Elaconese Melody Festival 1942

The Elaconese Melody Festival 1942 was the 40th edition of the Elaconese Melody Festival. The contest took place in Baghdad, Iraq, after France's victory at the 1941 contest. It was not hosted in France due to their current military occupation by Germany. It was originally thought to be able to host in a French colony considering their winning song was in Arabic, and so Algiers, Algeria was considered. However, that had been occupied by the Vichy regime. Other French colonies such as Brazzaville, the Congo, or Dakar, Senegal, were too far away and had subpar infrastructure. Near the old French colony of Syria, Iraq could host the facilities as a neutral nation with ties to the Allies - and it was an Arabic nation. Therefore, Baghdad was chosen.

Due to the low amount of competing countries, no semi-finals took place.

Sixteen countries took part. Malta debuted as the island repelled German attempts to invade, while Belgium and Norway returned represented by their governments in exile. Spain withdrew due to the fascist government having other priorities, their last place result, and because delegations from Australia and Czechoslovakia pressured them to.