	Spain	Maika Makovski	Makedonija	30	26
28.	Croatia	Severina	Kao	3	105
29.	Italy	Giusy Ferreri	Fa talmente male	2	125
30.	Germany	257ers	Holz	25	43
31.	Philippines	Coeli ft. Miguel Guico	Magkaibigan o Magka-ibigan	19	57
32.	Ireland	Saint Sister	Tin man	18	58