AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1973

AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1973
Dates
Final	16th of May 1973
Host
Venue	Amtarani Performing Arts Centre, Metropolitan Zafizamarrah, ZF
Presenter(s)	Madina Sawfana
Musical director	Ishaq Dafani
Directed by	Bernard Hawson
Executive supervisor	Dammah Aufar
Executive producer	Ishaq Ghalbiruddin
Host broadcaster	Radio Zafizamarrah
Participants
Number of entries	18
Vote
Voting system	Each region sends two juries and a public vote where each votes 1-5 for the best 5 songs
Winning song	"Ding-Dong" by NEVESLENA

AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1973 is the sixteenth edition of the annual AleziRadio Festival of Songs. It was held on 16th of May 1973, which was organized by Radio Zafizamarrah. The competition was held in the newly built Amtarani Performing Arts Centre located in the Northern part of Metropolitan Zafizamarrah, which even then was still mostly empty at the time and was still planned for the expansion of the Metropolitan City, and at that time, only 1500 people live in the Northern parts of the city.

This is the seventh time that Zafizamarrah hosted the competition after 1958, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1969 and 1972 after Masfir Hawraz and Ana Ruhamaina won the competition last year on home ground. This also means that this is the first time that a region and Zafizamarrah hosted twice in a row two times after doing so in 1965 and 1966.

The competition was won by NEVESLENA with the song "Ding-Dong" representing Aramna. This marks the first time that Aramna won the competition, and this also marks that since 1973 onwards, all original six regions of North Alezia who had participated in the competition since 1958 had already won atleast once. This also marks the first time that a group won the festival.

Unfortunately, Na'orched Orchid Salem earned the dreaded zero points with the song "Ma'a'i Ina'ana'ina'a'i Ma'i'a'au" representing Pantabang Islands. This marks the second time that Pantabang Islands earned "nul points" after 1967 and together with Bristol are the only regions who had to go home point-less twice.

The venue which was the Amtarani Performing Acts Centre was the first venue to host the competition twice in a row, and most of the people who worked on the previous year's competition returned to work on this year's competition, which includes Madina Sawfana as presenter for the competition. The previous winners which were Masfir Hawraz and Ana Ruhamaina was supposed to host the competition, however, they declined due to private reasons which why Sawfana had to fill in the position. The duo still returned to fill in the second interval act.

Shiru Dega'on returned after earning third place last year, both Bristolian entrants last year Edith Marie-Tavalierres and Jacquelyn Newman returned represeting Bristol again this year, and Nevenais, Roivendiere, Esleria, and Nathaniel Le-Vais who was in a group and represented Aramna last edition also returned, however this time they're solidified with the name "NEVESLENA"

This year, a record amount of three groups participated in the festival, those are NEVESLENA representing Aramna, Berlin Group representing Daya Island, and Ibu-Ibu Petroleum Alezia representing Basna.

The entry by Ibu-Ibu Petroleum Alezia was deemed as the first "prank" or "funny" entry to be recorded and competed in the AleziRadio Festival of Songs.

Incidents

Same Taste

The return of the competition to the same venue, with the same logo, and mostly the same people resulted in anger from Zafizamarranians and other Alezians due to the worry that this might result in the decrease of quality in the competition. However the competition was still praised for trying to keep the competition fresh with a new stage design, new scoreboard design, and a new group of orchestra. However, the competition was still protested due to the fact that the competition hasn't been broadcasted to AleziRadio Television yet which means that no one can see the stage and scoreboard design except in the newspapers which oftentimes doesn't show those things.

This makes the edition earning the title of "The Competition of the Same Taste", mocking Radio Zafizamarrah for its inability to find other inspirations of art and venue. Radio Zafizamarrah was criticized for the fact that Zafizamarrah, especially the Metropolitan City, owning more venues suitable to host the competition compared to other regions, which means that Radio Zafizamarrah should have no issue finding another venue unlike other Regional Radios. Radio Zafizamarrah was also criticized for being "cheap" and not wanting to be creative.

