European Music Festival 2020

The European Music Festival 2020 was the first edition of the annual European Music Festival, organised by Telewizja Polska (TVP) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was held on 11 October 2020, at the ATM Stuido in Warsaw, Poland. It was the first time Poland had hosted the contest.

Twenty-two countries participated in the contest, while all the countries were debuting. Due the covid-19 pandemic situation and travel restrictions the contest had been made online. The event was hosted live from Studio in Warsaw and all the competing songs were performed in a studio in each participating country.

Albania’s Elvana Gjata with the song “Me Tana” was the winner of the contest. This was Albania’s first victory in the contest, as well as the first country to win in the history of the contest. Sweden and Romania finished in second and third place. Finland and Ukraine completed the top five, with the former finishing fourth and fifth. Armenia finished last.

Bidding phase and host city selection
Poland was asked to host the first edition after their experience with hosting Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2019. The country was confirmed as the host country on 2 January 2020. Few days later Kraków was announced as the host city of the contest and that the broadcaster will host the contest at the 20,400 capacity Tauron Arena Kraków venue. On 5 February 2020 EBU and host broadcaster TVP announced that the contest will be held on 11 October 2020.

On 7th June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic EBU and host broadcaster TVP decided to change the contest venue, it was confirmed that the European Music Festival 2020 would be held online in a studio in Polish capital - Warsaw without live audience.

Performances
For the first time in the contest's history, most of the participants were performing remotely, recorded prior to the contest in a television studio in their country of origin. The EBU stated that, "To ensure continuity and the fairness of the competition, EBU Members in the 22 participating countries have agreed to use a similar stage layout and technical set up to capture the performance of their artist(s).

Hosts
On 1st September 2020, it was announced that Ida Nowakowska, Aleksander Sikora and Małgorzata Tomaszewska would host the contest.

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 5 October in Warsaw after the Opening Ceremony, with Ukraine drawn to open the contest and Finland drawn to close.

Participating countries
On 20 March 2020, the EBU released the official list of participants with 22 competing countries.