AINVision Cattala 2013

AINVision Cattala 2013 is the name of the 7th Semi-Annual AINVision Song Contest which is to be held in the summer after AINVision 2012 was won by Cattala with its entry, Run Run Run by Celeste Buckingham. The show will air in June.

This song contest brings many changes to the series, such as the return of 3 hosts, semi-finals and the broadcasting rights being held for the first time by the public broadcaster of the host nation, as well as other aspects. It has been declared by RMI, the host broadcaster, to be a return to the "Petrovar system" of 2010, which was highly successful but expensive. The voting format will be in keeping withthe past format of 0-7 points and the top 3 points of 8, 10 and 12.

Location


For the first time since the start of the competition the host city has been selected, and only the second time that a bidding system has been used in the contest since it began with Petrova being the only host bidder and then winning the contest. For this contest, multiple major towns were up for the bid to host the prestigious and lucrative music festival. The final two were narrowed down to Jennai and Celeste. On the 17th of March, the bidding from each city started with Jennai and Celeste.

Celeste Bid
Celeste's bid focused on the Aziens district of Celeste with the potential of winning being described as a positive for the Amosseri Governor, Jeremia Swarn, who is hoping for this to draw in more tourists to the city. The stadium that was proposed to host it would have been the Dionysus Arena, which would need regeneration to get it to international event hosting standards. An alternative proposed would be the Lady Eliza Stadium in the same district, which if selected, would been the second venue in AINVision history to be open air, after Illu'a in 2010.

Celeste's drawback was it's lack of infrastructure compared to it's rival Jennai, where the arenas have enjoyed strong public transport and rail access for years. But the bid was backed by the Celestine Chambers of Culture, local radio and government.

Jennai Bid
Jennai, which is the home of the winner Celeste Buckingham, was also in the running. Before RMI announced a bidding process, public opinion swayed to Jennai to host the contest. The city's infrastructure is better than Celeste's with the country's main airport, Jennai International, on the edge of the city and the best rail, metro and bus services in Cattala. The stadium was not been released publicly during bidding but has been hinted that it's infrastructure is "second-to-none", with some suggesting the Jennai Arena was most likely to host the contest. .



Jennai was criticized that the contest would not be put on the map because its infrastructure which is already in place and it's image as a tourist destination is already renowned, unlike Celeste.

Winning Venue
On the 2nd of April, the winning bid was revealed to be Jennai with the selected venue being the Jennai Arena in the Harbour district of the city. The RMI Events selection committee chose Jennai and "hailed the metropolitan council and arts boards for their "drive and passion" to put on the "best AINVision in history"." Celeste were revealed to have insufficient infrastructure capacity despite the private backing of the capital's bid from senior RMI executives.

Jennai Arena will host all semi-finals and the grand final, with other sporting and musical fixtures moved during the month of June to other venues in the city. The stadium has hosted performers including Kylie Minogue, Queen and U2 in the past, and is the home of indoor sports such as hockey, basketball and wrestling. The stadium was built in the 1980s as part of the redevelopment of the harbour front and has extensive facilities for music contests. The city's metropolitan council, owners of the arena, will take on a leading role in the coordination of hosting the contest, as well as security, transport and global branding alongside RMI.

AINTV vs RMI Events Case
After Cattala's representative at the 2012 AINVision Song Contest in Ascadylea, Celeste Buckingham, won the competition, RMI, the state broadcaster, announced its intentions to independently sell off the global rights to the 2013 Contest, which they would be hosting. The profits from the sale, expected to be around $120 million, would go towards paying for the costs of the contest being held in Cattala.

AINTV, the production company and rights owner of all previous Contests, took RMI Events to the High Court in Cattala in February 2013. On the 2nd March, the judge ruled in favour of the defendant, after AINTV presented what was described as a "weak, profit-hunting case with almost predatory undertones". RMI Director General Andrew Dasnell welcomed the announcement after leaving court, criticising AINTV's approach to negotations and argued that "RMI Events is a highly experienced media entertainment group and we know that they will host the best AINVision in history in three months time, with or without the support of AINTV".

The 2013 AINVision Song Contest will now be the first independently-produced broadcast of the concert, with the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sport acting in an advisory and managerial capacity alongside RMI. AINTV will have no role in the contest.

Riyadh Islamic Federation
On the 29th April, it was revealed that RMI and Cattalian delegates had met with Riyadhi officials in Al Maysah to discuss Riyadh's participation in the music contest. In the past, RMI has refused to confirm whether or not Riyadh would be allowed to field a representative after tensions between the two nations grew following the 2013 Nuclear Sanctions Crisis. Riyadh is still heavily sanctioned by Cattala.

Human rights groups and global republican movements threatened to protest at the Jennai Arena if Riyadh was allowed to participate, with Amnesty International urging the government to ban Riyadh from taking part. The Parliamentary Select Committee on the Riyadh Federation declared that the country must improve its human rights record before relations should be normalised.

Branding
RMI Events, co-ordinating the contest, have greater freedom over the branding than in previous competitions. The AINVision logo was initially kept the same, with the simple addition of the Cattalian flag into the heart as in the past. However in March, RMI unveiled a new brand for this contest and re-introduced the individual themes of the 2009 and 2010 song contests.

The AINVision symbol has been altered, with the crest of the second "i" in AINvision replaced by the official symbol of the union, the dove of peace. This was done in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and AINTV. For this contest only, the logo has been recoloured to Cattalian Blue.

A unique logo following the branding theme of "Four Joy" was created by RMI's internal creative division. It contains 2 separate chevrons, one pointing left which is purple along with a chevron pointing to the right which is gold, and layered beneath the purple one. It is believed that these may alternate during the contest, as gold and purple is a general colour scheme. The diamond shape created is also a continuing theme, with the "Four" in the title created by the four corners. The AINVision Song Contest logo remains prominent over the diamond throughout initial branding.

RMI has announced a separate rebrand of all of its channels, programming and corporate branding for the AINVision period, with the RMI logo incorporated into the gold-and-purple diamond. The only department unchanged by the temporary rebrand is News, which will continue with its current style and will not advertise the song contest.

Presenters
Along with other significant changes in the contest, the presenters line-up has also been reverted back to a Petrovar system. In previous contests, there was one host, usually the representative to the hosting country in AIN, whereas in the first few contests there were multiple co-hosts and the representative to the AIN for the country was not involved. In 2013, this format has been confirmed to return by RMI, although the presenters have not been announced to the media as of yet.

Participating Countries
Official released participation has not been spoken of yet, with the participation application beginning in May. But some leaks have revealed in interest, including Kingston and Boyce returning for a second year, and new member Histalpol taking interest in joining with rumours of internal song selection in the local broadcasting union of the artist and the song.

The confirmation of acts started with media reports; first being on the 15th of April announcing Kingston and Boyce's entry, closely followed by Histalpol and Cattala, 2 days apart, with their entries, without revealing the song names. Official entries opened on the 28th April.

1) The language for the Asgard entry is mainly violin with vocal Acapella