Dal Riata in the Nation Song Contest

On a whole, Dal Riata has not been particularly successful in the Nation Song Contest, only qualifying to the final twice in their first ten attempts, and is the longest participating country without a top-ten placing, their highest being a 12th place in NSC 80. DRTV normally hosts a public selection to choose its representative, in which the Dal Riatan populace decide on an act by televote. However, DRTV has occasionally hosted international selections, permitting foreign juries to vote in Dal Riata's National Final.

The Voice of Dal Riata is the most viewed programme in Dal Riata and is hosted by DRTV-1 every year. It is normally used to select DRTV's representative with the exceptions being WLSC 4, NSC 76 and NSC 89, which used a different format, and all NSC Spinoff entries, which are internally selected by a jury.

NSC 75
Dal Riata debutted in the 75th edition of the NSC, which was hosted in Lambert, Roseland after their win in NSC 74. Antti Tuisku won a close contest in this years edition of The Voice of Dal Riata and won the chance to represent Dal Riata in its debut with his song Hyökyaalto sung in Finnish, a popular musical language in Dal Riata. Despite widespread commercial success and reaching No. 1 in the Dal Riatan charts, Tuisku failed to perform well in the contest, placing 20th in his semi with just 48 points. Hyökyaalto went on to enjoy moderate success in the Cydoni-Gibberian charts, before Tuisku faded into obscurity and was dropped by his label.

NSC 76
DRTV took a different approach to selecting its second entry. Intending to promote the native Dal Riatan language, Scottish Gaelic, on an international scale, DRTV invited established band Capercaillie, who regularly perform Gaelic songs, to compose and perform 5 songs in an international National Final. As well as the Dal Riatan televote, juries from 9 other countries were invited to vote on teh submitted songs, the result being a runaway win for the upbeat Rann Na Móna. Capercaillie went on to set a record in the Dal Riatan charts by having 5 songs in the top 10 at any one time, with Rann Na Móna staying No. 1 for 7 weeks. Unfortunatly, Capercaillie went on to place low in the 76th edition of the NSC, managing to equal the previous years 20th place in the semi's, with a slightly lower 40 points. After their performance on the NSC, Rann Na Móna managed to place just within the top-100 in the Reym-L-Dneurb and Anselmsmumonian charts.

NSC 77
Chris De Burgh won the 3rd edition of The Voice of Dal Riata with his biblically-inspired song A Spaceman Came Travelling which became the first ever English language song to represent Dal Riata in the NSC. In the 77th Nation Song Contest, Dal Riata again failed to qualify to the final. However, De Burgh was able to substantially improve on both previous Dal Riatan attempts and placed 15th with 55 points. A Spaceman Came Travelling charted well and reached No. 3 and became a popular christmas song within Dal Riata and regularly charts every year around this time. A Spaceman Came Travelling was particularly successful in Doire after it performance on the NSC.

NSC & WLSC National Finals
DRTV has hosted a National Final to decide the Dal Riatan represent to the WLSC or NSC twice, when the entrant for WLSC 4 and NSC 76 was decided, plus an abandoned plan to use an NF to dicide the choice of representative of the Minority Language Spinoff.

WLSC 4
DRTV invited artists to submit songs to a national final to decide the 4th Dal Riatan representatvie to the WLSC. DRTV mandated that all songs be submitted and sung in Esperanto, a widely spoken second language in Dal Riata, with the aim being to raise awareness of the language among other WLSC participants. An internal jury selected 5 songs from all those submitted to progress to the televised final, where after a close race, Anjo Amika's Bela Revo won by a margin of 2 points, despite not receiving top points from any jury.

NSC 76
DRTV invited the band Capercaillie to submit a selection of songs to a national final to decide the second Dal Riatan representative to the NSC, after a disappointing debut from Antti Tuisku who finished 20th in the semi-final. An internal jury picked 5 songs from those submitted by Capercaillie to participate in a televised selection, where several international juries, combined with the Dal Riatan televote resulted in the runaway winner Rann Na Móna. NSC 89

For the 89th edition of the Nation Song Contest, DRTV decided to pick its song from the soundtrack of the recently released popular Disney movie, Brave. Unsure which song to enter, DRTV held a small selection contest and invited several international juries to vote along with the Dal Riatan public. Touch The Sky, by Julie Fowlis, had a landlide victory and went on to represent Dal Riata in the contest.

Minority Language Spinoff
For the Minority language Spinoff, DRTV had plans to decide their entry using a National Final of similar format to its previous two shows. DRTV invited Mànran, one-time WLSC entrant and winner and one-time NSC entrant under Anselmsmumonia's banner, to enter three songs to a selction show and appealed for votes from international juries. Due to lack of international interest, DRTV called off the show and entered Glaodh an Iar after recommendation by the only international voter - Zechonia.