It was even rumored that the Director of Radio Pyalivostok, Radio Basna Raya, and Royal Radio of Bristol protested to AleziRadio in a secret meeting saying that if Zafizamarrah was not pressured to find new venue and new identity, then Zafizamarrah had to be stripped of its rights of hosting the 1973 competition and give it to another region, presumably Aramna because they're the only "original six" region who haven't hosted yet as of 1973. However all three radios denied the rumor, with Radio Pyalivostok even supporting Radio Zafizamarrah's decision saying that the responsibility of hosting went to Zafizamarrah must include with the right of keeping the competition like last year if their situation forces them to do such things, and saying that Pyalivostok might've done something like that if the situations forced them to.

Director of Radio Zafizamarrah at the time, Muhariffin Hasyran responded the criticism by saying that the decision to keep the competition almost similiarly as last year was in order to keep costs low, but still bring the songs and spirits of the competition alive and well.

Ibu-Ibu Petroleum Alezia

Ibu-Ibu Petroleum Alezia which consisted of Nurahma, Soeratna Perta, Emilia Souslanaivais, Ita Pertiwi, Soetani, and Moeriyah was met with controversy and booing when the other regions knew that the group was selected as one of two representations for Basna in the AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1973. This was due to nobody thinking that they would be selected and due to the song being "lackluster" and "low quality". This caused people outside of Basna thinking that Petroleum Alezia bribed the Radio Basna Raya to select them in order to receive funding. However Radio Basna responded by saying that they have not received any bribes and that the decision was selected properly and for the public to "have patience".

The leader of the group Nurahma responded to the negative press by saying: "We won't be put down. Basna picked us, We'll represent Basna in the National Competition. We can do this." And Basnaharian people supported the selection of the group saying with the leader of the AleziRadio Listeners Team of Basna saying that that "They're the best group to ever grace ARFOS. Do not kick their dreams off the window because we won't let any of them being hurt in any way by anyone."

Public opinion started to change for the better approximately a month before the festival with people acknowledging that the song is actually very "fun to listen to", and was deemed as the second favorite to win behind NEVESLENA. The group ended up getting second place.

Participating Regions and Results

No.	Region	Singer	Song	Translation	Language	Place	Points
01	Zafizamarrah	Ma'aridin Hasyima	هل يعرف حبيبك؟	Does Your Lover Know?	Arabic	3	36
02	Daya Island	Lovino Davalinen	Hidasta	Slow Down	Finnish	13	14
03	Tel Hadiv	Shiru Dega'on	לִצְחוֹק	Laugh	Hebrew	4	35
04	Bristol	Edith Marie-Tavalierres	When You Need Me	-none-	English	7	28
05	Bristol	Jacquelyn Newman	Telegram Me	-none-	English	11	21
06	Mosin-Nagan	Benny Kaloshli	გაქცეული	Fleeing	Georgian	12	14
07	Aramna	NEVESLENA	Ding-Dong	-none-	Aramnan	1	58
08	Zafizamarrah	Mizzi Hawafi	لاحقًا ، يا حب	Later, Love	Arabic	9	24
09	Pantabang Islands	Airez Na'usla'i Dadon	A'i Ke'iaha'i Ama'u	There's A Reason	Alezian	8	26
10	Daya Island	Berlin Group	Kevin	-none-	Finnish	6	29
11	Tel Hadiv	Ma'ersh Alshonet	דו משמעות	Ambiguity	Hebrew	16	6
12	Pantabang Islands	Na'orched Orchid Salem	Ma'a'i Ina'ana'ina'a'i Ma'i'a'au	Don't Hate Me	Alezian	18	0
13	Aramna	Bettie Marouveslavais	Doradais	Golden	Aramnan	17	3
14	Basna	Ibu Ibu Petroleum Alezia	Salam Dari Kencana	Greetings From Kencana	Indonesian	2	37
15	Mosin-Nagan	Isa and Maria Berionerie	რატომ	Why Do You?	Georgian	14	8
16	Basna	Soeratna Poetrisari	Jangan Khianati Aku	Don't Betray Me	Indonesian	10	24
17	Pyalivostok	Ida Novolovsky	Никогда не подводить	Never Fail	Russian	15	8
18	Pyalivostok	Eno Rovolovich	Кто я?	Who Am I?	Russian	5	34

