29th finalist

The number of entries in a final of the Nation Song Contest is capped at 28, there are however certain rare instances of a final containing 29 entries, usually as compensation for a host mistake. Achieving last place in such an edition, IE getting a lower position than the lowest possible position, is considered a dubious honor, and grants the nation in question full membership in the exclusive 29th Place Club.

On two occasions, the amount of finalists has gone even past 29, resulting in a final of 30 entries.

Nation Song Contest 20
In the preceding edition, Reignland voted incorrectly and their votes could not be counted in the final score. A 12-point reduction was handed out as punishment, which brought Reignland down from a prequalifying position. After massive protests from the Reignlandic delegation, Reignland was allowed to be prequalified for NSC 20 along with the top 6 of NSC 19.

29th place was achieved by Ugaly.

Nation Song Contest 24
In semifinal 1, a tie occured between two entries at 10th place. Halfway through the semifinal results, the host found out that the tie had been broken incorrectly, after already announcing Begonia, the correct 11th placed nation, as a qualifier. St. Lotus was given their rightful place in the final and Begonia was allowed to keep their qualification, resulting in 12 qualifiers from the same semifinal and 29 entries in the final.

29th place is disputed between Swelatie, who was originally declared last and received the fewest points, and Giggshood, who failed to vote and came last by reduction.

Nation Song Contest 26
In Nation Song Contest 18, a host mistake caused a few points in the final to be left out of the totals. This wasn't uncovered until a few editions later, and recovery of the lost points showed that Spila was supposed to have been prequalified in NSC 19, but just missed out due to the mistake. When the Spilian delegation discovered this, they requested to be reimbursed in the upcoming edition of NSC 26, and were added as a 7th prequalifier.

29th place was achieved by Reignland.

Nation Song Contest 39
The scenario of NSC 24 was repeated, when it was noticed after the semifinal results that Calypso had incorrectly lost the tie to Ugaly at 10th place of semifinal 1.

29th place was achieved by Dalisska.

Nation Song Contest 46
Spila, who was prequalified, failed to vote in the semifinals, opening a spot for an extra qualifier in semi 1 (Aleksandrija). During the middle of the semifinal results, Spila's votes arrived, after their spot had been filled. Spila's votes weren't counted, but they were allowed back into the final as a 29th entry.

Soon after the results, another non-voter, United Islands, who had received enough points to qualify from semi 2, but lost it out due to the reduction, turned up to explain that the absence had been caused by unfortunate circumstances beyond the nation's control. Out of sympathy, the nation got their score reinstated and was allowed to qualify as a rare 30th finalist.

29th place was achieved by both Blondania and Sillycone Valley in a tie. No 30th place was achieved.

Nation Song Contest 50
In the final of NSC 49, the waiting list jury votes had an unsolvable three-way tie for three points between Alinta, Fervorosia and Yaponesia, all with a single 12-pointer from waiting list voters. By random selection, Alinta received those three points, boosting them to joint 7th place with Zoidiac in the final results. Due to the withdrawal of Spila, who reached 5th place in NSC 49, a prequalifying spot for NSC 50 would have to be given to one of the nations at 7th place. Alinta had the tie-breaking advantage, but this caused debate since their 7th place was a result of how the waiting list tie had been broken, a situation without any clear rules that would've kept Zoidiac as the sole 7th placed nation if the tie-breaking had been done by various other suggested methods. Because of this, both Alinta and Zoidiac would be allowed to prequalify for NSC 50.

29th place was achieved by Reignland for the second time.

Nation Song Contest 54
Celinas, participating in semifinal 2, accidentally included prequalified finalists in their semifinal votes, rendering them unusable. The nation had a short chance to correct the mistake, but failed to do it before the deadline had passed and the qualifiers had been revealed. Celinas had clearly received enough points to qualify before receiving their 75% reduction, and thus opened a spot for Cydoni-Gibberia instead. After protests from their delegation, Celinas were accepted into the final by the host, citing a misleading presentation as being partially responsible for the mistake. This qualification was conditional however, as the points Celinas received in the final would be reduced by 10%.

29th place was achieved by Greenfroze.

Nation Song Contest 74
In the rest jury of semifinal 2, a tie occured between Tír an Abhainn and Ugaly at the qualifying position. Tír an Abhainn had received points from one more nation, the primary criteria in a tie-break, but Ugaly had also received a 6 point bonus for voting in the rest jury of semifinal 1. Thus when applying tie-breaking rules, both nations would have the same amount of voters if counting those bonus points (Ugaly being the winner of any further tie-breaking based on sets of points). This resulted in both nations qualifying, as a rule concerning the bonus points' status in a tie-break had not been properly established at the time.

29th place was achieved by Greenfroze for the second time.

Nation Song Contest 77
In a mix-up during the semifinal results, Kingdom of Erås was announced as a qualifier from semifinal 1, done through the rest jury. This position actually belonged to Serenate & Clair, as late votes in the main panel had knocked them out of a top 10 position, confusing the host. The mistake was discovered before the result announcements were over and Serenate & Clair received their rightful position in the final, adding up to 29 finalists.

29th place was achieved by Orangualia.

Nation Song Contest 87
In the previous edition, there was an error in the Waiting List votes, which didn't include SR Indiria's votes who had voted. If their votes were counted Fervorosia would have taken Serenate & Clair's 6th place, and prequalifying spot. The votes were not changed but both nations received a prequalifying spot.

No nation achieved the coveted 29th place, as Fervorosia and Sunoria tied for last place.

