dezbee2008

South Region Canada (regional captains) Jury: intoronto Artist: The Tragically Hip Base: Dallas, Texas Nation: Chile Jury: Pabloffo Artist: Los Bunkers Base: Nashville, Tennessee Nation: Finland Jury: Finnator123 Artist: Redrama, AJ McLean New Orleans, Louisiana Nation: Italy Jury: Gianlu33, Henry_Leon, Pablita, SteveParker Artist: 883 Base: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Nation: Malta Jury: Glen Artist: Claudia Faniello Base: Little Rock, Arkansas

Midwest Region Nation: Algeria Jury: bestmen Artist: Samira Brahmia Base: Kansas City, Missouri Nation: Argentina Jury: konig, LDOG Artist: Los Abuelos de la Nada Base: Des Moines, Iowa Nation: Croatia (regional captains) Jury: dcro Artist: Saša, Tin, Kedžo Base: Minneapolis, MN Nation: India Jury: Dolby Artist: Pt. Shivkum ar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Brij Bhushan Kabra Base: Ohama, Nebraska Nation: Poland Jury: rybak Artist: Brodka Base: Wichita, Kansas

Great Lakes Region Nation: Austria Jury: Gigs Artist: Bilderbuch Base: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Nation: Denmark (regional captain) Jury: Agger Artist: Tina Dickow Base: Chicago, Illinois Nation: Ireland Jury: OlympicIRL Artist: Gary Moore Base: Detroit, Michigan Nation: Tunisia Jury: amen09, tuniscof Artist: Hassen Doss Base: Indianapolis, Indiana Nation: Turkey Jury: Memo Artist: Sertab Erener Base: Cleveland, Ohio

Northeast Region Nation: Great Britain Jury: uk12points Artist: Manfred Mann Base: Burlington, Vermont Nation: Indonesia Jury: Griff88 Artist: Naif Base: Atlantic City, New Jersey Nation: Lithuania (regional captain) Jury: Werloc Artist: Jurga Base: New York, New York Nation: Netherlands Jury: heywoodu Artist: Kane Base: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Nation: New Zealand Jury: Wanderer Artist: Princess Chelsea, Jonathan Bree Base: Boston, Massachusetts

Parade of Nations Now it's time to introduce the 35 nations competing in the contest, in alphabetical order, separated by the regions and the cities they've been pre-assigned to represent. Atlantic Region Nation: Bulgaria Jury: stefanbg Artist: Elitsa Naumova, Siso Base: Baltimore, Maryland Nation: Colombia Jury: Damian Artist: Cabas Base: Atlanta, Georgia Nation:: France Jury: Bohemia, Benolympique Artist: Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michael Jones Base: Washington, DC Nation: Slovakia Jury: hckosice Artist: Elán Base: Richmond, Virginia Nation: United States (regional captain) Jury: dezbee2008, Olympian1010 Artist: fun Base: Orlando, Florida

Host Venues (yes, you read that right) We're switching things up a bit with the venue, or shall I say 2 venues. The opening ceremony venue will be held at Walt Disney World, while the show itself will be held at Amway Center. About Disney World: In 1955, a brand new theme park was built in Anaheim, California. This park was the idea of Walt Disney and became known as Disneyland. At the time it was one of the biggest and most innovative parks in the world. The ideas behind Disneyland was that Disney could create a place where both kids and adults can go and have fun. From the time of opening, Disneyland became an immediate success. In the mid-1960's, Walt Disney wanted to build another park in Florida, based on the concept started in Disneyland. In 1971, the concept became a reality when Walt Disney World opened in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Unfortunately, Walt Disney passed away in 1966, and never had the chance to see his vision for the park come to fruition. The original idea was to create a new park similar to Disneyland, but with other aspects such as lodging areas and other novel ideas. One of the most creative and innovative ideas that Disney had was the creation of the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. This area, known as EPCOT was to be an area that served as a testing ground for ideas which could be used in cities in the future. These ideas for EPCOT sprang from concepts of the future that were seen in the World's Fair. Over the course of time, Disney World has become one of the most popular destinations for tourists in the world. In fact, the Magic Kingdom which is at the heart of Disney World is the most popular theme park in the world with nearly 17 million visitors going through the park on an annual basis. In addition, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom and the Hollywood Studios attractions are also ranked in the top ten for visitors. Through the course of time, Disney World has increased in size and attractions to become a place that has something for everyone. About Amway Center: From its signature spire and modern architecture to its public spaces and comfortable amenities, the Amway Center is an iconic destination to Central Florida and beyond. The Amway Center features a modern mix of metal and glass exterior materials and the spire serves as a beacon amid Orlando’s vibrant downtown. With an ultimate capacity of more than 20,000 seats, the arena was designed to respond to its distinct urban setting while revealing the activities occurring within. Bounded by Church Street, Hughey Avenue, South Street, and Division Avenue, the Amway Center’s primary entrance faces north to Church Street, creating a natural extension of the nearby downtown entertainment core. The Church Street entry features a large public entry plaza connecting to the Amway Center’s spacious entry lobby.

