HCSC Rules

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Below is a template of the Rules of the Home Composed Song Contest to be used by the Host of the respective edition. The text in black is fixed and must be used every year unless a deviation is approved by the Organising Committee. The text in red may be used, amended, supplemented or removed depending on the preferences of the Host and the requirements of the specific edition of HCSC. In any case, the Rules for each edition must be approved by the Organising Committee before being finalised and published.


Participants

  • Participation is free of charge.
  • Participants should be fans of the Eurovision Song Contest.
  • The person submitting the entry (the "Participant") should be a composer, a lyricist or a performer of the song.
  • The Participant must be from a country that is eligible to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest or has been in the past.
  • All participating composers, lyricists and performers must be amateurs. For HCSC purposes, this means that they must not be full-time music industry professionals. However, the submitted song may include some help from music professionals to fulfil the composer’s final vision of the song, as long as the help is not with the songwriting process. In case of doubt, the decision of the Organising Committee shall be final.
  • Participants are strongly recommended to join the HCSC Facebook group for news updates and community chat.


Songs

  • Each Participant may enter one song.
  • The maximum length of each song is six minutes.
  • Songs may be submitted with vocals in any language. Instrumentals are also permitted.
  • At its discretion, the Organising Committee may reject an entry if it is deemed to be unsuitable for the competition.
  • It is an explicit condition of entry that the Participant has the legal right to enter the song into the competition and owns all rights necessary or has the permission of the owner of the rights. By submitting an entry, the Participant confirms that this is the case.
  • The submitted song must not have been commercially released other than by self-publication. In case of doubt, the decision of the Organising Committee shall be final.
  • The Participant agrees that their entry may be freely made available for listening and download from the dedicated site for HCSC [20xx] and homecomposed.net from the date of submission until at least [the end of 20xx].
  • In the event of a large number of submitted entries, the Organising Committee reserves the right to implement a semi-final or other public pre-selection phase. The limits and cut-off points for doing so will be determined at the discretion of the Organising Committee. However, this will only be done as a last resort.
  • In the event of a large number of submitted entries from one particular country, the Organising Committee reserves the right to restrict the number of entries from each country and/or to implement some form of pre-selection phase, also at its own discretion.


What to submit

  • An audio file of the song, ideally in mp3 format.
  • One or more photographs of the Participant and the performer(s) for publication along with your song. Photographs should be landscape rather than portrait if possible.
  • The entry form completed in full, including:
  • The lyrics, in the language that the song is performed, with translations into another language(s), should you wish.
  • A written introduction to the song and or performers, for publication along with your song.
  • The song, the photograph(s) and the entry form shall be submitted to e-mail address.


Voting

  • The voting period will start on [date] and end at 23:59 CET on [date].
  • Each Participant will form a jury of one or more people who will listen to all submitted entries and submit votes by the voting deadline.
  • Each Participant's jury must rank all songs in order of preference. These will be converted by the Host into a top ten, Eurovision-style (1 to 8, 10 and 12 points), after allowing for the redistribution of votes to discount any disqualified entry.
  • In the event that the Participant does not submit votes by the voting deadline, their entry will be disqualified.
  • The Host, in consultation with the Organising Committee, will determine any guest juries to be invited to take part and the weighting of their votes.
  • The Host, in consultation with the Organising Committee, will arrange for a public internet vote using a reliable format (IP-limited/registration-based online vote, reliable count of YouTube/Soundcloud hits/likes, etc.) and will determine the weighting of this vote.
  • The Host, in consultation with the Organising Committee, will determine any other features of their hosting, such as any awards to be presented in non-competition categories (“best production”, “best lyrics”, etc.).


Tie-break rules

  • In the event that the final result (Participant juries, guest juries and public vote) results in a tie for first place, the public vote shall be disregarded.
  • If this still results in a tie for first place, the guest juries shall also be disregarded.
  • In the unlikely event that a tie for first place still remains, the “Eurovision-style” system shall apply: The winner shall be the song that received points from more Participant juries, then the song that received more 12 points, then 10 points, all the way down to 1. If the tie still cannot be broken in this way, all of the tied songs shall be declared winners.


Fair conduct

  • By entering, each Participant agrees to play by the rules and the spirit of the competition and to abide by the decisions of the Organising Committee.
  • The Participant must be ready to confirm his or her identity if asked. If the Participant fails to do so, the entry may be disqualified. The decision of the Organising Committee shall be final.
  • Any suspicion of abuse, misuse, unsporting conduct, false identity or behaviour deemed to be not in the spirit of the competition, with regard to either the voting or the competition in general, will be investigated by the Organising Committee and may result in the disqualification of the Participant. The decision of the Organising Committee shall be final in all such matters.


The winner

  • The winner of HCSC [20xx] will be offered the chance to join the Organising Committee for [20xx] and to host the [20xx] edition of the contest in cooperation with the Organising Committee.
  • Please note that this is not obligatory, so don't be afraid to participate even if you aren't interested in helping to organise the event!


Home Composed Song Contest
Editions
1990s · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999
2000s · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009
2010s · 2010 · 2011 · 2012 · 2013 · 2014 · 2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2018 · 2019
2020s · 2020 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023

30 Years Of HCSC: Greatest Hits

Countries
Albania · Australia · Austria · Belarus · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Cyprus · Denmark
Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Greece · Hungary · Ireland · Israel · Italy · Latvia · Lithuania
FYR Macedonia · Malta · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Russia
San Marino · Serbia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Turkey · Ukraine · United Kingdom

Statistics
Winners · Medal table: Countries · Medal table: Participants · Most entries: Countries · Most entries: Participants