European Music Festival 2019

The European Music Festival 2019 was the fourth edition of the annual European Music Festival, organised by RAI and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was held on 19 October 2019, at the Pala Alpitour in Turin, Italy. It was the first time Italy had hosted the contest.

Twenty-three countries participated in the contest, with Australia and Croatia making they debut appearance in the contest. Though Armenia had participated the previous year, they were absent for 2019.

France's Florina with the song “In The Shadow” was the winner of the contest. This was France's first victory in the contest. Australia and Germany finished in second and third place. Sweden and Spain completed the top five, with the former finishing fourth and fifth. Iceland finished last.

Bidding phase and host city selection
After Italy’s victory in 2018 contest in Stockholm, the Italian Head of Delegation Simona Martorelli stated that RAI is keen to host the 2018 contest. On 26 October 2018, it was confirmed by the EBU that Italy would host the 2019 contest. Between 28 and 31 October 2018, many cities across Italy expressed interest in hosting the contest. Representatives from cities of Bologna, Desio, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Pesaro, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Siena and Turin voiced their interest.

Host broadcaster RAI launched the bidding process on 4 November 2018. In the first phase of this process, any interested cities were to present their bid through certified email by 14 November 2018, after which RAI and the EBU would proceed to send all of them a bid book with more detailed requirements for the cities to submit their plans for review.

On 20 November, RAI announced that 10 cities had submitted their bid for hosting the contest and would be provided the following day with the bid books. They had until 1 December to draft and submit their detailed plans, which 10 cities did. On 5 December, it was reported that Bologna, Milan and Turin would be the cities left in the running to host the contest.

On 29 December 2018, the EBU and RAI announced Turin as the host city, with the 16,657 capacity 	Pala Alpitour as the chosen venue for the contest. On 2 January 2019, EBU and host broadcaster RAI announced that the contest will be held on 19 October 2019

Hosts
On 16 April 2019, it was announced that Alessandro Cattelan, Laura Pausini, Amadeus would host the contest.

Opening and interval acts
On 16 May 2019, The EBU relased information about the opening and interval acts.

The final was opened by the traditional flag parade, introducing all twenty-four finalists, accompanied by the Laura Pausini performing a medley of "Benvenuto", Io canto", "La solitudine", "Le cose che vivi" and "Scatola". The interval acts icluded Annalisa performing her last years winner song "Il Mondo Prima Di Te" and Mahmood performing a medley of "Soldi" and "Barrio".

Voting
The results will be determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. The online voting is taking place during the live show and starts after the last performance and is open for 15 minutes. International viewers could vote for one country three Times from one phone number. The other half of the points was determined by a national jury from every participating country. These points are then announced live during the programme by a spokesperson representing the participating country. The spokespersons give out the points from each of the participating country.

Running order
The draw for the running order of the contest was held on 14 October in Turin after the Opening Ceremony, with Croatia drawn to open the contest and Lithuania drawn to close.

Participating countries
On 9 January 2019, the EBU released the official list of participants with 23 competing countries.