Edition 37

The thirty-seventh edition of the **Global Music Festival**​ took place at the Sajik Arena in Seoul, South Korea. It was the first time the country hosted the contest, after South Korea's first victory in edition thirty-six with the song "No More" performed by UNI.T - which scored 308 points. This edition consisted of three semi-finals which were all launched on the 02 July 2018 and a grand final which took place from the 09 July 2018. All four of the shows in this edition were hosted by Song Hye-kyo and Kim Seok-jin.

This edition saw the qualification system switch back to its original format (the power six and eight qualifiers from three semi finals). However, this still did not resolve the issue of the high chance of qualification failure due to the number of countries competing. Therefore, the admin team decided to 'cap' the number of participants in a single edition to sixty countries.

Sixty countries participated in this edition of the contest. Another Asian country decided to join the Global Music Festival for edition thirty-seven - Afghanistan. Also, five of our previous participating countries decided to return: Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, France, the FYR Macedonia and Uruguay. However, due to a new rule change/personal reasons we had to say goodbye to nine countries, we hope they will come back soon: Andorra, Cyprus, India, Israel, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Russia and Venezuela.

The power six for this edition were South Korea, England, Malta, Germany, Australia and Barbados - 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
 Winner

## Participants

* Bosnia & Herzegovina
* France
* FYR Macedonia
* Uruguay
* Cyprus
* India
* Israel
* Liechtenstein
* Monaco
* New Zealand
* Russia
* Venezuela

## ​Semi Final One

 South Korea and  Barbados 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.  Ireland were randomly assigned to this semi-final because the head of delegation for Ireland is on the admin team and is the organiser for the third semi-final - this is done to allow the admins to have the uncertainty of their countries' result.

## ​Semi Final Two

 Malta and  Germany 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.

## ​Semi Final Three

 England and  Australia 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 were automatically assigned to this semi-final because the head of delegation for Finland is on the admin team and is the organiser for the second semi-final - this is done to allow the admins to have the uncertainty of their countries' result.

## ​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 60 participating countries were eligible to vote in the final; however, only the thirty finalists were obligated to vote! The votes of the non-qualifiers and non-participants were all combined in to the televote. However, only thirty non-qualifiers and non-participants could vote. The running order for the final was announced shortly after the semi final results on the 8 July 2018. The results for the final were released on the 14 July 2018.