Olympian1010

@Werloc leading the contest after the first vote. Will they hold the trophy at the end of the day?

Thank you , it's on to the the jury now.

Slovenia Calling! LTU - 12 Points MEX - 11 Points CZE - 10 Points UKR - 9 Points NED - 8 Points USA - 7 Points IRL - 6 Points CHI - 5 Points MDA - 4 Points BRA - 3 Points POL - 2 Points SRB - 1 Points x

Any guesses for the first leader of the day?

Slovenia Calling! MEX - 11 Points CZE - 10 Points UKR - 9 Points NED - 8 Points USA - 7 Points IRL - 6 Points CHI - 5 Points MDA - 4 Points BRA - 3 Points POL - 2 Points SRB - 1 Points

out a double-digit lead in the Czechoslovak Sweepstakes!

Slovenia Calling! CZE - 10 Points UKR - 9 Points NED - 8 Points USA - 7 Points IRL - 6 Points CHI - 5 Points MDA - 4 Points BRA - 3 Points POL - 2 Points SRB - 1 Points

Uh...okay.

@justony you have the honor of opening the contest. Please post your votes.

Grand Final: Opening Remarks Good morning everyone! I trust we were all able to catch the ferry in time It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Grand Final of the 2023 Totallympics Open International Song Contest. Admittedly, it's been a bit of a bumpy road getting here, but the journey is half the fun, right? Anyways, I'm sure your tired of my announcements and gabbing, so let's get on with the contest... Let the 2023 Totallympics Open International Song Contest BEGIN!!!

You indicated to me earlier that we wouldn't be able to vote, so I already planned to post yours If you change your mind before its your time, just message me.

Official Announcement All juries have received their voting templates for the Grand Final. Please message me if you have any additional questions. Additionally, if you do NOT plan to post your nation's votes, please message me ahead of your voting time. It will make things easier for me. Users I haven't heard from will be given the first five minutes of their voting time to make their first post, otherwise I will post your votes.

Grand Final: Our Venue Happy TISC Everyone! With voting, draws, and the opening ceremony out of the way it's nearly time for the Grand Final. Of course, we'll need a venue for the festivites. Unlike the draw, I knew from the begging which venue I'd choose. I remember seeing gorgeous nature camera shots of it on the local news growing up and I've been fascinated by it over since. Reaching the venue won't be too easy for juries, however. They'll need to catch a ferry out of Long Beach to the island of Santa Catalina. It is one of the Channel Islands located off the coast of Southern California. The island's main center of population is Avalon. The use of motor vehicles is very restricted, so juries will travel to the venue by golf cart or bike once on the island. Thankfully, our venue is located conveniently right near the harbor. I present the: Catalina Casino. This nearly 100 year old venue has withstood the ever changing landscape of California and Catalina. Completed in 1929, it houses a theatre on the bottom, and a large rounded ballroom on the top. It is heavily influenced by the Art Deco movement. The theatre will host the main section of the Grand Final, with the ballroom being utilized as a socialization/snacks area. You can find a picture of the ballroom below, along with links a gallery covering the theatre. Gallery Link: https://www.theavalontheatre.com/gallery

I think you have to turn in your Ontario ID now. Off to Quebec with you!

Don’t get too excited. We will likely only have scoreboards after each voting block tomorrow. @OlympicIRL has been very accommodating of my tech issues, and volunteered to make some scoreboards for tomorrow. I have the scores broken down by jury for the individual and team events though, so we should be good if there’s any questions about the voting.

It recently became popular here because of a meme. It was used in that Nick Cage/Pedro Pascal film. I tired to get my friends to watch Sex Education, but no dice. I loved the show.

A nice, tight runtime of 3 1/2 hours for the opening ceremony I'm very tired. I was still writing the ceremony while making the first few posts. I spent 12 hours writing the original, scraped it this morning and wrote this one in four hours.

