ABU TV Song Festival

The ABU Song Festival is an annual non-competitive gala that showcases songs or instrumentals by musicians across Asia, organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU). Participating countries which have full or additional full ABU membership are invited to submit a song to be performed in front of a live audience. It is live recorded so each national broadcaster can add subtitles in their respective Asian languages. It is also envisioned as an annual international gala event, organized in coordination with ABU members.

In contrast to the Eurovision Song Contest in Europe, which has numerous rules and obligations as well as a voting system to determine a specific "winner", the television festival is a non-competitive, cordial musical gala presentation, with the intention to recognise the musical talent of Asian musicians across Asia. For the 2025 edition, it was rebranded as the ABU Song Festival.

Development The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) had already run an international song contest for its members inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest between 1985 and 1987, called the ABU Popular Song Contest, with 14 countries of the Asia-Pacific region competing. The show had a similar concept to the current radio song festival with winners being chosen by a professional jury. South Korea, New Zealand and Australia celebrated victories in this competition. From 1989 to 1991, ABU co-produced the ABU Golden Kite World Song Festival in Malaysia with participation of Asia-Pacific countries, as well as Yugoslavia and Finland.

Shortly before launching the ABU Song Festival, the ABU had been considering the possibility to organize the ABU ASEAN TV Song Festival in Thailand. Historically, ASEAN song contests had been organized in periods between 1981 and 1997, however since 2011 the ASEAN Festival had been organized between local radio stations as Bintang Radio ASEAN. The ABU outlined a plan about a "television song festival" based on the style of the Eurovision Song Contest following the cancellation of Our Sound. Kenny Kihyung Bae, chosen to the project manager, attended Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan to learn more about the contest before putting it to work.

In November 2011, the ABU announced that they would organize its own TV and Radio Song Festivals to take place in Seoul, the South Korean capital, in time with 49th General Assembly in October 2012. The name Asiavision Song Contest was initially mentioned as a possibility, but they were later officially titled ABU TV Song Festival and ABU Radio Song Festival. According to the ABU, the deadline for participation applications for ABU TV Song Festival 2012 was 18 May 2012.

Format

The ABU TV Song Festival is a concert performance for professional musicians, who according to the organiser are well known in their country of origin. The event is not meant to be competitive. The festival will be recorded and is meant to be broadcast by participating ABU members first. Non-participating ABU members and non-ABU member broadcasters will be allowed to broadcast the festival for a fee at a later stage.abu.org.my: 1st ABU TV Song Festival - General Guidelines (PDF-Datei)abu2012seoul.com: ABU TV Song Festival: About The Festival abu.org.my: ABU TV Song Festival available for broadcast, 14. September 2012 Every musician will be selected by a national broadcaster being member of the ABU. The participants perform during the general assembly of the ABU.abu2012seoul.com: Program at a Glance

At a press conference held on 18 July 2013 it was announced that Indonesia were submitting a bid to host the ABU TV Song Festival 2015. In recent editions, the TV Festival has been held in the host city of the ABU General Assembly, with Istanbul, Turkey playing host to such assembly in 2015. If the bid were to be successful it would be the first time that the TV Festival has taken place away from the host country of the General Assembly.

However, it was announced in August 2014 that Indonesia were making plans to host the ABU TV Song Festival 2016 instead. Turkey's debut at the 2014 Festival has led to speculation that they are hosting the 2015 alongside the ABU General Assembly which was scheduled to take place in Istanbul. It was further confirmed in October 2014 that Turkey was indeed the host of the 2015 festival, which took place in Istanbul in October 2015.

In December 2025, it was announced that the ABU TV Song Festival was rebranded as the ABU Song Festival. Additionally, the ABU's Programme Bureau members chose not to turn the event into a competitive song contest, which would have taken the place of the canceled ABU Song Contest.

Participation

Participation in the contest is open to members of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Table key

Country Broadcaster(s) Debut year Most recent entry Number of entries RTAATN 6 SBSABC 4 Benin AUBORTB 1 Bhutan Kuzoo FM 2 RTB 4 CCTVRTPRCSRTSMG 9 TVB 11 PB/DD 10 LPP TVRI 12 Iran IRIBSMC 1 NHK 14 KMOKA 7 KTRKNBS 2 TDM 12 RTM 11 TVMPSM IBC 6 MNB 1 Nepal NTV Radio Tulsipur 1 Russia RTR 1 Media TVMediaCorp Suria 2 KBS 15 SLRCMTV 5 NBT 2 AUBASBUTT , 1 TRT 10 TVTM 6 Uzbekistan MTRK 3 Vanuatu VBTC 1 VTV 12 Zambia AUBZNBC 1

Hosting Year Date Host city Venue Participants 14 October 2012 Seoul, South Korea KBS Hall 11 26 October 2013 Hanoi, Vietnam Hanoi Opera House 15 25 October 2014 Macau Sands Theatre 12 28 October 2015 Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul Congress Center 12 22 October 2016 Bali, Indonesia Bali Nusa Dua Convention Centre 12 1 November 2017 Chengdu, China S1 SRT Studio 14 2 October 2018 Ashgabat, Turkmenistan Ashgabat Olympic Stadium 16 19 November 2019 Shibuya, Japan NHK Hall 11 14 December 2020 N/A Maverick Pulse Studio 14 18 November 2021 10 27 November 2022 New Delhi, India Siri Fort Auditorium 9 29 October 2023 Seoul, South Korea KBS Hall 11 20 October 2024 Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar International Convention and Exhibition Center 10 2025 13 September 2025 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Mongolian State Academic Drama Theatre 92026 2 November 2026 Colombo, Sri Lanka Stein Studios

ABU TV Song Festival

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