Griffiniskaja Laul 8

Griffiniskaja Laul 08 was the eighth edition of the Griffiniskaja Laul musical event and Waiting List Song Contest national final which took place in the principality of Pzyerüyölkeä following their victory at the previous edition. The festival was planned to choose Griffin representative for the 224th Waiting List Song Contest, but it was postponed and it will be used to determine Griffin entry for the 225th Waiting List Song Contest instead. Visual identity and the original line up changed with the postponement; however venue and the host, as well as opening and interval act stayed the same.

The winner of the festival was the principality of Meremaa with the song "Fall So Hard" performed by a returnee artist - Christopher. This was the first time Meremaa has won the contest.

Bidding phase
This was the first time that Pzyerüyölkeä won and hosted an edition of the contest. Preparations for the contest began immediately after the principality won. The executive supervisor of the Griffiniskaja Televisioon (GTV) confirmed that tradition of co-organisation between the main channel GTV 1 with a regional broadcaster will continue. This was confirmed by the regional GTV branch - GTV PZY as well.

Five major cities Pzyerüyölkeä expressed interest in hosting the contest a few days after the previous edition has ended, and all of their bids were accepted by GTV for the official hosting rights competition. These cities are: Göldtsit (the capital and the biggest city of the principality, also the fourth biggest city in the Griffin Empire), Rakozsit (14th biggest city in the Empire), Läähtisit (20th biggest city in the Empire), Plosnatsit (26th biggest city in the Empire) and Pustigslæting (28th biggest city in the Empire).

During a special press conference it was revealed that the principality's capital would host the event at the city stadium.

City and venue
Göldtsit (/ˈgoldt'sit/, English: Goldcity) is the capital of the Griffin principality of Pzyerüyölkeä and is the center of the region of Pzyerimeremaa. The city is located on the banks of the River Vereberjsej. It is the fourth-largest city in Griffin Empire, with 1,360,829 inhabitants of whom 479,553 live in the historic city centre district.

Pzierish capital is the centre of the both Griffin and West-Natian aerospace industry and hosts the largest space centre in Galea. That is not a coincidence since the University of Göldsit is one of the oldest in Natia and, with more than 108,000 students, it is the fourth-largest university campus in Griffin Empire, after the universities of Kralingslæting, Hermýn and Nýtdainsk. It is a very old city itself being founded in the earliest Griffin period, the city was the capital of the Pzierish Kingdom until it joined the Empire the year 1000. In the year 1001. Goldcity became the capital of the principality of Pzyerimaa until united principality of Pzyerüyölkeä was created in 1424. Three World Heritage Sites are here Müüdüükanaal; Kirkja ot förrshtooved (temple of reason) and the former hospital Uegötõlõrõtschwebegradtschwarödvorec. Even though the city was named "gold" after the local gold mines, the city's nickname is "pinksit" ("the pink city") because of its unique architecture made of pinkish terracotta bricks.

Stadijümi Göldtsitiskaja is the largest multi-purpose stadium in Göldtsit. It is currently used mostly for football matches, mainly those of the Goldcity Football Club, as well as rugby matches. It is located on the island of Lenaölldt near the centre of Göldtsit. It is a pure football and rugby ground, and therefore has no athletics track surrounding the field. The stadium is able to hold 33,150 people.

The stadium's bid, like a few before, was dependant on the construction of the roof over the central area. The roof construction was funded by the office of the mayor of Goldcity as well as few local noble families.

Show
It was revealed on all major social, printed and broadcast media that the host for the 8th edition would be Griffin actor Skylar Astin. The official photoshoot was revealed on the biggest billboard in front of the Kaptöllä at Griffiniskaja Tere square in Pyetsit during the traditional 100 days till Laul ceremony.

Skypar Astin is Griffin actor and singer. He became known for portraying Jesse Swanson in the musical films Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. He was also in the original cast of the Broadway musical Spring Awakening, and has since appeared in films such as Hamlet 2, Taking Woodstock, Cavemen, and 21 & Over. He played the role of Greg Serrano on the last season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a role originally played by Santino Fontana. His most recent role is as Max in the musical dramedy Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.

The show was opened with Ashe and Finneas, the winners of the previous edition singing their winning song as well Ashe's song from the second Griffiniskaja Laul. Traditionally, the host - Skylar Astin had his opening monologue. Opening act also included the flags parade. Postcards were dedicated to the discography of the 7 participants rather than promoting the regional tourism or celebrating the country itself. Interval act included the host singing a medley that included MIKA's Lollipop, Greyson Chance presenting his new single, Ashe singing her lead single from her new album and Gaia singing her previous WLSC and GL entries.

Songs selection
Regional branches of GTV had sole discretion on the process they employed to select their entry for the contest, although the GTV strongly encouraged that broadcasters engage the public with the selection of their act. Even though the regional broadcasters got to choose their representatives completely on their own once again, there were no regional finals and all principalities have chosen their acts internally.

Number of songs submitted for the first planned event was once again higher than at the previous edition at 3 811 with the most of them coming from Foreõsvdetrre and the least from Färzas - Lætingmaa. After the show was postponed, new applications process was opened and 3541 songs were received.

Reception and result at the Waiting List Song Contest
Once again the show was a hit with the biggest viewing audience to date. All songs (both first and the second line-up) received mostly good reviews and most of them debuted at high places on Griffin official charts. Foreosvdetrish song bangkok that would have represented the principality if the show was held for the Waiting List Song Contest 224 as planned went on to achieve high fifth place at the song contest itself and became one of the biggest hits of the year. The song Dua was another smashing hit despite the Griffiniskaja Laul being cancelled. The official line-up did even better with all of the songs charting both in Griffin Empire and in various Natian countries. Winning entry Fall So Hard was expected to do well, but exceeded expectations and finished sixth at the big event which was held in Šppóplä,  Låpøtré, Cydoni-Gibberia collecting 71 points.