Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Dates
Semi-final 1
08 May 2018
Semi-final 2
10 May 2018
Final
12 May 2018
Host
Venue
Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal
Presenter(s)
Filomena Cautela
Sílvia Alberto
Daniela Ruah
Catarina Furtado
Executive supervisor
Jon Ola Sand
Executive producer
João Nuno Nogueira
Host broadcaster
Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP)
The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 is the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It will take place in Portugal following Salvador Sobral's victory in the 2017 contest with the song "Amar Pelos Dois". Russia is expected to return after withdrawing from the 2017 edition, following the travel-ban of their representative Yulia Samoylova from entering Ukraine.
As of 15 May 2017, thirteen countries have confirmed their intentions to participate in the contest.
Location
Venue
The contest will take place for the first time in Portugal, following the country's victory in the 2017 edition with the song "Amar pelos dois", performed by Salvador Sobral. Following a bidding phase, Altice Arena in Lisbon was selected as the contest venue by host broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The multi-purpose arena was built for the Expo '98 and has a capacity of 20,000 attendees, making it the largest indoor venue in Portugal and among the largest in Europe. It is located in the heart of the modern Parque das Nações riverside district in the northeast of Lisbon, which hosted the Expo '98. It is connected by metro to the nearby international airport and by train (Oriente Station) to the rest of the country and Europe.
Bidding phase and host selection
On the day of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 final, it was reported that Portuguese broadcaster RTP would accept the challenge of organising the 2018 contest in case of a victory. Following Sobral's triumph, the EBU's Executive Supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest, Jon Ola Sand, issued the hosting invitation to RTP during the winner's press conference. The following day, the director-general of RTP, Nuno Artur Silva, confirmed that the broadcaster would organise the contest in 2018 and mentioned the MEO Arena (later renamed Altice Arena) in Lisbon as a likely venue to host the contest. On 15 May 2017, RTP appeared to have confirmed Lisbon as the host city,but clarified the following day that no final decision had been taken regarding both the host city and venue.
The basic requirements to select a host city were set out in a document presented by the EBU to RTP following their win in Kiev:
A suitable venue that can accommodate around 10,000 spectators.
An international press centre for 1,500 journalists with adequate facilities for all the delegates.
A good distribution of hotel rooms, at different price categories, able to accommodate at least 2,000 delegates, accredited journalists and spectators.
An efficient transport infrastructure, including a nearby international airport with readily available connections with the city, venue and hotels.
Besides Lisbon, other cities signalled their interest in bidding to host the 2018 contest: Braga, Espinho, Faro, Gondomar, Guimarães, and Santa Maria da Feira. The mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, declared he would not be interested in "spending millions of euros" to host the contest, but he would support a bid from the Metropolitan Area of Porto (Espinho, Gondomar and Santa Maria da Feira).
On 13 June 2017, RTP representatives met with the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group at the EBU headquarters in Geneva. During the meeting, RTP officials attended a workshop covering several topics related with hosting the Eurovision Song Contest and learned from the experience of the Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC. They also had the opportunity to present their first plans for the 2018 contest, including multiple proposals for host city and venue.
On 25 July 2017, the EBU and RTP announced that Lisbon had been selected as the host city, overcoming confirmed bids from Braga, Gondomar, Guimarães and Santa Maria da Feira. In addition, RTP indicated the Parque das Nações, where Altice Arena is located, as the site for the shows.
Format
Visual design
The theme for the contest, All Aboard!, was unveiled on 7 November 2017 in a press conference held at the Lisbon Oceanarium. Its visual design features oceanic motifs that allude to Lisbon and Portugal's location on the Atlantic coast and to the country's seafaring history. Alongside the main emblem, which depicts a stylised seashell, twelve supplemental emblems were designed to symbolise different aspects of a marine ecosystem. The contest's Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand remarked that the theme and logos "resonate with Lisbon’s history and underscore Eurovision's core values, including diversity, very well. The Ocean connects all of us and its variety can provide good inspiration for each of the (...) participating broadcasters that we look forward to seeing in Lisbon next May.