Voting by Region

	ZF-1	ZF-2	DI-1	DI-2	TH-1	TH-2	BR-1	BR-2	MN-1	MN-2	AR-1	AR-2	PI-1	PI-2	BN-1	BN-2	PY-1	PY-2		ZF-P	DI-P	TH-P	BR-P	MN-P	AR-P	PI-P	BN-P	PY-P		TOTAL
هل يعرف حبيبك؟	XX	XX						4	4			4					3			XX	2	3		2	5	2	4	3		36
Hidasta	1		XX	XX	3	3					2						1				XX				4					14
לִצְחוֹק	4		4	2	XX	XX	4			2	5			3		5		1		1		XX	4							35
When You Need Me	2				5	5	XX	XX			4	2	3								1		XX	3	3					28
Telegram Me			1			2	XX	XX	1	1		5	2		3								XX	1			5			21
გაქცეული		2				1	5		XX	XX								5						XX		1				14
Ding-Dong		5			4						XX	XX	5	2	5			4		5	5	5	5	5	XX	3	3	2		58
لاحقًا ، يا حب	XX	XX		5	1			3			3	1					5			XX							1	5		24
A'i Ke'iaha'i Ama'u		3	3	1			3		3			3	XX	XX	4					2			3		1	XX				26
Kevin			XX	XX				5	5	3						4	4				XX	4		4						29
דו משמעות			5		XX	XX	1															XX								6
Ma'a'i Ina'ana'ina'a'i Ma'i'a'au													XX	XX												XX				0
Doradais		1									XX	XX			1	1									XX					3
Salam Dari Kencana	5		2						2	4			1	1	XX	XX		2		4	4		1		2	5	XX	4		37
რატომ									XX	XX	1					3				3		1		XX						8
Jangan Khianati Aku				3	2	4								5	XX	XX	2	3				2	2				XX	1		24
Никогда не подводить	3						2	1								2	XX	XX										XX		8
Кто я?		4		4				2		5			4	4	2		XX	XX			3					4	2	XX		34

Impact

It was said that the city of Las Araminhaes and the town surrounding it never slept for the duration of the night after the result of ARFOS 1973 shown that Aramna had won the competition for the first time. Fireworks sales increased drastically during the week after the competition, and NEVESLENA continues to be national heroes and earned national stardom where every song they released has a high probability for earning a platinum in Alezian Charts. The band remained active until their surprising breakup in 1980. The winning song itself was deemed as one the best songs in the AleziRadio Festival of Songs of all time.

Ibu Ibu Petroleum Alezia also earned high acclaim and an apology letter from an unknown person representing the entire nation of North Alezia saying that their song was actually a masterpiece if you listen to it more than twice. However, after the competition, the team never released any songs other than their entry, all saying that they now wanted to focus on supporting their homes after making them all proud.

Ma'aridin Hasyima received high acclaim as well, even if Zafizamarrah didn't earn the trophy for the third time in a row. His song stayed in the Alezian charts for only two weeks.

Na'orched Orchid Salem sadly received negative press after earning zero points for Pantabang Islands, although this only stayed for a week, however this press kept her from returning to the Festival due to her fear of getting zero points again.

The public finally started to love the concept of public voting due to the fact that the two songs in the top two are actually the nation's favourite to win from the start. This brings a new concept that Public Vote can save anything, thus AleziRadio uses this as a motivation for Alezians to vote. The voting procedure is also deemed as very intriguing as the winning song was actually running behind the jury winner, until they started to earn the boost from the public.