Kawaii Kon 2025 Song Contest

It’s that time of year again! Whether you’re here to rock the mic with a legendary anime opening, hit those high notes on a pop classic, or just have fun, the Kawaii Kon 2025 Song Contest is the place where your voice takes center stage.

Get ready to sing, dance, and make this year’s contest one for the books!

Entry Requirements

• The Song Contest is open to all attendees and all ages.
• All contestants are required to sign up prior to participating, as same day sign-ups are not allowed. Please see the “Sign-Up” section below for more info.
• Entrants must have a badge for each day of the convention that the Contest is held on. Exact times will be announced when the official schedule goes live approximately two weeks before the convention.
• Exact times for each round will be announced through the Events schedule, approximately one to two weeks prior to the convention. Accepted contestants will be notified via email and must be available for applicable panels.
• To participate, you must submit a video of you singing with your application, and if selected, attend Semi-Finals on Friday, and Finals on Sunday.
  Note: If you are not selected to move on to the next round, you are not required to attend any further events.
• Participants agree that any violation of the rules is grounds for removal from the contest. Any violations of rules, either implicit or implied, is determined by Kawaii Kon and its crew, and are the final arbiters.  

Song Selection

• Songs can be selected from any genre; while anime-related songs (in English or Japanese) are preferred, it is not required.
• The Song Contest is a family friendly event; please keep your song’s lyrics and content in mind during selection and keep them at a PG rating or lower.
• Songs used for the contest must not exceed 4 minutes in length; longer songs may be used but must be trimmed before the competition by the contestant.
• The music track used must be an instrumental version only with no primary vocal track present; backup vocals on harmony or chorus sections are acceptable.

Judging

• The judging panel will be composed of up to 4 judges / judging groups, and will be announced at the start of each judging segment.
• At the end of each judging round, the judges will select the following to move on to the next round of the competition: 
  • Preliminaries – up to 8 contestants to move onto the Semi-Finals
  • Semi-Finals – up to 4 contestants to move onto the Finals
  • Finals – 1 overall winner of the contest
• Scoring by the judges for each round will be based on the following categories:
  • Vocal Quality: volume, pitch, vocal control, voice clarity.
  • Stage Presence: ability to put on a performance, energy of the contestant, ability to ‘fill the stage’ with the performance.
  • Crowd Response: audience engagement, excitement, and interest will be a scored factor.
  • Song Difficulty: changes in pitch or tempo, notes out of a standard range, ease / difficulty of song choice.

Sign-Up and Preliminary Round

Online submissions from January 10 to February 6 at midnight HST

• The entry form for the Song Contest will go live from January 2 to February 16—We suggest you set a reminder and bookmark this page to make sure you don’t miss it!
• Submissions are a video that shows you singing for at least 1 minute and no longer than 5 minutes. No audio-only submissions.
• Files must be entered via a public file transfer website that does not require a membership to download files or through your own hosting website. Please provide links to your video in your completed entry form. Some popular options include:
  • Google Drive—one of the better public file transfer websites to upload your entry to as it offers 10GB+ of cloud storage.
  • YouTube—submission must be left on “Unlisted.”

Disclaimer: Video submissions will be held on file until the next year’s contest and will subsequently be deleted. Files are accessible only to Kawaii Kon managers/admins and designated judges and will not be used for anything other than the purposes of this competition.

Emails will be sent by February 28 to notify who will proceed to the semi-finals round in person on the Friday of the convention.

Conduct

• Contestants must adhere to all Kawaii Kon rules of conduct. This applies to costumes, contestants, parents / guardians, and performances.
• Some additional conduct rules that apply include: 
  • All contestants must be respectful and careful of each other. Inappropriate behavior towards other contestants will not be tolerated.
  • The Kawaii Kon Song Contest is a family-oriented event. If it is not appropriate for a PG rating, do not perform it.
  • You are not allowed to act in a manner that may cause risk to yourself and/or any other person. This includes if you are partaking in any legal substances such as alcohol.
  • Contestants are prohibited from jumping or running off stage.
• Any infraction of our rules of conduct are grounds for disqualification from the Song Contest, removal from the event, forfeiture of badge, and expulsion from the convention center. 

Semi-Finals Round

Friday, Special Events (time TBD, please check the schedule)

• Once you receive the email confirming your acceptance to the Semi-Finals round, please follow any instructions provided.
• Semi-finalist contestants are required to sing 1 song: singers may opt to use the same song as sung in the previous round but must provide their own instrumental.
• Please report to the Song Contest Event Coordinator 15 minutes prior to the start of the semi-finals to turn in their song selections. If you are running late or need accommodation, please contact us at [email protected] as soon as possible or contact the event organizer directly.
• Each contestant will be given an opportunity to introduce themselves and the song they are singing on stage prior to their performance.
• Once all contestants have performed, the judges will confer and announce those contestants moving onto the Final round of the competition.

Finals

Sunday, Special Events (time TBD, please check the schedule)

• For the Song Contest finals, all contestants are required to sing 2 songs for judging; singers may opt to use any songs sung in the previous rounds as their selections.
• Finalist contestants will report to the Song Contest Event Coordinator 15 minutes prior to the start of the finals to turn in their song selections, so please plan accordingly. If you are running late, you may let us know, but we cannot guarantee that we can accommodate a late arrival with a limited number of contestants.
• Contestants will be given an opportunity to introduce themselves and the first song they will be singing on stage prior to their performance. The contestant will then be allowed to introduce their second song.
• Once all contestants have performed, an entertainment interlude may occur to allow the judges time to deliberate and review their scoring. 
• At the end of the event, the judges will announce the winner of the Kawaii Kon Song Contest!  

Final Thoughts

• Kawaii Kon is the final arbiter for all rules, circumstances, and disputes, and may change rules at any time as necessary to fit the overall integrity and intent of the Kawaii Kon Song Contest

Any questions or concerns may be sent to [email protected]