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OGAE Song Contest 2023: Participants and Lineup

The OGAE Song Contest 2023 has officially revealed its list of participating entries, marking the third time that OGAE Australia will host this prestigious event. This year’s edition will feature 31 songs in the competition.

Originating in 1986, the OGAE Song Contest stands out as one of the most successful Eurovision-affiliated contests. Annually, OGAE clubs (short for Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l’Eurovision, or the General Organisation of Eurovision Fans) are invited to submit songs that have not been featured in the official Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC), or national finals.

The voting period for this year’s competition has officially commenced and will run until October 21st, with the winner set to be announced on November 25th.

In the wake of Australia’s victory in the 2021 edition with “Fly Away” by Tones and I, the country was slated to host the OGAE Song Contest in 2022. However, the contest had to be canceled for the year due to ongoing geopolitical tensions involving Ukraine and Russia. Consequently, Australia is now gearing up to host the event in 2023.

 

Here is the lineup of participating countries, with the corresponding links:

 

 

For more comprehensive information about the contest, including the complete rulebook and snippets of the competing songs, visit OGAE Australia’s website

 

Source: eurovoix

 

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for all the latest news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!


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OGAE Song Contest: UK and Germany withdraw in solidarity with Ukraine!

Two more OGAE members have decided to withdraw from the annual OGAE Song Contest.  The decisions of OGAE UK and OGAE Germany not to participate in the contest held in Australia comes as an act of solidarity with Ukraine.  Just a couple of weeks ago, OGAE Ukraine withdrew from the contest as a protest against the decision to keep OGAE Russia as a contestant.  OGAE Ukraine had asked OGAE International to kick OGAE Russia out of the contest.  The Ukrainian branch accused their Russian counterparts of supporting the ongoing war against Ukraine.

OGAE UK withdrawal

OGAE UK decided to have a voting on whether to remain or leave the OGAE Song Contest following the decision to keep Russia in the contest.

“While many may believe the context of a fan run song contest is a minor event, I reiterate that in this current climate, the politics and actions of one country against another involved in OGAE and Eurovision cannot be ignored or disregarded”. OGAE UK

An internal vote took place on this subject.  According to the results, 72.34% of OGAE UK members decided to leave the OGAE Song Contest.

OGAE Germany withdrawal

In a similar fashion, OGAE Germany voted if they wanted to continue their participation in the current OGAE Song Contest.  OGAE Germany announced in a communication the results of this voting.  In contrast with their British counterparts however, the final results of the German voting were closer.

The majority of the members decided to withdraw with a final result of 56.62% asking to leave against 43.38% who voted to remain.

It is not yet known if other national clubs also voted to leave the contest.  However, according to OGAE Germany “37% of all clubs had voted to comply with OGAE Ukraine’s request outlined above, but OGAE has not made transparent which OGAE International club members voted and how.”

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for more updates regarding the OGAE Song Contest!

“OGAE Russia allegedly supports actions of their government!”

OGAE Russia has allegedly published an article that makes reference to the Ukraine-Russia war.  Although the article is from February 26 when the war had started, OGAE Ukraine brought it back into the public eye.

As we previously informed, OGAE Ukraine asked OGAE International to disqualify Russia from its annual OGAE Song Contest.  However, the request from OGAE Ukraine has received mixed responses.  There are people who agree to support this petition to show support to Ukraine.  On the other hand, there are fans that consider such a ban would be a “punishment” against Russian artists and fans.  It must be highlighted that OGAE is a fans only organization with no connections to the government of the country.

OGAE Russia publication

 

OGAE Russia published the message above on their website which is still available in this link.  In the last message OGAE Russia is apparently giving a contradictory message stating they are an apolitical organization but at the same time supporting the war.  The sentence roughly translates:

OGAE Russia considers it necessary to express its apolitical position on what is happening in support of the actions of our country

OGAE Ukraine has condemned this message.  In a recent publication on Instagram, OGAE Ukraine points out that “this means NOT the support for broadcasters’ decisions, NOT the support for artists, but the support for the actions of their country specifically.  Additionally, they mention that in their statement, OGAE Russia used the picture of a house in Ukraine hit by a Russan missile.

According to OGAE Ukraine, their condemnation also extends to one of the chosen Russian contestants. Vladimir Presniakov has  supposedly expressed his support for the war and took part in a concert in support of the Russian invasion.

 

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for more updates in this and other eurovision related news!

 

Ukraine: OGAE Ukraine demands total ban of Russian OGAE branch!

In a official statement OGAE Ukraine has requested OGAE International to disqualify Russia from its annual OGAE Song Contest.  OGAE International Network (French: Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l’Eurovision, English: General Organization of Eurovision Fans) is the network of official Eurovision fan clubs across the world.  Among their activities, OGAE organizes a pre-Eurovision poll, the OGAE Second Chance Contest and the OGAE Song Contest.

OGAE Song Contest

Every year OGAE International Network organizes the OGAE Song Contest.  Each national branch of OGAE can submit an original song sung in one of the country’s official languages released in the previous 12 months.

OGAE Russia chose Leonid Agutin and Vladimir Presnjakov with ‘ДНК [DNA]’ to participate at the OGAE Song Contest.

OGAE Ukraine statement

OGAE Ukraine published an official statement on its Instagram stories demanding OGAE International “to ban representatives from Russia, as well as their club, from participating in the OGAE Song Contest.”

While hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians suffer from Russian aggression and genocide (…) we find heartbreaking that OGAE International allows Russia to participate in the competition or any kind of activity related.

The statement ends up stating that if Russia is not disqualified, OGAE Ukraine will be forced to withdraw from the OGAE Song Contest.

OGAE Australia is hosting the OGAE Song Contest 2022 after Tones and I won in 2021 with ‘Fly Away’.