Nation Song Contest 92
A hosting mistake wrongly announced Denmark of Peace as a non-qualifier when they were supposed to be the rest jury wild card, instead including Bigicia who placed 11th in the regular panel. Denmark of Peace were instated into the final after the semi results had concluded. The host took notice of the mistake on their own, but it is unknown how the mix-up occured.

29th place was achieved by Brughentwerp.

Nation Song Contest 95
Due to a prequalified nation being disqualified from not voting, an extra qualifying spot was handed out to the 11th place of semi 1. A tie had occured in this spot, and Calypso had already erroneously been announced as the qualifier when it became apparent that Moisantia should've won the tie. Both nations were included in the final as a result.

The prized 29th place went to Xhanostania, who failed to vote in the final. However, the lowest score before reduction would've been Tohru.

Nation Song Contest 110
The host incorrectly announced that the 11th (Kostanovia) and 12th (Illumia) place qualified, instead of the rightful 9th (Serenate & Clair) and 10th (Calypso) places, meaning 13 nations qualified from semifinal 2 when this was rectified. Thus, for only the second time ever, the final had 30 entries.

30th place was achieved by debutants Luxona, who became the first nation ever to achieve this. 29th was achieved for the second time by Orangualia.

Nation Song Contest 111
An error by the rest jury collector in semifinal 2, where two points had been misplaced in the scoreboard, caused Srivijaya to lose the rest jury qualification spot, which instead went to Lacrea. The error was noticed one day after the final show had started, but before any votes had been received, so Srivijaya was instated into the final as the 29th finalist.

Zechonia finished 29th, with only 19 points.

Nation Song Contest 141
As a result of voting errors, Halito was added as the 29th finalist. The semifinal results thread was lost due to a forum rollback, so further details are unknown.

29th place was achieved by Waiting Iist of Shelley & Nici, Tanner & Josh, Tiffany & Krista and Denise & James Earl.

Nation Song Contest 146
An unknown mistake in the rest jury of semifinal 1 was noticed by the rest jury collector shortly after the qualifiers had been revealed. Reym-L-Dneurb had already been announced as a qualifier (qualifying as rest jury wild card), but the spot was actually meant for Dalisska. Both nations were allowed into the final by the host.

29th place was achieved by Calypso. Also of note, the 29th finalist in the draw order, Lacrea, was declared the winner of this edition, to date the only time this has happened.

Nation Song Contest 149
In Nation Song Contest 148, the reserve entry from waiting list nation New Bander State was included in the edition by mistake, despite there not being room for it to be accepted. The song received enough points to qualify to the final, but due to the anonymous theme of the edition, New Bander State was unaware that their entry was included and as a result did not vote. Because of the very unusual situation, and since New Bander State was due a spot on the roster after Artyomka's withdrawal, it was decided by community polling that New Bander State would be allowed to resend their entry for NSC 149 and be prequalified to the final on what would count as their official debut, leading to 29 finalists.

The same edition could've seen 8 prequalifiers and 30 finalists, since Aimūlli incorrectly lost a qualification spot in NSC 148 due to the bonus points in semifinal 2's rest jury being miscounted. However, Aimūlli failed to confirm for NSC 149, and thus lost out on the prequalification.

29th place was achieved by Sakuralia.

Nation Song Contest 167
Many scoring errors happened in this edition. In the semifinal results as they were apparent at the time, Solentoya qualified from semifinal 2 when it should have been Rumia, a mistake that the host noticed shortly after the results. Therefore, Rumia was added to the final as the 29th qualifier.

29th place was achieved by Insomnéa.

Nation Song Contest 168
When NSC 167 finished, more errors came to light, as the rest jury bonus points of that edition had been incorrectly added to the regular semifinal panels rather than the respective rest jury panels. This meant that neither Solentoya or Rumia were the correct qualifier, as the spot should have been given to Denmark of Peace (Rumia would've still been the rest jury qualifier over Yaponesia). Denmark of Peace was given a prequalifying spot in the following edition as compensation.

29th place was achieved by Serenes.

Nation Song Contest 171
In the preceding edition, a tie was incorrectly broken in the rest jury of semifinal 1 due to host oversight, making Riya-Sampetrina qualify over Sjómaður. This was noticed after the edition had concluded, so Sjómaður was granted a compensatory prequalifying spot.

29th place was achieved by QuiénDQ.

Nation Song Contest 208
In the previous edition, the semifinal votes of Ugaly had been completely miscounted due to a hosting error. This cost Orangualia a spot in that edition's final, and they were therefore granted a prequalification spot as compensation.

29th place was achieved by Uferbruht.

Nation Song Contest 214
In the rest jury of NSC 213's semi-final 1, Belvist, Oussou Empire and Tcher-Racoi finished in a three-way tie. Belvist received points from 6 nations while both Oussou Empire and Tcher-Racoi received points from 7, and Oussou Empire received two 12s while Tcher-Racoi received none, making Oussou Empire the true winner of the tie. However, Belvist's and Tcher-Racoi's 6-point bonuses were erroneously counted as voters, which allowed Tcher-Racoi to qualify over Oussou Empire. The error was discovered after the full results were published, and Oussou Empire was consequently granted a prequalifying spot. Oussou Empire also achieved 29th place in NSC 214.

Nation Song Contest 215
For the first time in the contest's history, all of the top 6 from the previous edition declined to host, with 7th placer Ugaly ultimately picking up hosting duties. At this point, no rule was in place that would automatically grant a host outside the top 6 a prequalification spot, but it was agreed by community poll that Ugaly would receive an honorary spot in the final as the edition's host, leading to 7 prequalifiers and 29 finalists.