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The European Music Festival, often shorted to EMF, is a song competition which has been organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) annually since 2016 and is open exclusively to broadcaster that are members of the EBU. It is held in different European city each year, however the same city can host the contest more than once.

The competition has many similarities to the Eurovision Song Contest. Each participating broadcaster sends an act which were part of a national public selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) that involved at least two songs, but which failed to be selected to represent their country and with original song lasting between 2 minutes and 4 minutes to compete against the other entries. Each entry represents the country served by the participating broadcaster. Viewers from the participating countries are invited to vote for their favourite performances by televote and a national jury from each participating country also vote. The overall winner of the contest is the entry that has received the most points after the scores from every country have been collected and totalled.

The amount of the participating countries depends on how many countries held each year national finals and are in the EBU, but the show is also broadcasted in the countries that are not taking part in the contest but are a part of European Broadcasting Union. The contest also is streamed live on the Internet through the official website of the contest. Australia was invited to the contest from 2019.

The first winner of the contest ever was Poland which was represented by Margaret with the song "Cool Me Down" scoring 335 points for their country in the 2016 edition.

Sweden holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest two times in 2018 and 2022 editions. The highest scoring winner is Loreen from Sweden who won the 2017 edition with her song Statments which got 381 points – 128 points ahead the runner up.

History
In September 2016 Aleksander Brown, executive supervisor of the emf's and Jon Ola Sand former executive supervisor of the European Broadcasting Union picked up the idea to open an international music contest, and opened the competition to all member broadcasters making it a pan-European event.

United Kingdom was asked to host the first edition of the contest. In Novemver 2015 an EBU committee headed by Jon Ola Sand was formed to investigate new initiatives for cooperation between broadcasters, this committee approved for further study a European song competition. In January 2016 The EBU's General Assembly agreed to the organising of the song contest in October 2016 under the title of European Music Festival and maked United Kingdomthe first ever host of the contest

The first ever European Music Festival was hosted in London at the O2 Arena venue on the 16th October 2016. The first ever edition took place in London, United Kingdom in 2016. A total of 18 countries competed in the very first edition. The first ever winner of the contest was Margaret from Poland with the song "Cool Me Down".

Logo and theme
The general logo. which was created by Polish team, was introduced in the 1st edition. The logo featured the name of the contest and below of it, the name of the host city appeared along with the year of the edition. The word "European" was formed in a calligraphic font while the letter "O" was replaced by a heart where the flag of the host appeared. The logo was generally received positively by both the press and the fans.

Slogans
Since the first edition in 2016, slogans have been introduced in the contest. The slogan is decided by the host broadcaster and based on the slogan, the theme and the visual design are developed.

Format
The contest is always screened on a Sunday evening in on October and lasts approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes. Traditionally the contest will consist of an opening ceremony in which the performers are welcomed to the event the performances of the entries, a recap of the songs to help televoting viewers decide which entries to vote for, an interval act usually performed after the televoting has closed, the results of the televoting or back-up jury voting which is then followed by the declaration of the winner and a reprise of the winning song. At various points throughout the show, networks may opt out for a few minutes to screen a commercial break.

Since 2020 the winning entry of each contest has been decided by a mixture of televoting and national juries, each counting for fifty percent of the points awarded by each country. The ten entries that have received the most votes in each country are awarded points ranging from one to eight, then ten and twelve. These points are then announced live during the programme by a spokesperson representing the participating country. Once all participating countries have announced their results, the country that has received the most points is declared the winner of that year's contest. The winner receives a trophy and, the winning country is invited to host the next edition.

The contest usually features three presenters, who regularly appear on stage and with the contestants in the green room. The presenters are also responsible for repeating the results immediately after the spokesperson of each broadcaster to confirm which country the points are being given to. The spokespersons are giving out the points in the same format as in the Eurovision Song Contest, behind a backdrop of a major city of that country in the national broadcaster's television studio.

The main vocals must be sung live during the contest, backing vocals may be recorded onto the backing track. Each country's entry must be selected through a televised national final. Each country's performance is also allowed a maximum of eight performers on stage.

Participation
Only active member broadcasters of the EBU which held a national final in each year are permitted to take part and vote in the contest, though the contest is screened in several non-participating countries. Each full member has got a certain broadcaster that is responsible for the choice of the artists and songs the country is sending for each edition.

Thirty countries has participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the edition in which they made their debut:

Winners
The contest has so far seven winners. Sweden holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest two times in in 2017, and 2021 editions. Sweden is the country with the most second places so far with the country ending up as the runner-up in the 2016 and 2020 editions. Sweden's winning entry currently holds the record for the highest scoring winner and the record for the biggest margin between the winner and the runner-up. Sweden became the first country to win two times.