EPP Spring Edition! THE RULES!!!

The Rules

Rules for European Pop Panel - Spring 2008 Core Elements

Everyone is welcome to join in one of the six teams that will take part in each edition of the European Pop Panel. By joining a team, you have a say in the choice of song or songs that represent your team and your votes will be counted as part of the points awarded by your team. Non participating fans of the contest can also vote without joining a team. Their votes will count towards one additional set of points.

Songs must be chosen and entered by March 28th.
The songs that will take part will be revealed on March 29, one song per hour.
Votes must be delivered to EPP Producers by April 4th at 23:59 CET.
The Spring Edition of European Pop Panel will take place on April 5th, 2008.

Team leaders are encouraged to get the selection procedure going as soon as possible, gathering songs from team members even before the deadline for forming teams ( March 17th ), so that every team member has also five days for voting in his/her National Final

Each geographical zone (or team) will enter two songs.
Music fans from any country can take part in the contest. Each participant must pick a team. Each team will elect a coordinator/spokeman who will ensure that team members get to decide on the entry or entries from their team and vote in the show itself. Teams should be assembled ideally by March 17th, but people can join teams at any time until votes are delivered. If you join after March 17th, you might not have much of a say in the songs on offer though.
Joining a team will only be possible through eppproducers@gmail.com until March 17th, after that applications must be made directly to a team leader.

Twelve songs will compete. Each team will enter two songs, chosen within their groups. The method of choosing a song is down to the team. The only condition is that the details of the final two selected songs must remain secret amongst team members until all songs are chosen and details revealed on the Eurovision Pop Panel site. If any team fails to notify the organisers of their two entries, their place in the contest will be lost. If any team reveals details of one or both of their entries before the publication date, their entry/entries may be disqualified or the team asked to agree on a substitute before the closing date. If no substitute is provided, the place in the contest is lost.


The Teams

The teams are made up of countries from broad geographical zones. There is no political basis for the divisions. Anyone can join any team, but can only be a member of one team at any time. If any team contains less than five members, it will not be allowed to enter the competition.
The Northern Lites: Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Sweden.
The Southern Belles: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey
Best Westerns: Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom
Latino Lovers: Andorra, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Vatican State
The Heartlands: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine
The Others: Any country not listed above

The Entries:Each teams must enter two songs. The selection procedure is decided by each team, provided that all due transparency is ensured.
The performer/s must be normally resident in one of the countries covered by the team in question. This means they must have residence in or be a citizen/dual citizen of one country included in a team description. The 'Others' team may only choose a performer from a country not covered in the existing team lists. (This means, for example, the 'Others' team may not choose a singer from Slovenia, Greece, United Kingdom, Sweden etc). Teams are free to decide in which language their artists will sing. Changes to the lyrics, name of the artist or group, title of the song and/or language of the song are permitted up to 2 November 2007. Any changes beyond this date must be approved by the organisers.

Duties of the Participating Teams

Each team must stick to the deadlines above.
Each team must elect a leader.
Each team must select two entries from any music genre,
Each team must listen to and vote on the other songs in the contest.
Each team will do its utmost to prevent fraudulent voting in the contest.

Duties of the Team Leaders

The leader will be responsible for co-ordinating how the team songs are chosen and sending details of the entries to the organisers.
EPP Producers advise teamleaders to open an email account .
The leader must act as the point of contact if there is any problem with an entry.
The leader must also be prepared to coordinate voting and present the final results to the organisers by the deadline above.
If a podcast is made, the leader must be prepared to introduce his or her team's song and read out the votes, or elect someone else to do this.

Supplying details of the song

The deadline to submit details of an entry is: March 28 th 2008
By that date, each team must submit:
A good quality MP3 sound recording of the entry
Details/bio of the performer(s) - name and nationality, short bio of the performer and a photo of the performer(s)
Optional link to the video (preferably on youtube.com)
Lyrics of the song with rough translation if possible.

Voting Procedure

Each team will award its votes Eurovision style. 12 for its favourite song, 10 for it's next favourite, then 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. two songs will not score any points from each team (these will be their own songs).
It is the responsibility of the team leader to gather votes from his or her team and collate them into one award.
When each team has voted, EPP will announce one combined vote from 'non participants'. This means fans who are not in a team but who still want to join in by voting.

Some (hopefully) helpful guidelines:

It is suggested that each team member awards votes from one to ten to each song, excluding the song presented by his or her own team. The teamleader is responsible for counting the votes awarded to each song, and for determining the points that will be awarded. The leader shall allocate 12 points to the song having obtained the highest number of votes, 10 points to the song having obtained the second highest number of votes, 8 points to the song having obtained the third highest number of votes, 7 points to the next, and so on down to 1 point for the song having obtained the tenth highest number of votes. In the event of a tie for any of the above positions, the order of the tying songs shall be ascertained by an electronic show of hands by the team members. If there is still a tie after the show of hands, the final order shall be decided by the vote of the team leader.
Team leaders are encouraged to circulate details of all votes awarded by team members and the final team vote before it is announced in the contest itself. As soon as the agreed votes are delivered to EPP, they cannot be changed.

Disqualification Procedure

A song may be disqualified for the following reasons:
Details of the song are made public before the contest 'reveal' deadline.
The performer(s) do not have nationality in one of the countries within a team. If the performers are a group, at least one of its regular members must hold a passport for one of the countries within a team area.
If the disqualification of a song is decided upon before midnight CET on March 28th2008, a team shall be entitled to propose another song and to submit all related material by the date specified.
If disqualification of a song is decided upon after midnight CET on March 28th 2008, the place in the show is lost.
Any decision taken in accordance with the above-mentioned procedure shall be final.
The Participating Broadcaster shall have the right to appeal against sanctions to the EBU Administrative Council. Any sanction taken in accordance with the above-mentioned procedure shall be final, and no legal remedy shall be possible.

The Winners of the Spring 2008 show

Should there be a tie for first place, the winner shall be the song which has obtained points from the highest number of teams. If the tying songs received votes from the same number of teams, then the highest number of 12-point scores shall be decisive. If the winner cannot be determined by this procedure, then the number of times ten points have been awarded shall be the deciding factor; if necessary, this method shall continue until account has been taken of the number of times one point has been awarded. Should two or more songs still tie for first place, even after the above calculations, both/all such songs shall be declared joint winners.


EPP Producers


Many special thanks to Ade