AwlaVision Song Contest 25

AwlaVision Song Contest 25, often referred to as ASC#25, was the twenty-fifth edition of AwlaVision Song Contest, held in Helsinki, Finland. The edition started the 1st December 2017, and ended the 29th December 2017.

42 countries took part in this edition. No one debuted in this edition. Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia withdrew from ASC. Egypt returned to the competition. Maks Barskikh from Ukraine won the contest with the song "Moya lyubov" receiving a total of 338 points, 65 point ahead the runner-up, Norway. Denmark finished in third place with 223 points. The host country, Finland achieved a 8th place with 149 points. The last place was for Greece, that got 7 points.

Organisation
After Finland's victory in AwlaVision Song Contest 24, YLE and ABU had to decide where to organize the contest this time. YLE organised a public competition for choosing the host city between all applicant cities. Several cities presented their applications and the organization had to decide which one was the best. Finally, YLE and ABU chose Helsinki as the host city of ASC25.

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

Hartwall Areena
The Hartwall Arena is a large multi-functional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland. Opened in 1997, the arena gets its name from its largest sponsor, the beverage company Hartwall, also based in Helsinki.

The idea of building the arena came from Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo in 1994. It was built to be ready for the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1997 and was delivered by the constructor on 11 April 1997. The building is elliptical, 153 metres long and 123 metres wide. 37 meters under ground there is a practice arena which is used by many hockey teams. The arena is situated next to Pasila railway station, which is the second busiest railway station in Finland, 3.5 km north of Helsinki Central.

Total capacity in ice hockey games is 13,349 (all seats). The arena is convertible for various events. For sport events, the capacity is about 10,000, about 14,000 for basketball, for concerts about 13,000, and as an amphitheatre, 3,000-5,000. It is connected to a multi-storey carpark, which has a total capacity of 1,421 vehicles.

Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital, primate and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of 656,229. The city's urban area has a population of 1,268,296, making it by far the most populous urban area in Finland as well as the country's most important center for politics, education, finance, culture, and research; while Tampere in the Pirkanmaa region, located 179 kilometres to the north from Helsinki, is the second largest urban area in Finland. Helsinki is located 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 km east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 km west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It has close historical ties with these three cities.

Together with the cities of Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen, and surrounding commuter towns, Helsinki forms the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which has a population of over 1.5 million. Often considered to be Finland's only metropolis, it is the world's northernmost metro area with over one million people as well as the northernmost capital of an EU member state. After Stockholm and Oslo, Helsinki is the third largest municipality in the Nordic countries. Finnish and Swedish are both official languages. The city is served by the international Helsinki Airport, located in the neighbouring city of Vantaa, with frequent service to many destinations in Europe and Asia.

Helsinki has a humid continental climate similar to that of Hokkaido or Nova Scotia coastal. Owing to the mitigating influence of the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic Current, temperatures during the winter are higher than the northern location might suggest, with the average in January and February around −5 °C. Winters in Helsinki are notably warmer than in the north of Finland, and the snow season is much shorter in the capital, due to it being in extreme Southern Finland and the urban heat island effect. Temperatures below −20 °C occur a few times a year at most. However, because of the latitude, days last 5 hours and 48 minutes around the winter solstice with very low sun (at noon, the sun is a little bit over 6 degrees in the sky), and the cloudy weather at this time of year exacerbates darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long daylight during the summer; during the summer solstice, days last 18 hours and 57 minutes.

This is the third time in the contest that AwlaVision Song Contest is held in Finland, and the second one in Helsinki.

Participants
42 countries took part in the edition.

Withdrawing countries
Bellow a list of all withdrawing countries:

Returning countries
Bellow a list of all withdrawing countries:

First Semifinal
Jury
 * (Host)
 * (Finalist)
 * (Finalist)

Second Semifinal
Jury
 * (Finalist)
 * (Finalist)
 * (Finalist)