2010 New Cambria National Song Contest

The 2010 New Cambria National Song Contest will be the seventh running of New Cambria Television's popular annual music competition. It will take place over six successive Saturday evenings from 6 November to 11 December 2010. NCT spokesperson Charles W. Frazier stated in a press conference on 8 January that the format for the 2010 contest would be largely the same as that for the 2009 contest. A total of 40 songs will compete in four weekly Semi Finals, from which fifteen will qualify to the Grand Final Gala on 11 December. A total of 901 song submissions were received, a 16% decrease from the previous year.

Venues
The Grand Final was originally planned to return to Arvant's Brock Carter Memorial Arena, but will instead host the second Semi-Final due to a scheduling conflict.

Format
The format of the 2010 contest will be largely the same as that of the 2009 contest, with ten songs competing in each Semi-Final, from which the three highest-scoring will qualify directly to the Grand Final Gala, and the next three-highest receiving an invitation to compete in the Wild Card round. The voting will be 50% televoting/SMS and 50% jury. The Wild Card round will feature 12 songs, from which three will be chosen to join the 12 direct qualifiers in the Grand Final. The voting in the Wild Card will be the same as the voting in the Semi-Finals.

The Grand Final will feature 15 songs. The ten professional jurors used in the 2009 contest will be replaced with 10 five-person juries, composed of music industry professionals and based in various locations in New Cambria. An eleventh jury will be composed of ten music professionals from around the world. The 11 juries' votes will constitute 50% of the overall scores, with the remaining 50% coming from telephone and SMS votes. The maximum possible score under this system will be 220 points. The ten juries will be based in Alaric Island, Arbory, Arvant, Averytown, Đor, Southport, St. Saviour, Talbot, The Settlement and Woodbridge.

Song Selection
For the first time, contest fans in New Cambria and abroad will have the chance to select some of the semi-finalists. The Judging Committee will select 36 songs to compete in the Semi-Finals, and the remaining four slots will be filled by the winners of the Online Qualifier. Ten songs will be hosted on NCT's website, and fans will be able to listen to the entries and vote for their favourites. The four songs with the most votes will participate in the contest, one per Semi-Final. A daily limit of five votes per valid e-mail address will be imposed to prevent against spam voting.

Entries
NCT accepted entries between 27 June and 6 August. A total of 901 entries were received, a decrease of 16% from the previous year's record total of 1,077. Following a review of all submitted entries, 76 were disqualified because they did not comply with the contest's rules. Therefore, 825 songs were delivered to the organizing committee, who will present a shortlist of 100 songs to the Judging Committee on 17 September. This twelve-member Judging Committee will select 36 of the 40 semi-finalists.

Although revealing any details of their entries before the deadline is against the contest's rules, some performers have already announced their intentions to submit entries for consideration:
 * Cadence in Time, winners of the 2006 contest, announced on 20 May via their official Facebook page that they would enter the contest this year.
 * Jonaton Fiori, one of New Cambria's most popular French-language singers, confirmed that he would enter the contest via a post to his Twitter page on 6 April 2010. Fiori previously placed 8th in the 2005 contest, and 3rd in 2008.
 * Adam Newkirk, a journalism graduate student from Averytown, has confirmed that he has sent an entry for consideration. Newkirk, at the age of 18, participated in the first National Song Contest in 2004, but placed second-last in the semi-final round.

Online Qualifier
For the first time, contest fans in New Cambria and abroad will have the chance to select some of the semi-finalists. The Judging Committee will select 36 songs to compete in the Semi-Finals, and the remaining four slots will be filled by the winners of the Online Qualifier. On 19 September, ten songs will be posted on NCT's website, and visitors worldwide will be able to vote for the four songs that will earn places in the semi-finals. Beginning on 27 September, the song with the least number of votes will be eliminated each day at 23:00 New Cambria time. The four songs that remain at 23:00 on 2 October will join the 36 semi-finalists chosen by the internal jury.

Prospective Timetable

 * 17 September: The Organizing Committee will present 100 songs to the Judging Committee. The Judging Committee will then select 36 songs to participate in the Semi-Finals.
 * 19 September - 2 October: Online Qualifier. Fans will be able to vote on NCT's website for the four remaining semi-finalists.
 * 8 October: The titles, composers and performers of the 40 Semi-Finalists will be announced.
 * 6 November: Semi-Final One
 * 13 November: Semi-Final Two
 * 20 November: Semi-Final Three
 * 27 November: Semi-Final Four
 * 4 December: Wild Card Semi-Final
 * 11 December: Grand Final Gala
 * 12 December: Looking Back 2010 television special

Semi-Finals

 * See article: 2010 New Cambria National Song Contest Semi-Finals

International Broadcasts
Since 2007, the contest has gradually been made available to viewers outside New Cambria, beginning with Newfoundland in 2007 and expanding to include all of Atlantic Canada by 2009. Thus far, however, Canadian viewers have not had the right to vote in the contest, as only calls from valid New Cambria-based telephone numbers are counted. In 2010, the contest will be available to certain European viewers for the first time, albeit delayed due to differences in time zones. International locations where the contest will be screened are listed below:
 * Flag_of_Canada.png Canada
 * Flag_of_New_Brunswick.png New Brunswick (CKCW-TV will transmit the Grand Final with a 30-minute delay)
 * Flag_of_Newfoundland_and_Labrador.png Newfoundland and Labrador (CJON-TV will broadcast all six shows live)
 * Flag_of_Prince_Edward_Island.png Prince Edward Island (CKCW-TV-1 will transmit the Grand Final with a 30-minute delay)
 * Flag_of_Heigard.png Heigard (TH3 will transmit all six shows at 19:00 CET the day following their original broadcasts.)
 * Flag_of_the_United_States.png United States
 * Flag_of_Maine.png Maine (viewers in Northern Maine will be able to watch the Grand Final via television signals originating in New Brunswick)