AwlaVision Song Contest 7

AwlaVision Song Contest 7, often referred to as ASC#7, was the seventh edition of AwlaVision Song Contest, held in Tampere, Finland. The edition started the 14th June 2016, and ended the 30th June 2016.

28 countries participated in this edition. Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania debuted in this edition. No one decided to withdraw from ASC. Kazakhstan returned to the competition. Christine And The Queens from France won the contest with the song "Tilted" receiving a total of 181 points, 22 points ahead the runner-up, Portugal. Czech Republic finished in third place with 143 points. The host country, Finland achieved a 8th place with 97 points. The last place was for Switzerland, that got 2 points.

Organisation
After Finland's victory in AwlaVision Song Contest 6, YLE and ABU had to decide where to organise the contest this time. The main projects were from Helsinki (Hartwall Areena) and Tampere (Tampereen Hakametsä). Finally, YLE and ABU chose Tampere as the host city of ASC7.

YLE decided to use popular and professionals people as presenters. Finally Topi Latukka and Krista Siegfrids were selected.

Tampereen Hakametsä
Tampere Ice Stadium (Finnish: Tampereen Hakametsä) is a sports arena in Tampere, Finland. It is primarily used for ice hockey, and is the home arena of Ilves and Tappara of the Finnish Liiga. The ice hall, designed by the architect Jaakko Tähtinen was built for the 1965 World Ice Hockey Championships and opened the same year. The current capacity of the ice hall for hockey games is 7,300 spectators (5,629 seats, 1,359 standing, 312 suites). Tampere ice stadium is the third biggest ice hall in the Finnish ice hockey league.

Finland was awarded the opportunity to host the 1965 ice hockey World Championships, and Helsinki was to build an arena for the tournament. However, Helsinki did not manage to finish the project in time, and Tampere was asked to build an arena and host the games instead.

Originally, the spectator capacity of the Tampereen jäähalli was 10,200 people, with only 1,573 seats on the eastern side of the rink. The ice hall has also served as one of the venues of the ice hockey World Championships in 1982, 1991, 1997 and 2003 and also for the women's World Championship in 1992.

In 2007, a new video screen cube was installed in the arena. Of note is the fact that the balcony hanging over the stand B blocks the view to the screen from the uppermost rows. This has been augmented by placing TV monitors under the balcony, mirroring the output of the screen. There are several bars, restaurants and fast food stalls around the ice hall, as well as fan shops and the VIP clubs of the two local hockey teams.

Tampere
Tampere is a city in Pirkanmaa, western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries; it has a population of 238,140 with the urban area holding 334,112 people and the metropolitan area, also known as the Tampere sub-region, holding 385,301 inhabitants in an area of 4,970 km2. Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in Finland, after the cities of Helsinki and Espoo and the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area, within which both Helsinki and Espoo are located. Tampere is a major urban, economic, and cultural hub for central Finland.

Tampere is wedged between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres, the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of the North" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock". Also, Tampere has been officially declared the "Sauna Capital of the World", because it has the most public saunas in the world.

Tampere has a typical subarctic climate at the Tampere–Pirkkala Airport (TMP) with only 3 months above 10 °C, bordering on a warm-summer humid continental climate. Winters are cold and the average temperature from November to March is below 0 °C. Summers are cool to warm. On average, snow cover lasts 4–5 months from late November to early April. Considering it being at the subarctic threshold and inland, winters are, on average, quite mild for the classification, as is the annual mean temperature.

This is the second time in the contest that AwlaVision Song Contest is held in Finland, and the first time that it's held in Tampere.

Participants
28 countries participated in the edition.

Debuting countries
Bellow a list of all debuting countries:

Returning countries
Bellow a list of all returning countries: