Edition 13

The **​**​thirteenth edition of **​The Global Music Festival**​ took place at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain.  It was the first time the contest took place in Spain, following the country's victory in the twelfth edition of the contest in the Philippines with the song "Sofia" performed by Alvaro Soler.  This edition consisted of two semi-finals which were all launched on the 24 July 2017 and a grand final which took place from the 28 July 2017.  All three of the shows in this edition were hosted by Ruth Lorenzo - previous participant for Spain in the Global Music Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest, as well as a quarter-finalist on the X-Factor UK.

Forty-five countries participated in this edition of the contest.  Kenya debuted in this edition, another African nation joining the Global Music Festival.  We saw the long-awaited return of the Dominican Republic, as well as the return of Azerbaijan, Denmark and Ukraine, all after a one edition break.  Sadly, we saw the withdrawal of New Zealand and San Marino due to disqualification in the previous edition and we also saw the withdrawal of Russia.

The power six for this edition were Spain, South Africa, the Philippines, Finland, Australia and Chile - 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 of this edition.

Several countries received their best results in this edition: the United States received its first victory, Scotland came second and Cuba came third - all three of these countries received their best results.  Bosnia & Herzegovina and Malta both were in the top six for the first time in the history of the contest - meaning they will be in the power six in the fourteenth edition - placing fifth with 118 points and sixth with 110 points respectively.  Also, the Dominican Republic managed to qualify for the first time and placed twenty-first in the final with the song "Nobody" achieveing 60 points.

Unfortunately, a number of countries managed to receive their worst result in this edition.  Most significantly, Nigeria and Azerbaijan both came in last place in their respective semi-finals.  Liechtenstein managed to fail to qualify for the first time since their debut.  And, Ghana, Norway, Romania and Canada all received their worst positions in their respective semi-finals.  Also, Kenya during its debut only managed to achieve sixteenth in their semi-final and as a result failed to qualify.  In the final, Chile received their lowest placing to-date coming seventeenth with 77 points.  Also, Finland, one of the most successful nations in the contest, received their lowest ever placing - managing to come twenty-fourth in the final - scoring only 48 points.

 Slogan
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Participants
 Winner

## Participants

* Denmark
* Dominican Republic
* Ukraine
* Russia
* San Marino

## ​Pots for the Semi-Final Allocation Draw

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place on the 26 June 2017, unfortunately, the live stream on the Facebook group could not be done for this edition due to technical difficulties: the draw was still done using the same method, but it was not done using a live stream.  The thirty-nine semi-finalists (excluding Ireland) were allocated to five pots, based on the previous results of each participating country, calculated by the averages of the past results.  Drawing from each pot helps to create an equal split of successful and not-so successful countries in each semi-final to give countries an equal chance of qualification.

Ireland were not included in the pots because the head of delegation for the country is on the admin team and is in charge of the first semi-final.  Therefore, they were automatically placed into the second semi-final.  The head of delegation for Finland is in charge of the second semi-final and was part of the power six this edition so they did not compete in the semi-finals.

Also, our debuting nation - Kenya - announced their entry following the allocation draw and therefore were randomly assigned to the first semi-final and were drawn a random position number.

Also, in the semi-final allocation draw the power six nations (Spain, South Africa, the Philippines, Finland, Australia and Chile) were all drawn to vote in one of the respective semi-finals.  Spain, Australia and Chile were drawn to vote in the first semi-final, South Africa, the Philippines and Finland were drawn to vote in the second semi-final.

## ​Odds

The odds for the semi finals were released on Tuesday 25 July 2017 by the admins in charge of their respective semi finals, below you can see the odds for the top eleven (the predicted qualifiers) in each semi final:

And, below are the odds for the favourites for the final of the thirteenth edition:

  United States
  Greece
  Scotland
  Bosnia & Herzegovina
  Australia
  England
  Italy
  Barbados
  Spain

## Returning Artists

Demi Lovato - winner of the ninth edition of the Global Music Festival - returned to participate for Mexico once again; this was her sixth time participating in the Global Music Festival.  Also, Rihanna returned for her sixth appearance (again for Barbados) and hoped to beat her best result of sixth place.  Colombian singer, Shakira, returned for her fourth appearance in the contest - this time for Andorra - Shakira hoped to beat her fourth place for the FYR Macedonia in the seventh edition.  Furthermore, Alessia Cara, Sean Paul and Sia all returned for their third participations for Canada, Spain and Australia respectively.  Also, Camila Cabello returned solo after last participating for Cuba alongside the rest of Fifth Harmony in the eleventh edition, this time Camila came alone with her song "Crying in the Club" hoping to get another top ten finish for Cuba - this will be her third participation in the contest.

The thirteenth edition of the Global Music Festival also saw a number of artists return for a second time.  Four artists returned with the hope of qualifying for the first time: Bisa Kdei for Nigeria, Gery-Nikol for Bulgaria, Ira Losco for Malta and Arash for Azerbaijan.  Ke$ha and Reggie 'n' Bollie both returned for their second participations for the United States and Ghana respectively, both artists came with the aim of beating their best placements - tenth place for Ke$ha and twenty-first place for Reggie 'n' Bollie.  Shyli returned for Malta (alonside Ira Losco), one of the wildcard acts from the eleventh edition - she hoped to get to the final once again and get a better result the last time (higher than nineteenth).  Finally, Conchita Wurst returned for Austria - a very popular Austrian artist who has not participated since the first edition of the contest - Conchita hoped to get Austria their best result in the history of the contest, following her last participation where she placed sixth.

## Semi Final One

 Spain,  Australia and  Chile from the power six voted in the semi final, following the allocation draw, as well as the countries participating in this semi final.  After the results were announced the admin team discussed selecting a wildcard entry from this semi final to progress to the final -  Bulgaria were selected as the wildcard entry.

## Semi Final Two

 South Africa, the  Philippines and  Finland from the power six voted in the semi final, following the allocation draw, as well as the countries participating in this semi final.   Ireland were automatically assigned to the second semi-final because the head of delegation for Ireland is on the admin team and is in charge of the first semi-final.  After the results were announced the admin team discussed selecting a wildcard entry from this semi final to progress to the final -  Moldova were selected as the wildcard entry.

## Final

Thirty countries participated in the final - the power six, the eleven qualifiers from each semi-final and the two wildcards (one from each semi-final).  All forty-five participating countries were eligible to vote in the final; however, only the thirty countries in the final had to vote.  The running order for the final was announced shortly after the results of the semi-finals on the 28 July 2017.  Unfortunately, Japan were disqualified because the head of delegation deleted his Facebook account and could not vote as a result...  Japan would have placed twenty-seventh with 34 points.