Lisbon, Portugal
– The first Semi Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 has come to a close with 10 acts making waves with the crowds in Lisbon and booking their place in the Grand Final on 12th May. With 19 acts competing in this evening’s show, the votes were counted and the chosen 10 were announced in nail biting fashion. Joining pre qualifiers from the ‘Big Five’ countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom) and this year’s host nation (Portugal) are the following acts:
Albania: Eugent Bushpepa “Mall”
Austria: Cesár Sampson “Nobody But You”
Bulgaria: EQUINOX “Bones”
Cyprus: Eleni Foureira “Fuego”
Czech Republic: Mikolas Josef “Lie To Me”
Estonia: Elina Nechayeva “La Forza”
Finland: Saara Aalto “Monsters”
Ireland: Ryan O’Shaughnessy “Together”
Israel: Netta “Toy”
Lithuania: Ieva Zasimauskaitė “When We’re Old”
The Czech Republic have yet to win the Eurovision Song Contest and have only qualified for the Grand Final once before in 2016 since their first appearance in 2007. Bulgaria made their debut at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005 and have participated in the competition 11 times but only reached the final on three occasions prior to 2018. Netta won this year’s Rising Star reality music show, HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (‘The Next Star For Eurovision’) and the ticket to represent Israel in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Eleni Foureira’s entry for Eurovision 2018, Fuego, was written by Alex Papaconstantinou, Geraldo Sandell, Anderz Wrethov, Viktor Svensson and Didrick.
These 10 finalists will take part in a press conference later this evening, where a draw will decide whether they perform in the first or the second half of the Grand Final on Saturday.
The Eurovision journey, unfortunately, ends for nine countries tonight as they failed to qualify. These were:
Armenia: Sevak Khanagyan “Qami”
Azerbaijan: Aisel “X My Heart”
Belarus: ALEKSEEV “Forever”
Belgium: Sennek “A Matter Of Time”
Croatia: Franka “Crazy”
F.Y.R. Macedonia: Eye Cue “Lost And Found”
Greece: Yianna Terzi “Oniro Mou”
Iceland: Ari Ólafsson “Our Choice”
Switzerland: ZiBBZ “Stones”
Each country’s score was calculated based on points awarded by national expert juries and televoting results. These points were then combined to an overall score for each act that determined the final outcome. The ranking of the points for both Semi Finals will not be revealed until after the winner is announced on Saturday 12th May.
The expert jurors voted last night on yesterday’s Semi Final One Jury Show, a non-broadcast, live feed of the performances in a dry-run. Televoting took place tonight during the transmission of the live show.
The second Semi Final, where the final 10 acts will be decided, takes place on 10th May and by the end of that show the final line up for 2018’s Eurovision Song Contest will be known. The 18 acts competing on Thursday are:
Australia: Jessica Mauboy “We Got Love”
Denmark: Rasmussen “Higher Ground”
Georgia: Ethno Jazz Band Iriao “For You”
Hungary: AWS “Viszlát Nyár”
Latvia: Laura Rizzotto “Funny Girl”
Malta: Christabelle “Taboo”
Moldova: DoReDos “My Lucky Day”
Montenegro: Vanja Radovanović “Inje”
Netherlands: Waylon “Outlaw in ‘Em”
Norway: Alexander Rybak “That’s How You Write a Song”
Poland: Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer “Light Me Up”
Romania: The Humans “Goodbye”
Russia: Julia Samoylova “I Won’t Break”
San Marino: Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening “Who We Are”
Serbia: Sanja Ilić & Balkanika “Nova Deca”
Slovenia: Lea Sirk “Hvala, Ne!”
Sweden: Benjamin Ingrosso “Dance You Off”
Ukraine: MELOVIN “Under The Ladder”
The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final will take place on 12th May in Lisbon, Portugal.
The confirmed line-up for the Grand Final is:
Pre-Qualified
France: Madame Monsieur “Mercy”
Germany: Michael Schulte “You Let Me Walk Alone”
Italy: Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro “Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente”
Portugal: Cláudia Pascoal “O Jardim”
Spain: Amaia y Alfred “Tu Canción”
United Kingdom: SuRie “Storm”
Semi Final One
Albania: Eugent Bushpepa “Mall”
Austria: Cesár Sampson “Nobody But You”
Bulgaria: EQUINOX “Bones”
Cyprus: Eleni Foureira “Fuego”
Czech Republic: Mikolas Josef “Lie To Me”
Estonia: Elina Nechayeva “La Forza”
Finland: Saara Aalto “Monsters”
Ireland: Ryan O’Shaughnessy “Together”
Israel: Netta “Toy”
Lithuania: Ieva Zasimauskaitė “When We’re Old”