UNMF 10

The UNMF 10 will be the tenth edition of United Nations Music Fest. It will take place for the first time in Reino de Corfú following the country's first victory at the 9th contest in Suribor, Suroland with the song "Le Temps Qu'il Faut", performed by TAL. The contest will be held at the Asterius Dome in Argos, and will consist of two semi-finals on 3 july, and the final on 8 july 2018. The three live shows will be hosted by Anne Hathaway, James Franco and Betty White.

Forty-seven countries participated in the contest, making a new record of participating nations. Blue Mountain and República de Turína, as newest UNBU members, made its debuts at this contest. Eveun withdrew, largely due to their national broadcaster's insufficient promotion of their music-based media.

The winner was R.N.E.D.U. with the song "New Rules", performed by Dua Lipa. This was R.N.E.D.U.'s second victory in the contest, following their win in UNMF5. This edition also saw Ristán, Cuatro Reinos and the Kherson achieve the best placing in their UNMF history, coming in second, third and seventh place, respectively. Reino de Corfú finished in the twenty-fifth place, making this the third time that the host country ranked in the bottom five since UNMF 8. The UNBU reported that the contest had a worldwide audience of around 586 million viewers, surpassing the ninth edition by over 70 million.

Location
The contest took place for the first time in Reino de Corfú, following the country's victory in the UNMF9 edition with the song "Le Temps Qu'il Faut", performed by TAL.

Venue
The Asterius Dome in Argos is a multi-purpose indoor dome built for the 2016's UNMF Games and has a capacity of 55,000 attendees, making it the largest indoor venue in Reino de Corfú and among the largest in UNMF.It is located in the Πάρκο των Εθνών (Park of Nations) new district in the northeast of Argos. It is connected by metro to the nearby international airport and by train to the rest of the country and UNMF.

Bidding phase
The Chief of Corfú Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Head of Delegation for Reino de Corfú, Alfredo MiTa, stated on 26 June 2018 that the first organisational meeting for the contest would take place before 27 June, during which the United Nations Broadcasting Union (UNBU) and CBC would go through the technical requirements for the contest, as well as any training required for the contest to take place in Reino de Corfú. MiTa also announced that the venue for the contest would be announced over the week.

CBC and the Corfiot Government formally launched the bidding process for interested cities to apply to host the contest on 27 June. The basic requirements to select a host city were set out in a document presented by the UNBU to CBC following their win in Suroland:


 * The venue must be covered with a capacity of at least 10,000 but ideally up to 15,000 attendees.
 * An international press center must be able to accommodate no less than 1,550 journalists.
 * Venues must also be provided for the opening and closing ceremonies of at least 3,000 attendees.
 * The host city must have fairly priced hotel rooms, that are located in close proximity to the venue and the city center.
 * The host city must be able to guarantee the safety and security of participants, members of delegations and guests.
 * The host city must have modern transport infrastructure: an international airport and readily available transport between the airport, the city and hotels, in addition, *to convenient traffic in the city and the opportunity to provide additional transport routes.

Other sites
The UNMF Village was the official United Nations Music Festival fan and sponsors area during the event weeks, where it was possible to watch performances by contest participants and local artists, as well as the live shows broadcast from the main venue. It was located in Argos's downtown Βασιλικοί κήποι δέντρων (Royal Tree Gardens), a large central square garden open to the Argos's bay.

The UNMFClub was the venue for the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants. Unlike the UNMF Village, access to the UNMFClub was restricted to accredited fans, delegations, and press. It was located at the "Greek" club, next to the Eurovision Village.

The official Opening Ceremony of the UNMF 10 contest and "Blue Carpet" event, where all the contestants and their delegations are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place on 2 July 2018 at the Museum of Art, Princess Grace in Argos's Oniros district.

Visual design
The graphic design of the contest was revealed by the UNBU on 3 July 2018. The theme art comprises a blue and purple crystal, within it the generic United Nations Music Fest logo featuring the Corfiot flag as well as the slogan "Crystallize Your Dreams" at the center of the crystal. The Director General of CBC, Alfredo MiTa, commented in reference to the slogan: "Being the first time that Reino de Corfú hosts the festival, we wanted to convey that joy we felt and what better way to encourage everyone to fight for their dreams". The theme art will be incorporated in all contest related developments such as crew uniforms, stage, on-air graphics, blue carpet and merchandise.

Presenters
It was announced on 1 July by CBC, that the presenters for the contest would be Anne Hathaway and James Franco, with Betty White hosting the green room. The Blue Carpet opening ceremony was hosted by media proprietor/TV host Oprah Winfrey, actress Katherine Heigl, actor Patrick Dempsey, and model Pietro Boselli moderated the press conferences, as well.

Semi-final allocation draw
According to the number of participants. Each participating country award points to their top 10 songs, by using the traditional Eurovision system of 12, 10, and 8-1 points. The countries are however not allowed to vote for their own song. The top 5 of the previous edition is qualified directly for the Grand Final. The 11 songs that received more points of the semi final will qualify for the Grand Final.

The allocation draw and the running order will be made on 2nd July by the host broadcaster.

After the sorting process, both semi-finals will be established as follows.

Opening and interval acts
It was announced on 2 July 2018 that the opening act of the first semi-final would be a performance of "Are we awake/Le temps qu'il faut" by TAL, while the opening act of the second semi-final would be a musical lights dancing song entitled "A Decade of UNMF". The opening act of the final was a parade of flags, themed as a tribute to Corfiot history with artists being welcomed on stage in a catwalk fashion show with flags being projected onto 27 dresses designed by Alexander McQueen brand.

The interval act of both semi-finals was a performance of Betty White featuring Luciana with the comedy song called "I'm Still Hot". In the grand final, the interval acts was a medley of the previous winners of the UNMF, followed by a medley performed by artists who have competed at UNMF representing the Reino de Corfú. The CBC announced on 6 July that one of the interval acts of the final would be a Corfiot band Coldplay with The Chainsmokers performing the song "Something Just Like This" other interval act was a semblance in honor of the late singer Zelimkhan Bakaev. In the final, TAL again performed, this time doing "Mondial".

Semifinal 1

 * Playlist
 * Voting form
 * Recap

Twenty one countries will participate in the first semi-final. Reino de Corfú, Giantsland and  R.N.E.D.U. will vote in this semifinal. Eleven countries will qualify directly to the final.

Semifinal 2

 * Playlist
 * Voting form
 * Recap

Twenty one countries will participate in the first semi-final. Reino de Corfú, Islas Wesetics and  Ristán will vote in this semifinal. Eleven countries will qualify directly to the final.

Grand Final

 * Playlist
 * Voting form
 * [ Recap]

CBC - UNBU agreements
In the meetings between CBC and UNBU executives several agreements were reached regarding the organization of the content, in it, the UNBU told the CBC that there were no inconveniences in the ideas of the CBC and that everything would take place.

However, once the ideas of the CBC were sent, the UNBU ignored some without giving any explanation to the CBC; this adds to some inconveniences regarding the UNBU's planned times and the indifference of some member countries, leaving a bittersweet taste to the CBC and considering their participation in future editions.

Santiago artist revealad
In the days before the contest began, the CBC revealed the countries that had sent their singer that would represent them, so that those who had not done so would send the name of their representative. Being of the displeasure of the delegation of Santiago, because they wanted to reveal their artist who would represent them in the contest. The UNBU failed in favor of the CBC due the broadcaster has these privileges.

R.N.E.D.U. technical issues
In the rehearsals of the first semifinal, some elements of the staging of R.N.E.D.U. arrived later, this because they were sent to the wrong city. The CBC solved the problem that same day and apologized to the delegation of R.N.E.D.U. for the inconveniences.

Galia withdrawal
After knowing the countries that passed to the grand final Galia´s delegation was annoyed because they considered that the songs of other countries were inferior to their proposal and for that reason they did not deserve the pass to the grand final. This discussion involved several countries of UNBU having as a final result the definitive withdrawal of Galia from the contest.

ABBA Awards
In addition to the main winner's trophy, the ABBA Awards will be contested during the United NationsMusic Festival 10. The awards are divided into five categories: Female Vocal, Male Vocal, Best Duo/Group, Composer Award and Waterloo Award (this is to the best performance in the contest). The winners are revealed shortly before the UNMF final.