International Low-Vision Song Contest - ILSC 2023

About the contest / Über den Wettbewerb

Welcome to the International Low-Vision Song Contest, ILSC for short, a music contest for blind and visually impaired artists and music fans from all over the world!

Organized by the German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (DBSV) and VIEWS International, the first ILSC took place in 2021. You can find a summary of the first ILSC here.

The ILSC is a song contest for, by and with blind and visually impaired musicians and fans. While the DBSV and VIEWS International organize it, other organizations for the blind and visually impaired from all over the world take part in making it a reality.

Each partaking organization represents its country, and nominates a song to compete in the Grand Finale. The audience chooses the winner via online voting.

The ILSC strives to be an inclusive, multicultural event that provides a global platform for blind and visually impaired musicians to share their art and talent, to inspire and entertain.

What songs can be part of the ILSC?

Songs of any genre and artists of all ages can compete in the ILSC. For a song to qualify for the contest, it must meet only a few conditions:

1. The song must be written or composed by at least one visually impaired or blind creative,
2. at least one of the performers of the song is visually impaired or blind,
3. the song has lyrics, and
4. all involved artists agree to the song participating in the contest.

You can find an overview of the conditions of participation and the submission guidelines here.

How does the ILSC work?

Once the organizing team has chosen a date for the ILSC’s Grand Finale, they set dates for the deadlines regarding sign-ups and submissions.

At first, the organizing team scouts for partner organizations for the blind and partially sighted all over the world. Each partner signs up to represent their country.

After sign-up, it is the partner organizations’ responsibility to nominate a song for the Grand Finale. How they go about this is completely up to them. They can, for example, host a preliminary round and nominate its winner, or choose a nominee without others’ input, or host an online poll. You can find a summary on the partner organizations' responsibilities here.

The Grand Finale takes place online via livestream. It is hosted in English, and we will provide audio descriptions. The artists give a short interview, after that their song plays. Afterwards, the audience votes for their favourite song and the winner is announced. The event concludes with the award presentation and a repeat of the winning song.

How do I join the ILSC?

The sign-up for this year's ILSC has closed, however, you can still reach out to us via e-mail to ilsc@dbsv.org so we can mark you down as an interested party for the next ILSC.

If you're looking to join the ILSC 2023 as a musician, you can take a look at our list of partner organizations and reach out to them directly, or write us an e-mail so we may put you in contact.

 

ILSC 2023 - Discover the variety of music from all over the world!

Save the date: this year's ILSC Grand Finale takes place online on May 12th 2023.

For this second iteration, we have opened up our contest not only to European musicians but to artists from all over the world. Twenty-four countries from four continents have joined the ILSC 2023! You can find an overview of the partnering countries and organizations here.

Preparations are in full swing: The partner organizations are currently deciding which song will represent their country in the Grand Finale.

We are looking forward to another night of amazing songs and fascinating artists!