Free European Song Contest

The Free European Song Contest is an international song competition, organised by the German television network ProSieben and the production company Brainpool TV, with participants representing primarily European countries. The contest is similar in format to the long-running Eurovision Song Contest: each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television, then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner.

Free European Song Contest
Also known as	FreeESC
Genre	Song contest
Created by	Stefan Raab
Based on	Eurovision Song Contest
Country of origin	Germany
Original language	German
No. of episodes	2 contest
Production
Executive producer	Stefan Raab
Running time	~4 hours (finals)
Production company	Brainpool TV
Original release
Network	ProSieben
Release	15 May 2020 (2020-05-15)

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.

History

As the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 could not take place due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Europe, German TV station ProSieben and German entertainer Stefan Raab decided to organise Free European Song Contest as an alternative.^[1] After the success of the first edition, ProSieben has decided to plan the event also for 2021.^[2]

The first contest was held in the city of Cologne, Germany, on 16 May 2020. Sixteen countries participated: each participating country submitted an entry. The contest was won by Nico Santos, representing Spain, with the song "Like I Love You".

A third edition was announced for 2022 during the show. However, on 25 June 2022, it was announced that the show would be suspended for a year and would return in 2023 for a third edition.^[3] The 2023 contest was cancelled in May of that year.^[4]

Participation

Year	Country making its début entry
2020	Austria,  Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Denmark,  Germany,  Ireland,  Israel,  Italy,  Kazakhstan,  Netherlands,  Poland,  Spain,   Switzerland, The Moon,  Turkey,  United Kingdom
2021[5]	Belgium,  England,[a]  France,  Greece,  Scotland,[a]  Slovenia

The following countries have all participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, or are eligible to compete by the standards of the Free European Song Contest, but have not had either public or private broadcasters indicate interest in participating (as of yet):

•  Albania
•  Andorra
•  Armenia
•  Australia
•  Azerbaijan
•  Belarus
•  Bosnia and Herzegovina
•  Cyprus
•  Czech Republic
•  Estonia
•  Finland
•  Georgia
•  Hungary
•  Iceland
•  Latvia
•  Liechtenstein
•  Lithuania
•  Luxembourg
•  Malta
•  Moldova
•  Monaco
•  Montenegro
•  Morocco
•  North Macedonia
•  Norway
•  Portugal
•  Romania
•  Russia
•  San Marino
•  Serbia
•  Slovakia
•  Sweden
•  Ukraine
•  United Kingdom
  •  Northern Ireland
  •  Wales

Competition history

Edition	Date of final	Year	Host broadcaster(s)	Host city	Countries	Winner(s)	Performer	Song	Points	Margin	Runner up	3rd place	Ref.
1st	16 May	2020	ProSieben	Cologne	16	Spain	Nico Santos	"Like I Love You"	104	16	Netherlands	The Moon	[6]
2nd	15 May	2021				Ireland	Rea Garvey	"The One"	116	22		Belgium[b]	[7][8]

Medal table

The table below shows the top-three placings from each contest, along with the years that a country won the contest.

Country				Total	Years won
Ireland	1	0	0	1	2021
Spain	1	0	0	1	2020
Netherlands	0	2	0	2	—
Belgium	0	0	1	1	—
The Moon	0	0	1	1	—

Presenters

Year	Presenter(s)
2020	Steven Gätjen and Conchita Wurst
2021

See also

• Bundesvision Song Contest, previous contest organised by ProSieben and held annually between the 16 states of Germany.
• Eurovision Song Contest

Notes

1. In 2020, England and Scotland participated as separate countries of the United Kingdom.
2. Both Belgium and Scotland finished with 77 points; however, the official ranking and Eurovision tiebreak rules would put Belgium ahead of Scotland.