The next part of the opening ceremony will be a surprise, so stay tuned

Tourist Hotspots Some of the famous landmarks we have include Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, the Alamo and more. Each one of these landmarks has history behind them and they rake in at least 1 million visitors a year, plus billions in revenue.

Musical History of the United States Yes, I get it, the history of the United States is complicated even for an American like me. I'm not gonna indulge too much on it since it's mostly about wars, so instead, here are several videos that tell you about the evolution of the United States through music, from Spiritual to Jazz, Country, Rock and Roll, Hip Hop, and so on Or if you're looking for specifics, we got them too...

Welcome to the 2018 Totallympics Open International Song Contest The day has finally come. 2 months after we sent out a call to participate in the premiere forum musical competition event, the American delegation will like to welcome you to the 2018 Totallympics Open International Song Contest, our 11th edition overall, our 6th open edition, and it also marks the 5th anniversary of the very first edition that began in the fall (or spring for you southern hemisphere folks) of 2013. But before we get to any of that, let's hear the national anthem of the United States, the Star Spangled Banner, but it's performed by 7-year-old Malea Emma

Less than 5 minutes, who's here?

1 more hour until the opening ceremony

Guys, I'll be posting starting around 5pm EST tomorrow for the opening ceremony. Hope you join us.

Here in Florida (or at least in my polling place), we filled it out by paper and then the machine reads it. But knowing my state, there's always a problem that leads to either a lawsuit or a recount (or both) As long as the GOP runs this state, no Democrat will be able to take the top job (and it showed our racism due to the races of the candidates), but at least my representative, a Democrat, won her second term. I'm more excited about the House tho.

My state does that EVERY election.

I'm following elections here in Florida, and I can tell you the woman representing my district just won reelection.

All of the templates have been sent out. If you had sent me your opening and closing lines, I have included them in the posts. If not, you have the option of inserting them on Saturday. I'll start the preparations for the opening ceremony tomorrow, but today's an important day here in America as I'll be casting my vote in the midterms, and yes, my votes will be all blue

Another 11 templates have been sent out already, so that means @hckosice @heywoodu @Memo @bestmen @intoronto @titicow @vinipereira @FC Mezhgorye you guys will get yours tomorrow morning (my time) before I head out to vote in this year's elections. I'll let you all know when on Friday is the opening ceremony.

Update: Templates have been sent to the first 17 countries, and I fixed the format on some of them due to a copying error. I should have it all done by Wednesday the latest so I can focus on an equally important thing... the opening ceremony

Templates are being sent out starting today in the pre-determined running order, so if you haven't gotten yours yet, just hang on tight. I will get to you eventually.

Right, we're 5 hours apart right now. By Sunday my clock will go back one hour and yours will remain the same because you don't have DST I'm glad us geniuses can figure that out.

Newsflash: timeanddate.com doesn't lie, homeboy Orlando, USA Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 2:30 pm EST Algiers, Algeria Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 8:30 pm CET https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20181110T193000&p1=867&p2=14

I fixed it for you, but the time difference will be 6 hours because of me going back to standard time

I'm putting the scoreboard together this week now that I got that last point.

No worries, since I have the templates, I will post them if needed. Regardless, you will get yours next week. But everyone will get a group PM later on today, in it I will be asking for opening and closing messages, so stay tuned