ABU TV Song Festival explained

Genre:Song festival
Creator:ABU
Num Episodes:12 festivals
Company:Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
Last Aired:present

The ABU TV Song Festival is an annual non-competitive gala that showcases songs or instrumentals by musicians across Asia, organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU). Participating countries which have full or additional full ABU membership are invited to submit a song to be performed in front of a live audience. It is live recorded so that each of the national broadcasters may add subtitles in their respective Asian languages.

In contrast to the Eurovision Song Contest in Europe, which has numerous rules and obligations as well as a voting system to determine a specific "winner", the television festival is a non-competitive, cordial musical gala presentation, with the intention to recognise the musical talent of Asian musicians across Asia.

Development

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.[1] 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.[1]

Shortly before launching the ABU Song Festival, the ABU had been considering the possibility to organize the ABU ASEAN TV Song Festival in Thailand.[1] 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.[2] [3]

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.[4] 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.[5] [4]

Format

The ABU TV Song Festival is a concert performance for professional musicians, who according to the organiser are well known in their country of origin. The event is not meant to be competitive. The festival will be recorded and is meant to be broadcast by participating ABU members first. Non-participating ABU members and non-ABU member broadcasters will be allowed to broadcast the festival for a fee at a later stage.[6] [7] [8] Every musician will be selected by a national broadcaster being member of the ABU. The participants perform during the general assembly of the ABU.[9]

At a press conference held on 18 July 2013 it was announced that Indonesia were submitting a bid to host the ABU TV Song Festival 2015.[10] In recent editions, the TV Festival has been held in the host city of the ABU General Assembly, with Istanbul, Turkey playing host to such assembly in 2015. If the bid were to be successful it would be the first time that the TV Festival has taken place away from the host country of the General Assembly.[11]

However, it was announced in August 2014 that Indonesia were making plans to host the ABU TV Song Festival 2016 instead.[12] Turkey's debut at the 2014 Festival has led to speculation that they are hosting the 2015 alongside the ABU General Assembly which was scheduled to take place in Istanbul.[13] It was further confirmed in October 2014 that Turkey were indeed the hosts of the 2015 festival, which took place in Istanbul in October 2015.[14]

Participation

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

Table key
Country[15] Broadcaster(s)[16] Debut yearMost recent entryNumber of entries
RTR
ATN
6
SBS
ABC
4
BeninAUB
ORTB
1
RTB4
CCTV
SRT
8
TVB9
Doordarshan8
TVRI11
IranIRIB
SMC
1
NHK12
KMO
KA
7
KTRK
NBS
2
TDM9
RTM8
TVM
IBC
6
NepalNTV1
RussiaRTR1
Media TV
MediaCorp Suria
2
KBS12
SLRC4
NBT2
AUB
ASBU
TT
, 1
TRT8
TurkmenistanTVTM5
UzbekistanMTRK2
VanuatuVBTC1
VTV12
ZambiaAUB
ZNBC
1

Hosting

YearDateHost countryHost cityVenueParticipantsscope=col class="unsortable"
14 October 2012SeoulKBS Hall11
26 October 2013HanoiHanoi Opera House15
25 October 2014MacauSands Theatre12
28 October 2015IstanbulIstanbul Congress Center12
22 October 2016BaliBali Nusa Dua Convention Centre12
1 November 2017ChengduS1 SRT Studio14
2 October 2018 TurkmenistanAshgabatAshgabat Olympic Stadium16
19 November 2019ShibuyaNHK Hall11
14 December 2020(held online with pre-recorded performances)Maverick Pulse Studio14
18 November 202110
27 November 2022New DelhiSiri Fort Auditorium9
29 October 2023SeoulKBS Hall11
20 October 2024IstanbulIstanbul Lütfi Kırdar International Convention and Exhibition Center

See also

Notes and references

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mikheev. Andy. Participants - ABU TV and Radio Song Festivals 2012. escKaz.com. 17 August 2012. 16 August 2012.
  2. Web site: ABU to launch 'Asiavision Song Contest'? . European Broadcasting Union . 25 March 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120420080706/http://www.ebu.ch/en/union/news/2011/tcm_6-73095.php . 20 April 2012 .
  3. News: Asiavision contest to begin next year. 25 March 2012. News.AZ. 10 November 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111219065349/http://www.news.az/articles/eurovision/48430. 19 December 2011. dead.
  4. Web site: ABU to launch 'Asiavision Song Contest'. EBU. 8 November 2011. 9 June 2012.
  5. Web site: Hamzah . Hanizah . ABU TV Song Festival . . 4 October 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120920081328/http://www.abu.org.my/Programme-%40-ABU_TV_Song_Festival.aspx . 20 September 2012 . dead .
  6. abu.org.my: 1st ABU TV Song Festival - General Guidelines (PDF-Datei)
  7. abu2012seoul.com: ABU TV Song Festival: About The Festival
  8. abu.org.my: ABU TV Song Festival available for broadcast, 14. September 2012
  9. abu2012seoul.com: Program at a Glance
  10. Web site: Granger. Anthony. Indonesia bid for the 2015 ATSF. Eurovoix.com. 7 October 2013. 19 July 2013.
  11. Web site: Mikheev. Andy. Indonesia bid for ABU TV Song Festival 2015. esckaz.com. 7 October 2013. 18 July 2013. At the conference it has been announced that Indonesia is bidding for organization of ABU TV Song Festival in 2015 with "low cost, high impact" motto, while 2014 event will take place in Macau, China. If successful, that will mean that in 2015 event will be separated from ABU General Assembly which will take place in Istanbul..
  12. Web site: Granger. Anthony. Indonesia: Plans To Host ABU TV Song Festival 2016. eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. 1 September 2014. 31 August 2014.
  13. Web site: Granger. Anthony. ABU TV Song Festival 2014: 12 countries confirmed so far. eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. 1 September 2014. 1 September 2014. Turkish participation in this years contest also could show that Turkey will be hosting the contest in 2015 alongside the ABU General Meeting..
  14. Web site: Granger. Anthony. ABU TV Song Festival 2015: Turkey To Host. eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. 22 October 2014. 20 October 2014.
  15. Web site: Today: ABU TV Song Festival 2022. Eurovoix World. Anthony. Granger. 27 November 2022. 29 December 2022.
  16. Web site: Granger. Anthony. All you need to know about the ABU TV Song Festival. eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. 27 October 2014. 27 October 2014. Who could debut at this years contest?. https://web.archive.org/web/20141027152525/http://eurovoix.com/all-you-need-to-know-abu-tv-song-festival-2014/. 2014-10-27. dead.