International Low-Vision Song Contest - ILSC 2025

About the Contest

Sign-up for the ILSC 2025 has begun! Reach out to us at ilsc@dbsv.org until January 31st 2025 to join us as Partner Organisation and compete in the Grand Finale on May 16th 2025!

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!

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

Each partaking organisation 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. it must be an original,
3. at least one of the performers of the song is visually impaired or blind,
4. the song has lyrics, and
5. 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 organising 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 organisations 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 organisations’ 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 organisations' 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 live interview, 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?

Join us as Partner Organisation for the ILSC 2025! Reach out to us via e-mail to ilsc@dbsv.org for more information and to sign up.