Nedas' and Rob's Earthvision Song Contest 03

Nedas' and Rob's Earthvision Song Contest 03, often referred as NRESC 03, was the third edition of Nedas' and Rob's Earthvision Song Contest. The edition took place in Gangneung, South Korea, following bhackstabbed's second win as South Korea, with "" by LOONA.

Organised by nedneu and declanmmx, the contest was held at the Gangneung Ice Arena. Three live shows took place in August to September, and was presented by the whole LOONA group who won the edition before.

There were thirty-nine participants, hailing from six continents, divided into two semi-finals or as automatic qualifiers. Multiple countries debuted whilst multiple also withdrew. American Samoa, Canada and Scotland had originally participated, but they later withdrew due to Head of Delegation changes.

Location
Gangneung is a municipal city in the province of Gangwon-do, on the east coast of South Korea. It has a population of 213,658 (as of 2017). Gangneung is the economic center of the Yeongdong region of Gangwon-do. Gangneung has many tourist attractions, such as Jeongdongjin, a very popular area for watching the sun rise, and Gyeongpo Beach. The city hosted all the ice events for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Gangneung Ice Arena is an indoor ice arena, built for the 2018 Winter Olympics. It is located in the coastal city of Gangneung. It was the venue for two sports: figure skating and short track speed skating. The seating capacity is 12,000. The Gangneung Ice Arena is designed to house two ice rinks (60m x 30m), one for competition and one for training. The building has four floors aboveground and two underground levels. An environmentally friendly ice cooling system was adopted, and the facility is used for local recreational purposes since the Games. The cost of construction was 85 million USD and the facility was inaugurated on 14 December 2016.

Visual Design
On the 26th of June, the logo for the third edition was unveiled. The logo is designed by Rob and consists of one core design, reiterated into three separate colours: green, purple and orange, each representing the three shows. Accompanying the design was the slogan for the contest, "Thrive" (stylized as "thrive") or in some markets "Sleigh" (stylized as "sleigh").

Presenters
On 10 June 2021, the NRBU announced that the whole LOONA group would host the three shows: HeeJin (희진), HyunJin (현진), HaSeul (하슬) – leader, YeoJin (여진), ViVi (비비), Kim Lip (김립), JinSoul (진솔), Choerry (최리), Yves (이브), Chuu (츄), Go Won (고원) and Olivia Hye (올리비아 혜). LOONA 1/3 hosted the first semi-final, LOONA ODD EYE CIRCLE and Yeojin hosted the second semi-final & LOONA YYXY hosted the grand final.

Stage design
The executive directors, Nedas and Rob, revealed the stage design for Nedas' and Rob's Earthvision Song Contest in 29 July 2021. The stage was designed by a Saudi Arabian stage designer Horiph and one of the executive directors, Rob, who also designed the stages for the contests in 01 and 02. Unlike the previous contests, the green room was placed in the main performance venue, and encompassed the entire floor space previously reserved for the standing audience.

Semi final allocation draw
Similar to the previous two editions, the thirty-three participating semi-finalists were randomly allocated to a semi-final and one of its halves. The draw was unveiled on the 26th of June, as well as the halves of the Grand Final the "Big 6" would perform in and what semi-final they would vote in. Also during this event were performances from EXO & ENHYPEN performing their songs "Don't Fight the Feeling" and "Drunk-Dazed" respectively.

The thirty-three semi-finalists were allocated into six pots, based on their relationships. Drawing from different pots helps in reducing the chance of so-called neighbour voting and increasing suspense in the semi-finals. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final and half of the semi-final was determined.

The six pots were the following:

Participating countries
The NRBU initially announced on June 2021 that 39 countries would participate in the contest. Iran, Malta, Morocco and Russia returned after a one-edition absence, while 19 countries did not enter. 10 countries made its debut in the contest. The deadline to claim for the countries was 29 May 2021, while the deadline to apply for participation was 10 May 2021.

Returning artists
The contest featured two representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same or for another country.

Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 22 August 2021 at 19:00 (CEST). Sixteen countries participated in the first semi-final. Those countries plus Romania, Russia and South Korea voted in this semi-final.

The recap for the first semi-final is available to watch on.

Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 28 August 2021 at 19:00 (CEST). Seventeen countries participated in the second semi-final. Those countries plus France, Morocco and the U.S. Virgin Islands voted in this semi-final.

The recap for the second semi-final is available to watch on.

Final
The Grand Final took place on 4 September 2021 at 19:00 (CEST). All thirty-nine participating countries were eligible to vote.

The recap for the finalists is available to watch on.

12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the first semi-final.

12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the second semi-final.

12 points
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the final.

Other countries

 * Further information: Page in progress

Eligibility for potential participation in the Nedas' and Rob's Earthvision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active NRBU membership that would be able to broadcast the contest via the Earthvision network. The NRBU issued an invitation to participate in the contest to all active members.

Active broadcaster members

 * americansamoa.png American Samoa – The Head of Delegation, nedneu, had originally claimed American Samoa and sent HOLYCHILD with the song "Raining Romance", but weeks later it has been discovered that the band had disbanded a year ago before the entry reveal and therefore withdrew the contest. The Head of Delegation claimed monacoflag.jpg Monaco after the discovery.
 * canada.png Canada – The Head of Delegation, TechnoElementor, had originally claimed Canada, but changed their claims to brazilflag.jpeg Brazil and sent IZO with the song "Gueto". There is no information on Canada's plans.
 * scotland.png Scotland – The Head of Delegation, Liam_Aharon, had originally claimed Scotland, but changed their claims to israel.png Israel and sent May Sfadia with the song "Karma". It has been later confirmed by Liam_Aharon that Scotland had plans to send, her song wasn't chosen.
 * switzerland.png Switzerland – Before the country claiming, the Head of Delegation, Luna, had interest into claiming Switzerland and was about to select Raye as their representative. However, Switzerland was not included on the final list of participants for 03. Luna later explained the reason and stated that "she wanted Germany more".

Broadcasters and commentators
All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing an insight about the show and voting information to their local audience. While they must broadcast at least the semi-final they are voting in and the final, most broadcasters air all three shows with different programming plans. Similarly, some non-participating broadcasters may still want to air the contest. These are the broadcasters that have confirmed their broadcasting plans and/or their commentators:

England's prop hijack in the semi-finals
During England's performance during the first Semi-Final, the prop was hijacked and elements were controlled by an unknown person within the arena. They did not re-perform.

Sweden's missing prop in the semi-finals
During the first Semi-Final, the set for Sweden's performance which had been used for rehearsals was excluded from the game meaning Sweden had to perform on an empty stage. This resulted in a varying performance to what the delegation had planned out.

GUI malfunction in the first semi-final
Right before the Philippines' performance, the country GUI incorrectly displayed the song information for Sweden instead of the Philippines. The problem was solved in seconds.

Åland Islands technical issues in the first semi-final
During the first semi-final, the technical crew were asked by the Head of Delegation to turn off the “stage fog” (referring to the stages fog), the technical crew instead turned off the Åland Islands prop special effects. In a panic the Head of Delegation turned on the effect twice causing the game to lag, and camera shots to be blocked by the fog. The delegation has announced this problem will be solved for the Grand Final.

Fromis_9's nonfunctional animation performance
During the opening act, which performed by fromis_9, the animations were nonfunctional causing them to stand on stage in the whole performance. After, it was considered that their performance will be re-recorded, but the executive directors later decided to not re-record and apologised to the public.

Belarus' prop hijack in the semi-finals
During Belarus' performance in the second Semi-Final, the prop was hijacked and the lights were controlled by an unknown person within the arena. They did not re-perform.

Camera breaking during Macau's semi-final performance
During Macau's performance in the second Semi-Final, the cameras weren't controlled by a malfunction issue which caused a full panic in the control room. Three staff members rushed to the camera controls and controlled the cameras to the end of the performance. The logo appeared unexpectedly for a second.

