CASC 08

CASC 08
The 8th Central-Asian Song Contest, often referred to as CASC 08, was the eighth edition of the Central-Asian Song Contest, a music competition based in and around Central Asia. Due to Luina and "Hey Yo!" winning the previous edition of the contest on home soil, the contest remains in Kazakhstan, this time taking place in Shymkent.

Shymkent is Kazakhstan's third-most populous city with a population of 1 million people. The city is located in Kazakhstan's South and offers lots of parks and landmarks to visit. Especially the old city, founded in the 16th century, is worth a visit.

Changed Concept
After a rise of participating countries, the possibility of a Grand-Final-only contest was ruled out. Therefore, the contest got revamped in a way to make the competition more exciting and enjoyable: Instead of just a Grand Final, the contest now includes a pre-stage consisting of two Semi Finals. While in each Semi Final the Top 10 would qualify directly, the 11th and 12th place of both semis would go into a Wildcard Round with another additional final qualifier for the Grand Final. The host country, Kazakhstan, was pre-qualified.

Participating Countries
A total of 41 countries took part in the edition.

Returning Countries
All 25 regular countries that had participated in the previous edition returned in CASC 12. The edition also featured 6 guest countres with 3 of them having participated in previous editions.

Debuting Countries
The edition featured 3 debuting countries. Those were the guest countries Bangladesh (which became a regular country during the competition), Myanmar and Yemen.

Withdrawing Countries
A total of 2 countries withdrew from the competition. Both countries were guest countries and did not appear on the published list due to not being invited. These 2 countries are Saudi Arabia and Ukraine.

First Semi Final
The First Semi Final of CASC 08 featured 15 countries, out of which a total of 10 countries qualified to the Grand Final. Two additional countries got a ticket for the Wildcard Round. The table below shows all countries in their official running order.

These countries qualified for the Grand Final.

These countries qualified for the Wildcard Round.

Second Semi Final
The Second Semi Final of CASC 08 featured 15 countries, out of which a total of 10 countries qualified to the Grand Final. Two additional countries got a ticket for the Wildcard Round. The table below shows all countries in their official running order.

These countries qualified for the Grand Final.

These countries qualified for the Wildcard Round.

Automatic Qualifier
CASC 08 featured one Automatic Qualifier, which was pre-qualified for the Grand Final and therefore skipped the Semi Final stage. That Automatic Qualifier was the host country, Kazakhstan. The table below shows the Kazakh song.

Wildcard Round
The Wildcard Round of CASC 08 featured 4 countries, out of which one additional country qualified to the Grand Final. The table below shows all countries in their official running order.

This country qualified for the Grand Final.

Grand Final
The Grand Final of the twelfth Central-Asian Song Contest featured 22 countries and was won by Turkmenistan. Abadan Halmedova got 165 Points for her song "Aldama". The table below shows all countries in their official running order.