Hi guys,
For those suffering from Post-Eurovision Depression, having online Eurovision-style games is a way to cope with it. During my teenage years I created the “International Song Contest” which still runs today under a new management. Therefore I’ve decided to create my own online game, which is meant to be annual and less time consuming.
PanAmerican Song is an online game where readers will select the best song from the Americas (North and South America). For this, I’ve decided to invite other Eurovision blogs like wiwibloggs, ESCToday, the Eurovision Times, Talk About Pop Music, Eurovoix, and my twitter followers with the #PanAmericanSong. The voting is simple with readers selecting their favourite songs they like the most via polls.
This first season of #PanAmericanSong would be just be a pilot. If it is successful enough, I’d launch a more elaborated game with jurors, scoreboards, a new website, and a different method of selecting songs. But for now, it goes like this: There would be two rounds of voting a semi-final and a final, a week after.
The semi-final will consist of twenty Latin American countries competing for ten spots in the final. The qualifiers will join Canada, the United States and eight Caribbean islands in the grand final to determine which is the best song from the Americas.
Participating countries
Any country or territory in the Americas was considered to participate and the selected countries are:
Semi-final: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Automatic finalists: Barbados, Canada, Dominica, Jamaica, Haiti, Martinique, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and U.S.A.
Selection of songs
Songs mustn’t be older than one year and the artist should not be an international superstar, so no Drake for Canada or Shakira competing for Colombia. The songs were selected from various sources:
- The current number one in the participating country (or the highest ranked by a national of that country) according to official charts by Billboard, Spotify, Los 40 Principales, iTunes, ReverbNation, and the Record Report (from Venezuela).
- Selected participants from the Viña del Mar International Song Contest
- Selected participants from the All For One Caribbean Festival
Click HERE to watch/listen to the competing songs
Dates
Song presentation: June 09, 2016
Voting for Semi-final: June 11, 2016 – June 17, 2016
Voting for Grand final: June 18, 2016 – June 25, 2016
Grand final results: June 26, 2016
Stay tuned for more!
The Gramophone Reporter 