Edition 35

The thirty-fifth edition of the **Global Music Festival**​ took place at the O2 Apollo in Manchester, England. It was the second time the country hosted the contest, only the first time participating as an independent nation, after England's first victory in the thirty-fourth edition with the song "2002" performed by Anne-Marie - which scored an impressive 298 points. This edition was assigned to be given a theme and after collaboration between admins and participants... National languages was chosen as the theme for the thirty-fifth edition (the second time this theme has been used). This edition consisted of three semi-finals which were all launched on the 04 June 2018 and a grand final which took place from the 10 June 2018. All four of the shows in this edition were hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Emma Willis.

This edition saw a change in the qualification system, due to the number of participants growing extremely quickly. It was announced that this edition would see thirty-four countries participating in the final: the power six, nine qualifiers from each semi-final and one wildcard entry (the highest scoring tenth placed entry).

Fifty-eight countries participated in this edition of the contest. We saw the exciting return of two long-absent South American nations: Colombia and Venezuela. However, we did sadly need to say goodbye to a total of nine countries: Belgium, Egypt, the Faroe Islands, Greece, Monaco, Namibia, Romania, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay.

The power six for this edition were England, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Brazil and Cyprus - these were the delegations that placed in the top six from the previous edition. Their placement in the power six means that they received an automatic place to perform in the final of this edition, while also being allowed to vote in one of the semi-finals in this edition.

 Slogan
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Participants
 Theme
 Winner

## Participants

* Venezuela
* Egypt
* Faroe Islands
* Greece
* Monaco
* Namibia
* Romania
* Saudi Arabia
* Uruguay

## ​Semi Final One

 Denmark and  Sweden from the power six were randomly allocated to vote in this semi-final, as well as, the countries who participated in this semi-final - as always countries not in this semi-final had the choice whether they wanted to vote in this semi-final or not.  Finland and  Ireland were randomly assigned to this semi-final because the heads of delegation for Finland and Ireland are on the admin team and are the organisers for the second and third semi-final (respectively) - this is done to allow the admins to have the uncertainty of their countries' result.

## ​Semi Final Two

 England and  Iceland from the power six were randomly allocated to vote in this semi-final, as well as, the countries who participated in this semi-final - as always countries not in this semi-final had the choice whether they wanted to vote in this semi-final or not. After the results were announced, the admin team decided to allow the highest scoring, tenth placed entry to pass to the final as a wildcard -  Portugal were announced as this wildcard entry.

## ​Semi Final Three

 Brazil and  Cyprus from the power six were randomly allocated to vote in this semi-final, as well as, the countries who participated in this semi-final - as always countries not in this semi-final had the choice whether they wanted to vote in this semi-final or not.  Malta were randomly assigned to this semi-final because the head of delegation for Malta is on the admin team and is the organiser for the first semi-final - this is done to allow the admins to have the uncertainty of their countries' result. Unfortunately,  Malaysia,  Lithuania and  Switzerland were all disqualified because they failed to vote before the deadline.

## ​Grand Final

Thirty countries participated in the final of this edition of the **Global Music Festival**​ - the power six, the seven qualifiers from the three semi-finals and the three wildcard entries (one from each semi-final). All fifty-eight participating countries were eligible to vote in the final; however, only the thirty finalists were obligated to vote! The running order for the final was announced shortly after the semi final results on the 11 June 2018. The results for the final were released on the 15 June 2018.