Waffle Song Contest

The Waffle Song Contest sometimes abbreviated to WSC, is an international song competition organised by WaffleGuy, featuring participants representing primarily European countries. It is ran through Discord. Each participating country submits a song to be performed on the WSC Stage, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine a winner.&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Based on the Eurovision Song Contest held in Europe since 1956, The Waffle Song Contest has been held since he 21st of May 2022. Any country or territory is welcome to submit a song for the contest. Over 100 countries have participated at least once. Each participating broadcaster sends one song with under 100m views and with a singer from that country or a Borrowing Country. Each country awards 1–8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs, with the song receiving the most points declared the winner. As of Edition 8, San Marino has competed more times than any other country, having participated in every edition, while Netherlands and Finland hold the record for the most victories, with two wins each.

Several of the best-selling music artists in the world have competed in past editions, including Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Bruce Springsteen.

Origins and history
Twenty countries participated in Edition 1, with each country represented by one song. The winning song was "Supermodel", representing the country of San Marino and performed by Måneskin. Voting during the first contest was kept the same as most of the rest of the Editions, it only included Jury Votes by the 20 Competing Nations. The tradition of the winning country hosting the following year's contest, which has since become a standard feature of the event, began in Edition 2.

By Edition 3, between 40 and 50 countries were regularly competing each edition. Select countries from outside of Europe had always been allowed to enter the contest, starting with the United States and Australia in Edition 1. In Edition 8, changes to the rules were made to allow every country or territory to compete in the contest. In Edition 2, Semi Finals were introduced and from then on there has either been 2 or 3 Semi Finals every edition.

8 contests have been held in total. A total of over 100 countries have taken part in at least one edition, with a record 51 countries participating in Edition 5. Gagauzia became the first associate member country to compete following an agreement made by WaffleGuy ahead of the contest's Eighth Edition that if they came in a Top 10 finish, they could stay in the contest, they failed to meet these requirements. And have not returned to the contest since.

Naming
The contest was named the Waffle Song Contest after the owner of the contest WaffleGuy, this name has not changed since the first Edition.

Format
Songs representing participating countries are often performed in a Live VC simultaneously to every country.. A "country" as a participant is represented by one juror, The programme is staged by one of the participant countries and is broadcast from an VC in the selected host city. In Edition 2, each Semi and Final is typically formed of three to four live shows held over a few weeks: The Smis are typically held close to each other, the Grand Final is typically held one/two weeks after the Semis to give the jurors time to vote. All participating countries compete in one of the semi-finals, except for the host country of that year's contest and the other highest placers of the previous contest, this is decided by the Jury representing the high placing country and not the country itself. The remaining countries are split between the semi-finals, and the highest-scoring entries in each qualify to produce the countries competing in the final. The format has recently been changed to only have the Semi Final results be produced in a text format.

Viewers are welcomed by WaffleGuy, the host of WSC. The moderators conduct the preparation for the show and they must tabulate the results. Competing acts perform sequentially, and after all songs have been performed the votes will be revealed. This typically only includes Jury Votes, Televoting was used in Edition 2 but was swiftly removed after backlash. The full results of the competition, including detailed results of the jury vote and Semi Final results, are released shortly after the final, and the participating broadcaster of the winning entry is traditionally given the honour of osting the following year's event.

Selection
Each participating broadcaster has sole discretion over the process they may employ to select their entry for the contest. Typical methods in which participants are selected include a national selection process using a public vote or an internal selection by the jury. Most juries choose to select their entries internally but San Marino and Czech Republic are both well known in the contest for their use of the National Selection format.

Participation
Main Article: List of Countries in the Waffle Song Contest Any country or territory is eligible to compete in the contest, Borrowing Rules apply to any territory who wish to compete meaning that they may borrow a singer from the country that they are under rule from. This allows them to have more eligible singers at their disposal.

Eligibility to participate in the contest is therefore not limited to countries in Europe, ever since the First Edition, countries outside of Europe have participated, the contest has now fully expanded to be a worldwide contest where every country is eligible/

Countries who wish to participate must fulfil conditions as laid down in the rules of the contest, these may be changed from edition to edition. A maximum of 50 countries can take part in any one contest.

Over 100 countries have participated at least once. However only 5 countries have won the contest