Edition 36

The Thirty-sixth edition of the **Global Music Festival**​ took place at the Krešimir Ćosić Hall in Zadar, Croatia. It was the first time the country hosted the contest, after Croatia's first victory in the thirty-fifth edition with Severina and her song "Sekunde" - which scored an amazing 305 points. This edition consisted of three semi-finals which were all launched on the 18 June 2018 and a grand final which took place from the 23 June 2018. All four of the shows in this edition were hosted by Eric Bana and previous Croatian participant - Nina Kraljić.

Sixty-three countries participated in this edition of the contest. This edition saw the debut of the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, we saw the return of Armenia, Greece, Jamaica, Monaco, Romania and Russia. However, we sadly saw the withdrawal of two great countries and they will be greatly missed: Morocco and Serbia.

The power six for this edition were Croatia, Barbados, Norway, Russia, Albania and Scotland - these were the delegations that placed in the top six from the previous edition. However, there was a slight change in countries because the head of delegation for Venezuela decided they would change to Russia. 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

* Greece
* Jamaica
* Monaco
* Romania
* Russia
* Serbia

## ​Semi Final One

 Russia and  Albania 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 randomly 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.

## ​Semi Final Two

 Croatia and  Norway 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 Three

 Barbados and  Scotland 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 automatically 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. 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 -  Jamaica were announced as this wildcard entry.

## ​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 sixty-three 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 23 June 2018. The results for the final were released on the 29 June 2018.