Globalvision Season 18

The 18th season of the Globalvision Song Contest, expected to kick off on the 11th of April 2021. The official announcement of the beginning of the season was made on the 22nd of March, it didn't mention the exact start date of the season, but it revealed the theme and teased a few surprises. On the 5th of April, the date of start of the season was confirmed along with the modified country selection process, which included a pre-save date to determine the running order of choosing countries for the opening day of the contest.

The reveal of songs started on the 18th of April with all 37 initial entries being split into 4 groups meant to be revealed in different dates. None was disqualified before the final took place.

Two countries and a disputed region debuted during this season, those being Ghana, Slovakia and Southern Kurdistan, being this also the last time the kurdish region was allowed to compete. Only two new participants made their first appearances for this season, @Esteban and @kkatiesomerville

The trophy went to the hands of @Dutch for a second time in a row, being this the first time it happens. This was also his 7th victory overall and once again he gave the victory to the Netherlands with the singer Babet and her song "Third Eye".

Theme
It was revealed on the 22nd of March that the theme of this season would be about fashion and boutique world as can be seen in the logo that was revealed on the first announcement of the season.

Location
The location chosen to host the contest was the KSPO Dome in Seoul, capital city of South Korea. The decision was made by the previous winner, @Dutch, and it was announced on the same day of the theme reveal for this season. The venue has a capacity of 15,000 attendants and has served as a concert venue for big international artists including past globalvision participants like the south korean girl group BLACKPINK. It is the first indoor arena to host the contest.

Returning artists
Blaya was meant to participate in season 9 but her participation was cancelled due to the lack of votes from the participant that chose her to represent Portugal then.

The first real returning act was Hooverphonic, the belgian group already participated before in season 12 and also in the first season of the Globalvision spin off, All Stars. Milica Pavlović represented Serbia also in season 12.

Kerli was initially meant to appear in season 4 with the first attempt of a debut for Estonia, but in the end was disqualified due to the lack of votes from the participant that chose her. Aitana returned to the contest after previously participating in season 13.

Jolin Tsai and Namie Amuro returned together after representing Taiwan and Japan in seasons 12 and 14 respectively. Their collaboration is the first entry to unite two previous globalvision participants, not counting entries submitted for spin-offs.

Eleni Foureira made an historic 4th participation in the game (5th counting her All Stars participation), but this time for a different country as she previously represented Greece in the past (and almost Cyprus once). Her previous appearance was in season 11.

Uniqueness Award
For the full list of recipients of the award, see Uniqueness Award

Other participants

 * @Florian initially confirmed his participation after seeing that his main choice was stolen, but in the end he failed to take any of his backup options before others did it so he decided to withdraw.

Globalvision POPA911 clone version
Before even the season kicked off, one participant discovered that on the forum created by banned and exiled Gagadaily members, PopA911.com, a copy of the Globalvision Song Contest was being held. The one that had the idea of holding the game in there was the banned past participant @Lorde von Kok who didn't even bother to change the name of the game nor any other important aspects of it, although he acknowledged the existence of the main contest sharing even winners or details with the new participants.

Southern Kurdistan participation
On the first day of the season when countries were started to be revealed, @loathereality chose to represent Kurdistan, a non-sovereing and borderless region. Despite it being initially taken as a joke by some participants, it didn't take long to spark some controversy. The host chose to make a public poll to see how many participants supported the representation of Kurdistan in the game with a clear majority in favor for it. @DesertWolf, who defended that only real countries should participate in the contest, refused to recognise this choice and even considered quitting the game as this participation would leave the door open for further separatists movements to appear in the game, thing that could benefit people easily when they don't get their desired country in first place, which could also mean that country represenation in the contest would be useless in the future.

Talks regarding this controversy were held privately to settle down the whole issue. Both @loathereality and @DesertWolf agreed to limit the region to Southern Kurdistan with its borders within Iraq. Also the flag of the autonomous region was accepted to be used on the wiki. With this agreement both participants asked openly for more regulation in the future regarding which lands should be eligible for participation. Later on, @TeenIdle also decided to use the name of Southern Kurdistan for the contest.

Red & yellow dress usage

 * Brazil was meant to be represented by Anitta and her song "Pantera" but after the announcement of all songs of day 3, it was instantly disqualified after receiving enough red dress votes to do so. The replacement of this entry was revealed at the beginning of the last day of entry reveals.

Reporting system
There were a few other entries that sparked some controversy for the fame of the artist or for the weak link of the participant with the nation it was representing, or even for both things. This lead to further discussions regarding the whole red/yellow dress system if it was worthy or not, as many participants showed up late for voting or ignored it as they saw that some cases in the past were allowed to participate too.