Special Melody Q4-2023

Special Melody Q4-2023
Rock Bangers
Dates
Final	15 December 2023
Host
Venue	Gangneung Ice Arena, Gangneung, South Korea
Executive supervisor	Denis Vorobyov
Executive producer	Denis Leonenko
Host broadcaster	KBS
Participants
Number of entries	18
Debuting countries	Israel Italy Spain
Returning Countries	None
Non-returning Countries	Kazakhstan
Participation map
Vote
Winning song	Greece "Weapon"

The Special Melody Contest Q4-2023 - was the 2st edition of the Special Melody Contest that has been ever made. It is set to take place in Gangneung, South Korea, because the winner of the previous competition Canada refused to host this episode of the competition. Due to this, the competition was transferred to the country that took 2nd place - South Korea. Organised by the International Eurofan's Countries Organisation (IECO) and host broadcaster Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), the contest was held at the Impact Arena Bangkok, and was consisted a final on 15 December 2023.

A record eighteen countruies participated in the competition, with Israel, Italy and Spain participating for the first time. Last season's competitor Kazakhstan withdrew from the competition.

The winner was the Greece with the song "Weapon", performed by Against The Current. Japan (best result), Portugal (best result), Denmark and South Korea rounded out the top five. The following countries improved their results: Hungary and the United Kingdom, in the Special Melody (10th place second time). Thailand finished on the last place second time a row.

Location

The Q4-2023 contest will be held in one of the cities of South Korea, which received the right to host after its victory in the previous competition. The selected venue is the 12.000-seat Gangneung Ice Arena.

City bidding process

On November 15, three candidate cities for the competition were announced, they were: Gangneung, Incheon and Busan. In the end, Gangneung got the right to host the song contest, and the Gangneung Ice Arena was chosen as the venue for the contest.

Format

Rules of season

The theme of the season was the genre of songs - rock and all its varieties from strong metal rock to alternative rock and other things. The only restriction was the release of the composition - the composition should not have been released earlier on January 1, 2018. There was still a ban on the use of performers who participated in the competition of Eurovision songs.

Participating Countries

Eighteen countries have confirmed their participation in the season of the competition. It's was the first time when Israel, Italy and Spain participated in the contest. Kazakhstan is left from the competition.

Final

#	Country	Artist	Song	Language(s)	Place	Points
01	Japan	One Ok Rock	Renegades	English	2	100
02	Thailand	Jaws The Shark	Suff City	English	18	16
03	Australia	Rain City Drive	Wasting My Youth	English	7	72
04	Cyprus	Mother Mother	Hayloft I	English	15	36
05	Netherlands	Bad Omens	Just Pretend	English	12	51
06	United Kingdom	The Pretty Reckless	25	English	10	61
07	Norway	Royal Blood	Trouble’s Coming	English	13	47
08	Portugal	The Word Alive	No Way Out	English	3	81
09	Canada	Citizen Soldier	Unsaid	English	9	61
10	Israel	Nothing But Thieves	Forever & Ever More	English	16	35
11	Italy	Modà	Finisce Sempre Cosi	Italian	14	39
12	South Korea	Spiritbox	Ultraviolet	English	5	80
13	Hungary	Dorothy	Rest In peace	English	8	71
14	Germany	Mothica	Casualty	English	11	54
15	Lebanon	Edge Of Paradise	Digital Paradise	English	17	33
16	Spain	Imagine Dragons	Natural	English	6	74
17	Greece	Against The Current	Weapon	English	1	110
18	Denmark	Holy Wars	Get Mine	English	4	81

Voting

Each country had a jury who awarded 12, 10, 8-1 point(s) to their top ten songs.

Grand Final voting results Total score Japan Thailand Australia Cyprus Netherlands United Kingdom Norway Portugal Canada Israel Italy South Korea Hungary Germany Lebanon Spain Greece Denmark Rest of the World Contestants Japan 100 12 8 7 5 6 6 5 10 10 2 7 2 7 8 Thailand 16 3 1 5 6 1 Australia 72 3 6 1 5 12 7 12 2 12 5 6 Cyprus 36 10 7 8 5 6 Netherlands 51 3 3 3 2 12 4 4 4 1 10 1 4 United Kingdom 61 4 7 8 8 4 2 1 10 7 7 3 Norway 47 8 6 3 1 6 3 5 10 5 Portugal 81 6 4 2 12 2 3 8 7 10 3 6 10 7 Canada 61 10 3 1 10 1 5 2 12 7 4 3 2 1 Israel 35 1 2 4 2 7 2 12 5 Italy 39 6 10 4 4 3 6 6 South Korea 80 7 6 1 7 7 3 10 12 8 4 3 10 2 Hungary 71 7 5 1 5 8 6 5 2 12 10 1 8 1 Germany 54 5 2 12 4 2 4 7 6 4 8 Lebanon 33 4 5 7 6 3 5 1 3 Spain 74 12 8 5 4 12 8 8 5 4 2 6 Greece 110 2 10 10 12 6 10 1 6 3 1 8 12 8 5 4 12 Denmark 81 1 12 8 10 3 8 2 7 12 8 10

Detailed vote from the rest of the world Place Country Points FRA SWE CHE 1 Greece 12 27.00 1 3 4 2 Denmark 10 19.41 11 1 5 3 Japan 8 15.79 2 13 6 4 Portugal 7 15.69 4 16 3 5 Spain 6 15.62 3 5 11 6 Norway 5 15.25 16 6 2 7 Netherlands 4 15.01 10 15 1 8 United Kingdom 3 13.57 8 2 18 9 South Korea 2 11.65 14 4 7 10 Canada 1 10.04 5 11 9 11 Hungary 8.50 12 7 8 12 Germany 7.70 7 8 16 13 Australia 7.38 6 17 10 14 Italy 5.82 9 10 14 15 Lebanon 4.21 13 12 12 16 Cyprus 3.95 18 9 15 17 Israel 2.43 15 14 17 18 Thailand 2.28 17 18 13

12 Points

12 points awarded by the countries

#	Recipient	Countries giving 12 points
3	Greece	Germany, United Kingdom, Rest of the World
	Australia	Hungary, Portugal, Spain
2	Japan	Denmark, Thailand
	Denmark	Australia, Lebanon
	Spain	Japan, Norway
1	Portugal	Netherlands
	South Korea	Israel
	Hungary	South Korea
	Canada	Italy
	Germany	Cyprus
	Netherlands	Canada
	Israel	Greece