Presenters
On 8 January 2018, RTP and EBU announced that the contest would be hosted for the first time by four female presenters, consisting of RTP hosts Sílvia Alberto, Filomena Cautela and Catarina Furtado, together with actress Daniela Ruah. It will be the first time since 2013 that the contest does not feature a male presenter, and the second consecutive year that the presenters are all the same gender.
Semi-final allocation draw
The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place on 29 January 2018 at 13:00 CET, at Lisbon's City Hall. The thirty-seven semi-finalists had been allocated into six pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest's official televoting partner Digame. Drawing from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called "bloc voting" and increase suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final would be broadcast and voted by each of the six automatic finalist countries (hosts Portugal and Big Five countries France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom). The ceremony was hosted by contest presenters Sílvia Alberto and Filomena Cautela, and included the passing of a Eurovision insignia from Vitali Klitschko, the Mayor of Kiev (host city of the previous contest), to Fernando Medina, the Mayor of Lisbon.
Participating countries
The EBU announced on 7 November 2017 that forty-two countries would participate in the contest. Russia confirmed their return after withdrawing from the previous edition, while Macedonia's participation was provisionally blocked by the EBU due to unpaid debts by its national broadcaster. However, ten days later, the EBU announced that Macedonia would be allowed to enter the contest, raising the number of participating countries to forty-three, the highest since the 2008 and 2011 editions.
Semi-final 1
Nineteen countries will participate in the first semi-final. Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom will vote in this semi-final.
Country - Artist - Song
01 Azerbaijan
Aisel - "X My Heart"
02 Iceland
Ari Ólafsson - "Our Choice"
04 Belgium
Sennek - "A Matter of Time"
08 Belarus
Alekseev - "Forever"
11 Macedonia
Eye Cue - "Lost and Found"
12 Croatia
Franka -"Crazy"
14 Greece
Yianna Terzi - "Oniro mou" (Όνειρό μου)
16 Armenia
Sevak Khanagyan - "Qami" (Քամի)
17 Switzerland
Zibbz - "Stones"
Semi-final 2
Eighteen countries will participate in the second semi-final. France, Germany and Italy will vote in this semi-final.
With the approval from the Reference Group, Italy will broadcast and vote in the second semi-final following a request from the broadcaster RAI, as the date of the first semi-final coincides with the scheduled final of the fifth season of The Voice of Italy.
Country - Artist - Song
02 Romania
The Humans - "Goodbye"
04 San Marino
Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening - "Who We Are
06 Russia
Julia Samoylova - "I Won't Break
10 Georgia
Iriao - "For You
11 Poland
Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer - "Light Me Up"
12 Malta
Christabelle - "Taboo"
14 Latvia
Laura Rizzotto - "Funny Girl"
16 Montenegro
Vanja Radovanović - "Inje"
Final
Country - Artist - Song
01 Ukraine
Mélovin "Under the Ladder"
02 Spain
Amaia & Alfred "Tu canción"
03 Slovenia
Lea Sirk "Hvala, ne!"
04 Lithuania
Ieva Zasimauskaitė "When We're Old"
05 Austria
Cesár Sampson "Nobody but You"
06 Estonia
Elina Nechayeva "La forza"
07 Norway
Alexander Rybak "That's How You Write a Song"
08 Portugal
Cláudia Pascoal "O jardim"
09 United Kingdom
SuRie "Storm"
10 Serbia
Sanja Ilić & Balkanika "Nova deca" (Нова деца)
11 Germany
Michael Schulte "You Let Me Walk Alone"
12 Albania
Eugent Bushpepa "Mall"
13 France
Madame Monsieur "Mercy"
14 Czech Republic
Mikolas Josef "Lie to Me"
15 Denmark
Rasmussen "Higher Ground"
16 Australia
Jessica Mauboy "We Got Love"
17 Finland
Saara Aalto "Monsters"
18 Bulgaria
Equinox "Bones"
19 Moldova
DoReDoS "My Lucky Day"
20 Sweden
Benjamin Ingrosso "Dance You Off"
21 Hungary
AWS "Viszlát nyár"
22 Israel
Netta "Toy"
23 Netherlands
Waylon "Outlaw in 'Em"
24 Ireland
Ryan O'Shaughnessy "Together"
25 Cyprus
Eleni Foureira "Fuego"
26 Italy
Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro "Non mi avete fatto niente"
Other countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
Eligibility for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership, or a special invitation from the EBU as in the case of Australia. Several countries have provisionally confirmed their participation in the contest, while information from the remaining members regarding their participation has not yet been disclosed.
