International Low-Vision Song Contest - ILSC 2023

Liza Moskalenko is the winner of the 2nd ILSC 2023. Congratulations Liza!

Watch the final show again here on Youtube: https://youtu.be/S8S9sNW3jzU.

Countries, organizations, artists and songs in the order on the voting

• Ukraine: Pravo Vibora and Liza Moskalenko with "Ми українці (My Ukrainians)"
• Spain: ONCE and Catiana with "No te imaginas"
• Slovenia: ZDSSS - Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovenia and Zara with "V temi nisi sam (Light in the Dark)"
• Turkey: EGED - Association of Visually Impaired in Education and Burak Bozteke with "Tutsak (Captive)"
• Greece: KEAT - Centre for Education and Rehabilitation for the Blind and Anastasia Moustakatou with "Αυτό που λέει η καρδιά σου (What your Heart says)"
• Poland: PZN - Polish Association of the Blind and Zuzia Mulec with "W dal (In the Distance)"
• Italy: Sara Blanca with "El Mundo de mis Sueños (The World of my Dreams)"
• Nepal: NAB - Nepal Association of the Blind and NAB Low Vision Band with "No one speaks for the poor People of Nepal"
• Lithuania: LASS - Lithuanian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired and Grazzy with "Watch me now"
• Cyprus: POT - Pancyprian Organization of the Blind and Nikoletta Livadioti with "Με της ψυχής μου τα φτερά (With the Wings of my Soul)"
• France: apiDV - Accompany, Promote, Integrate the Visually Impaired and Maxime Lokietek with "Just breathe"
• Sweden: Synliga with "We're gonna have a Party tonight"
• Finland: Näkövammaisten Kulttuuripalvelu - Cultural Services for the Visually Impaired and Hannele Juutinen with "Hapanta ja makeaa"
• Czech Republic: SONS - Czech Blind United and Radek Žalud & Michaela Jeklová with "Oremus Dominum - Cíl je v nás (Let's pray to God - the Goal Is Within Us)"
• UK: Look UK and The Thunderbolts with "Victory"

• Canada: CNIB - Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Jade Ondrik & Measha Brueggergosman-Lee with "Common Ground"
• Germany: DBSV - German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted and rockloader with "loser"

ILSC in the radio

The following radio stations also broadcasted the final show:

Radio Vivre FM from France with comments in French
www.tyflopodcast.net from Poland with Polish translation

Radio Gomerfrom Ukraine with comments in Ukrainian

our Turkish partner EGED on YouTube with Turkish translation
www.ohrfunk.de from Germany with German translation
Radio NWW, Radio Trista and “Hamburger Lokalradio” from Germany

The International Low-Vision Song Contest, ILSC is a music contest for blind and partially sighted 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.

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.

The ILSC is supported by the Aktion Mensch Foundation.

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 introduce themselves and their song in a short video, after that their song plays. Afterwards, the audience votes for their favourite song and the winner is announced. The event concludes with an interview of the winner, the award presentation and a repeat of the winning song.

How do I join the ILSC?

You can 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.