We’re happy to introduce you to SongHunt, our new big feature for the website and the #esc chatroom!

As a successor to the ChatCharts, we have developed a new and complex (but still understandable) system with the aim of finding the best song of the national final season. It’s a little bit of everything: contest, poll, survey and fun game all in one.

A total of 96 national final songs will compete in the heats. Throughout the upcoming 12 months, there will also be quarter-finals, semi-finals and a grand final. And the ultimate winner will be announced as part of the ChatAwards 2015. The dates for the 2015 poll launches are listed towards the end of this post.

SongHunt 2015 links
(available once poll is lauched)

The rules in a nutshell

(you can now find the detailed rules further down)

During a national selection show, we in the #esc chat give our votes to all the songs as always. From now on, however, we will also keep track of the average scores for every song in every show.

This winter, up until the week after the last national final, there will be 12 poll-based heats. Each heat (poll) will feature the top 8 ranked songs from the previous period, this being the time between the last heat and the deadline for the new heat. Usually, that’s a week.

There are two exceptions to this rule: The first heat will also cover songs from national finals that were held earlier (for 2015, this means the “early birds” of Macedonia and Malta). The twelfth and last heat features the top 8 songs from the entire national final season that didn’t make it through to their respective heats at the time – in other words, Heat 12 can be seen as a kind of “Second Chance” round (note: this is an addition to the original rules).

It doesn’t matter if, within a week, 30 chatters participated in the voting for a Swedish semi or only 3 people turned up to watch a Georgian final – the average score of the songs is what counts when it comes to qualifying for the respective SongHunt heat!

From each heat – held as a poll on the website – the 4 songs with the most votes will proceed to the quarter-finals, which will be launched after the last national final. They will be followed by semi-finals in summer (again, half of the songs from the quarter-finals will qualify), and ultimately the big final poll, which will run throughout autumn 2015.

The winner of the SongHunt final will be revealed as part of the ChatAwards 2015.

Your part in SongHunt is:

• vote in the chat as usual to help your favourite songs qualify for the heats
• take part in the upcoming SongHunt polls on the website
• stay tuned over the next 365 days or so until we all find out the ultimate winner of the SongHunt!

You can find the detailed rules below the video.

The first SongHunt heat will be launched on Sunday, 28 December 2014.
Votes for Macedonia and Malta have already been counted.

Detailed rules

Polls in general

The polls will usually be launched on Sunday evenings (see all dates below). All polls allow 1 vote for each user. The results of a poll will only be displayed after the poll is closed. The polls will be closed on Sundays when the next poll is launched. The final poll will be closed on the day of the ChatAwards 2015.

Preselection Heats

The 12 preselection heats are based on polls with 8 songs each. Hence, a total of 96 songs will enter SongHunt. The heat phase lasts over the 12 weeks leading up to the week after the last possible national final of the season. The 4 songs with the highest scores in each heat will proceed to the quarter-finals.

In case of a critical tie in the poll, the chat score will be the deciding factor.

If this doesn’t solve the tie, there will be a spontaneous survey in the chat determining which song will proceed to the quarter-final.*

The competing songs in each heat (except for Heat 12) will be determined by the following method:

During a national selection show (if webstream provided), the users of the #esc chatroom rate each song on a scale from 0/10 (bad) to 10/10 (good). All average scores for all songs will be collected.

For each qualification period, there will be a ranked list with all songs that were performed and “chat-rated” during that period. The songs with the 8 highest average scores qualify for their respective heat poll.

The qualification period of each heat is usually a week (from one poll to the next one), with the exception of the first heat, which is based on a longer qualification period (from the season’s first national selection show until the launch of the first poll).

If a song is performed in more than one qualification period – say, in a country’s semi-final and then in the respective final in a later week – the following rules apply:

Once a song has qualified for a SongHunt heat, it can’t qualify again in a later heat, even if it competes again in a country’s semi-final or final, etc.

If a song hasn’t qualified for a SongHunt heat in an earlier stage of a country’s selection process, but hits the crucial Top 8 at a later point, it will enter the SongHunt heat for this qualification period.

If a song is performed more than once within a qualification period (for example in Maltese or Albanian semi-/finals), then the highest score achieved in the chat will count – and the lower one(s) will be ignored.

In a quiet week with less than 8 songs, the producers may select popular songs that previously missed out on qualification for a heat and add them to the poll for that qualification period.

In the twelfth heat (the Second Chance heat), the eight songs from the entire season with the highest scores that didn’t make it through to their respective heats at the time will compete for the final four tickets to the quarter-finals.

In case of a qualification-critical tie within the chat scores, the number of voters for the songs in question will be decisive. If this data cannot be retrieved, or if this doesn’t help to solve the tie, there will be a spontaneous survey in the chat to determine which song will proceed to the SongHunt heat.*

Quarter-Finals

Now a total of 48 songs are left in SongHunt. These are randomly allocated to the 4 quarter-finals, which are based on polls with 12 songs each.

The quarter-final phase will be held throughout most of the spring, with the poll for each quarter-final staying open for three weeks.

The 6 songs with the highest scores in each quarter-final will proceed to the semi-finals.

In case of a critical tie, the number of votes within the preselection heats will be the deciding factor.

If this doesn’t solve the tie, the chat score will be the deciding factor.

If this doesn’t solve the tie, there will be a spontaneous survey in the chat determining which song will proceed to the semi-finals.*

Semi-Finals

Now a total of 24 songs are left in SongHunt. These are randomly allocated to the 2 semi-finals, which are based on polls with 12 songs each.

The semi-final phase will be held throughout most of the summer, with the poll for each semi-final staying open for six weeks.

The 6 songs with the highest scores in each semi-final will proceed to the final.

In case of a critical tie, the number of votes within the quarter-finals will be the deciding factor.

If this doesn’t solve the tie, the number of votes within the preselection heats will be the deciding factor.

If this doesn’t solve the tie, the chat score will be the deciding factor.

If this doesn’t solve the tie, there will be a spontaneous survey in the chat determining which song will proceed to the semi-finals.*

Final

The final is based on a poll with the 12 remaining songs. These songs have previously qualified from the semi-finals.

The final phase is held throughout most of autumn, with the poll staying open for several weeks (this will depend on the date of the ChatAwards 2015).

The Top 10 will be revealed in a countdown as part of the ChatAwards 2015. To keep the suspense up until the winner is announced, places 11 and 12 will only be revealed afterwards.

In case of a critical tie for victory, the winner will be decided by following rules:

Number of votes within the semi-final phase

Number of votes within the quarter-final phase

Number of votes within the preselection heats

Result in the respective NF chat votes*

*In case a tie can’t be solved by any method as described in the rules, the producers may decide which song(s) will proceed and/or win.

DATES 2015 (poll launches)

Winter: Preselection Heats

Heat 1 – 28 December

Heat 2 – 4 January

Heat 3 – 11 January

Heat 4 – 25 January

Heat 5 – 1 February

Heat 6 – 8 February

Heat 7 – 15 February

Heat 8 – 22 February

Heat 9 – 1 March

Heat 10 – 8 March

Heat 11 – 15 March

Heat 12 – 22 March*

* Second Chance heat

Spring: Quarter Finals

Quarter Final 1 – 29 March

Quarter Final 2 – 19 April

Quarter Final 3 – 10 May

Quarter Final 4 – 31 May

Summer: Semi Finals

Semi Final 1 – 21 June

Semi Final 2 – 2 August

Autumn: FINAL

The Final poll will be launched on 13 September and will close on the day of the ChatAwards 2015.