Wrong version played in LOONA's opening performance
During LOONA's opening performance at the Grand Final, a Japanese version of "PTT (Paint the Town)" was played. The audio manager later apologized and LOONA did not re-perform.

Australia's prop not arriving on time in the Final
Before the Australian performance, the prop didn't arrive on time, which resulted into a small host break with interviews with the participants. It was first announced by the developing team that Australia will perform without a prop, but then the prop was found and therefore Australia performed with the prop. The scene was cut in zyetv.

Slow lighting performance during Russia's, South Korea's and the start of Japan's performance
During Russia's performance, the lighting presentation began to slow down, making the cue from the lights slower. The lighting controller staff began to notice and questioned the developers on the reason the lighting was slow, the reason wasn't found. Before South Korea's performance, the performer Yezi was informed by the staff that the lighting will be unusual from the way it was supposed to be. The lights began to fix itself slowly during South Korea's performance. Japan's performance was informed by the developers as well. At the start of Mitski's performance, the lights started to work normally.

Reactions from the affected performers

 * Russia – After Tatarka's performance, she stated that she noticed that the lights were slowing down, but she "didn't care" and performed the best as she can.
 * South Korea – When Yezi was informed that the lighting would be unusual in her performance, she thought it was okay and moved on to her performance. After her performance, she stated that the "lighting may be slow, but she enjoyed giving her heart out on stage in Gangneung".
 * Japan – The lights weren't affected during Japan's performance at all. Before her performance, she was also informed by the staff about the slow lighting presentation. Days later, during an interview of Good Morning Japan!, she was asked about the situation, her answer was "when the cameras were on stage before my performance, I noticed really well that the lights were moving slow [...] I loved my performance I gave, I didn't really care about the lighting before it was fixed during my performance, I won and that's fun".

Cayman Islands
During Cayman Islands' performance in the Final, an anonymous stage invader disturbed Maeve's performance, her reaction on stage had a shocking expression. The invader was removed from the stage and the arena, they did not re-perform, making this the first invader of the Final.

Russia
During Russia's performance in the Grand Final, another anonymous stage invader disturbed Tatarka's performance and therefore the invader was banned from the arena, they did not re-perform, making this the second invader of the Final.

England
During England's performance in the Grand Final, another anonymous stage invader disturbed whenyoung's performance and the lead singer kindly asked them to join the performance but the invader was removed from the arena as soon as possible. This was the third invader of the Final.

Germany
At the beginning of Germany's performance in the Grand Final, another anonymous stage invader disturbed Lilith Czar's performance and she "didn't care" and performed like they rehearsed, the invader was removed from the arena shortly. This was the fourth invader of the Final.

Iran
Near the end of Iran's performance in the Grand Final, another anonymous stage invader disturbed Nadia Tehran's performance. The dancers had the opportunity to remove the invader from the stage, while one of the dancers mistook a participant by banning them. They did not re-perform. Nadia Tehran later stated that her performance was "stunning because of the lighting [...] I didn't really care much about the invader, but it's not fun to do that.".

PSY's interval act performance
At the end of PSY's performance, a sudden anonymous invader came to the stage running around yelling "OPPA GANGNAM STYLE". The person was later removed from the stage and no one knew who it was, including the stage security team.

GUI hack at the start of the show
During the presentation from the hosts, a "voting will close in" countdown showed up many times which was hacked. The GUI was later removed by the control room staff. It was later confirmed by one of the developers, Gabys2005, that it was a user named "sankiee236", the hacker was removed from the arena therefore making the security in the arena stricter.

The ":ban all" incident
Before the jury voting occurred, there was a suspect that was banned by one of the administrators by using the ":ban all" command, not knowing it would ban all of the players in the game. The players re-joined the arena and after 10 minutes, it was fixed and later started the jury voting.

Selenite Awards
The Selenite Awards honour the best competing songs in the final. The awards are divided into two categories: Staff Award, voted upon by members of the group's staff, and the International Award, voted upon by the rest of the community.

National Finals

 * germany.png Germany - Unser Lied Für Sud Korea 03