Active EBU members
• Andorra – The Director General of Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) announced on 14 May 2017 that Andorra would not participate in the contest, due to financial difficulties and the restructuring of the company.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina – On 18 September 2017, BHRT confirmed that Bosnia and Herzegovina would not return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018.
• Luxembourg – Steve Schmit, the Director of Programming at the Luxembourgish broadcaster (RTL) explained last year the reasons against participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. He also underlined that Luxembourg’s chance for success in the contest is limited, "I believe that (with) the enlargement of Eurovision, the days (of victory) are gone. With the new voting system, it is very unlikely that Luxembourg is successful. Small countries are somewhat more troubled now". Luxembourg last participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993.
• Monaco – On 31 August 2017, Monegasque broadcaster TMC confirmed that Monaco would not participate in the 2018 contest.
• Slovakia – Eríka Rusnáková, press spokesperson of the Slovak broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), confirmed on 11 September 2017 to Czech Eurovision website Eurocontest.cz that the country would not participate in the 2018 contest.
• Turkey – On 12 July 2017, Sertab Erener, who won for Turkey in 2003, announced on an Instagram live chat that Turkey would return and wished luck to the next representative. maNga, the 2010 Turkish representatives and Hadise, the 2009 Turkish Representative, also expressed their interests for Turkey returning to the contest. Despite these statements, on 7 August 2017, the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Bekir Bozdağ, issued a statement saying that there were no plans for a return. The same day, TRT confirmed their non-participation in the 2018 contest.
Associate EBU members
• Kazakhstan – Khabar Agency became an associate member of the EBU on 1 January 2016, opening up the possibility of future participation. They broadcast all the shows in 2017. Furthermore, the winner of the Turkvision Song Contest 2014, Zhanar Dugalova, said she would be interested in representing Kazakhstan in the contest. However, on 25 September, Khabar Agency told Esctoday that: "We have no information about Kazakshtan’s participation in Eurovison 2018 yet", maintaining the possibility of the country being invited by the EBU, as it is entirely at the EBU’s discretion to extend an invitation like in the case of Australia. The EBU however, chose not to invite Kazakhstan, as seen in the list of participants. On 22 December 2017, it was claimed that Channel 31 had finalised negotiations with the EBU, allowing Kazakhstan to debut in 2019, however, on 23 December 2017 the EBU told Esctoday that: "Channel 31 Kazakhstan has indeed expressed interest in becoming a Member of the EBU and hence participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, since Channel 31 is outside the European Broadcasting Area and is also not a member of the Council of Europe, it is not eligible to become an active Member of the EBU".
Non-EBU members
• Kosovo – Kosovar media reported that RTK was hopeful that they would debut in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Portugal. In an article published by RTK the Director of Television at the Kosovar broadcaster stated that he had received the support of national broadcasters across the Balkans to participate in the competition. However, both Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia had opposed such participation. The EBU then sent a letter to RTK explaining that Kosovo cannot participate in the ESC, because it is not a UN member and it is not a fully recognised state.
• Liechtenstein – On 1 September 2017, 1 FL TV, the national broadcaster of the Principality of Liechtenstein confirmed that the country will not debut at the upcoming Eurovision edition in Lisbon. However on 4 November 2017, 1 FL TV announced that they are planning a debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019.