The End (I Promise) I’ve been DJ Youth and Urban. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I’ll use my last song to properly welcome all of you to California and declare the 2023 Totallympics Open International Song Contest open!

Opening Ceremony: TISC Anthem Of course, no edition of the Totallympics International Song Contest is complete without the TISC anthem.

Director's Note I must admit, designing tonight’s artistic segment may have been the hardest part of organizing TISC. California is so diverse: geographically, culturally, musically, etc. I’m not sure there’s a “right way” to present the Golden State. If the above songs prove anything, it's that Californians are constantly reinventing what it means to be Californian. Maybe reinvention, creativity, diversity, and the freedom to express yourself are the tenants of the California Dream. I’ll leave that up to each individual jury member to decide. Anyways, it seems fitting to end the artistic segment with the following classic tune.

Actually, IPC uniformly capped all team sports at 8 teams for Paris 2024. The IPC also pushed for more events that cater to athletes with more severe impairment.

Queen Status The emergence of alt rock nearly brings us to the present. Of course, popular culture was still consuming, consuming, consuming during all the eras we covered. However, there has been a fascinating recent trend of pop queens from Los Angeles. Billie Eylish and Olivia Rodrigo have both become intertwined with Gen Z. Their songs contain themes of female empowerment, anti-social behavior, and modern social commentary.

Yelling, Kicking, and Screaming At the same time urban, inter-city culture was developing, another social music movement was taking place in the white suburbs. Young people were feeling disenfranchised by the cookie-cutter houses, manicured lawns, 9-5 white collar jobs, and traditional religions. They were ready to break shit, scream, and bend the rules. Enter punk, hardcore, metal, and alt rock. The suburbs of Los Angeles became a hive of punk rock in the 1970s. If you were invited to a local gig, you might have heard the following. Of course, one can’t talk about hard rock bands from California without including Metallica in the conversation. The early 2000s would see the emergence of alternative music groups. Frustrated with the stagnating conservative policies of Orange County, groups like Rage Against the Machine rose to prominence.

The Rise of Hip-Hop and Rap Chicano Americans and Latin Americans were by no means alone in their marginalization. White families feld the cities as more diverse waves of immigration and settlement changed the demographics of California. Inter-city communities became synonymous with race, crime, gang warfare, and poverty. These communities were neglected by state and country, and left to solve their own problems. By the 1980s and 1990s, hip-hop and rap emerged and matured as genres of Black expression. Songs expressed anger with the social situation, served as party anthems, or detailed day-to-day life in communities left behind by middle and upper class America. Hip-Hop was known for bouncy/grovy beats. It transferred into a lifestyle that included fashion, art, dance, and music. Rap evolved out of the social scene in the Bronx, a neighborhood of NYC. However, it quickly traveled to the West Coast. Artists in Los Angeles put their own spin on the genre known as “gangster rap.” The songs were often explicit and honest in their protrial of inner-city life. If you were to cruise through South Central, Compton, Watts, or other LA neighborhoods in 1990s, there’s a god chance you’d hear some of the following. Overtime and rap and hip-hop merged to create a uniquely LA culture.

Spanish California and Chicano Rock Californios (Californians of Spanish/Mexican descent) and Latin Americans have had an up and down experience of California. They were the first European settlers of the state. They gained independence from Spain only to have Alta California taken by the Americans just over 25 years later. They went from ruling class to minority power in only a few decades. Their language was replaced by English, their music by American artists, and their land by American settlers. Immigrants were welcomed then shunned in a vicious cycle. Nonetheless, their communities survived every setback. Their artists even found commercial success in unlikely places. You wouldn’t think rock-n-roll and Mexican folk music were a match made in heaven, but Richie Valens proved otherwise with the following smash hit. He blazed a trail for other Chicano/Chicana artists to follow. Other genres of Latin American music continue to gain popularity in California. Spanish language radio stations are a dime a dozen in Southern California and major cities.