ABU Radio Song Festival

The ABU Radio Song Festival is a biennial non-competitive gala that showcases songs or instrumentals by musicians across Asia, organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), and is based on the Eurovision Song Contest.[1] The format consists of a non-televised semi-final and grand final which is broadcast.[2]

This article is about ABU Radio Song Festival. For the television version, see ABU TV Song Festival.
ABU Radio Song Festival
Generic logo used for the ABU Radio Song Festivals.
GenreSong festival
Created byABU
No. of episodes6 festivals
Production
Production companyAsia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
Release
Original release11 October 2012 (2012-10-11) –
present

Participating countries which have full or additional full ABU membership are invited to submit a song from an act that is unsigned to any record label. These entries are listened to by a panel of jury members, who select fifteen to proceed towards the radio festival final, were another panel of judges determining the top-5 prize winners.[2] The grand final may be broadcast live via radio and television, or as a delayed live recorded broadcast for national broadcasters who may wish to add subtitles in their native languages.[1]

Development
Participation since 2012:
  Entered at least once
  Never entered, although eligible to do so
  Entry intended, but later withdrew

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) had already run an international song contest for its members inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest in 1985 – 1987, called the ABU Popular Song Contest, with 14 countries of the Asia-Pacific region competing.[3] The show had a similar concept to the current radio song festival with winners being chosen by a professional jury. South Korea, New Zealand and Australia celebrated victories in this competition. In 1989 – 1991 ABU co-produced the ABU Golden Kite World Song Festival in Malaysia with participation of Asia-Pacific countries, as well as Yugoslavia and Finland.[3]

Shortly before launching the ABU Song Festival, the ABU had been considering the possibility to organize the ABU ASEAN TV Song Festival in Thailand.[3] Historically, ASEAN song contests had been organized in periods between 1981 and 1997, however since 2011 the ASEAN Festival had been organized between local Radio stations as Bintang Radio ASEAN. The ABU outlined a plan about a "television song festival" based on the style of the Eurovision Song Contest following the cancellation of Our Sound. Kenny Kihyung Bae, chosen to the project manager, attended Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan to learn more about the contest before putting it to work.[4][5]

In November 2011, the ABU announced that they would organize its own TV and Radio Song Festivals to take place in Seoul, the South Korean capital, in time with 49th General Assembly in October 2012.[6] The name Asiavision Song Contest was initially mentioned as a possibility, but they were later officially titled ABU TV Song Festival and ABU Radio Song Festival. According to the ABU, the deadline for participation applications for ABU TV Song Festival 2012 was 18 May 2012.[7][8]

Format

The ABU Radio Song Festival is a concert performance for musicians, who are not under contract with any label. The ABU recommends its members to introduce participating musicians and their songs on radio.[9] Every participant is chosen by one national radio broadcaster. A jury represented by ABU members chooses 15 finalists from 26 submissions. The finalists perform during the general assembly of the ABU. Another jury awards the best artists.[9][10]

Participation
Further information: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union § Membership

Participation in the contest is open to members of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.

Table key
  Inactive – Countries who have participated in the past but are now inactive.
Country[11] Broadcaster(s) Debut year Most recent entry Number of entries Wins
Afghanistan Afghanistan RTA 2018 2018 1
 Australia CRA 2012 2014 2
Bangladesh Bangladesh BB 2019 2019 1
 Bhutan BBS
CR101		 2012 2014 2
 Brunei RTB 2012 2015 3
 China CNR 2016 2016 2
Fiji Fiji FBC 2012 2012 1
 India AIR 2012 2018 10
 Indonesia RRI 2012 2019 8
 Iran IRIB 2012 2019 4
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan KA 2018 2018 1
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan KTRK 2012 2012 1
Macau Macau TDM 2016 2018 2
 Malaysia RTM
Astro All Asian Network		 2012 2014 3
 Maldives PSM 2015 2019 6
Myanmar Myanmar MRTV 2015 2016 2
Nepal Nepal Radio Nepal 2016 2019 3
 Pakistan PBC 2012 2014 2
Romania Romania Radio Romania 2016 2016 1
 Singapore Mediacorp 2012 2016 4
 South Korea KBS 2FM
KBS Radio 2		 2012 2016 5 1
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka MBC Networks 2014 2019 3
Sudan Sudan Sudan Radio 2012 2012 1
Thailand Thailand NBT 2014 2016 2
Turkey Turkey TRT 2018 2018 1
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan TTV 2018 2019 2
Vanuatu Vanuatu ABC
Vanuatu Radio		 2012 2012 1
Vietnam Vietnam VOV 2012 2019 5

Hosting
Further information: List of ABU Song Festivals host cities § ABU Radio Song Festival
Year Date Host country Host city Venue Participants
2012 11 October 2012  South Korea[1] Seoul KBS Hall 13[a][b]
2014 23 May 2014 Sri Lanka Sri Lanka[12] Colombo Stein Studios 12
2015 29 May 2015 Myanmar Myanmar[13] Yangon National Theatre of Yangon 10
2016 26 April 2016  China[14] Beijing China National Radio Auditorium 14
2017 Cancelled[c]
2018 11 July 2018 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan[15] Astana Kazmedia Centre 10
2019 31 October 2019 Bangladesh Bangladesh[16] Dhaka Hotel Intercontinental[17] 8

Notes and references

Notes
  1. ^ Fiji had initially selected Sevanaia Yacalevu to represent the Pacific nation with the song "Time For A Change", but later withdrew from competition.
  2. ^ Sri Lanka had initially selected Surendra Perera to represent the South Asian nation with the song "Wahi Pabalu Sali", but later withdrew from competition.
  3. THA Due to the demise of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the 2017 ABU Radio Song Festival, initially scheduled to be held on 27 April 2017 as part of the 2017 RadioAsia Conference, was not held in Thailand. That festival was cancelled.[18]

References
  1. "ABU Radio Song Festival 2012". Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  2. Granger, Anthony. "ABU Radio Song Festival: All you need to know". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Archived from the original on 2014-09-09. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  3. Mikheev, Andy (16 August 2012). "Participants - ABU TV and Radio Song Festivals 2012". escKaz.com. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  4. "ABU to launch 'Asiavision Song Contest'?". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  5. "Asiavision contest to begin next year". News.AZ. 10 November 2011. Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  6. "ABU to launch 'Asiavision Song Contest'". EBU. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
  7. Hamzah, Hanizah. "ABU TV Song Festival". Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  8. "ABU to launch 'Asiavision Song Contest'". EBU. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
  9. abu.org.my: ABU Radio Song Festival Archived September 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  10. abu2012seoul.com: Program at a Glance Archived December 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. Granger, Anthony (27 October 2014). "All you need to know about the ABU Radio Song Festival". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Retrieved 27 October 2014. Who could debut at this years contest?
  12. "ABU gets leaders' backing for increased activities". ABU Radio Song Festival 2015. ABU. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  13. "ABU Radio Song Festival 2015". ABU. Archived from the original on 4 December 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  14. "China National Radio will be hosting the 2016 RAC & RSF in Beijing". ABU News Q2. Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. p. 29. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  15. "Kazakhstan To Host ABU Radio Song Festival 2018". eurovoix-world.com. Eurovoix World. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  16. Granger, Anthony (28 June 2019). "Bangladesh to Host the ABU Radio Song Festival 2019". eurovoix-world.com. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  17. Granger, Anthony (2019-10-31). "Today: ABU Radio Song Festival 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh". Eurovoix World. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
  18. "2017 RadioAsia Conference". ABU News. No. Vol. 35 - Q4 2016. Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union. December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.