Lisbon, Portugal – In what has been a record equalling year for participation, 43 countries have been whittled down to 26 who are ‘All Aboard’ to compete for Eurovision glory during the 63rd annual Contest on Saturday 12th May in Lisbon, Portugal.
The final 18 acts competed on stage during the second Semi Final this evening to join the ‘Big Five’ countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom), this year’s host nation (Portugal) and the 10 Semi Final One winners in 2018’s Grand Final. With only 10 spaces available, the competition was fierce and those lucky enough to be selected are as follows:
Australia: Jessica Mauboy “We Got Love”
Denmark: Rasmussen “Higher Ground”
Hungary: AWS “Viszlát Nyár”
Moldova: DoReDos “My Lucky Day”
Netherlands: Waylon “Outlaw in ‘Em”
Norway: Alexander Rybak “That’s How You Write a Song”
Serbia: Sanja Ilić & Balkanika “Nova Deca”
Slovenia: Lea Sirk “Hvala, Ne!”
Sweden: Benjamin Ingrosso “Dance You Off”
Ukraine: MELOVIN “Under The Ladder”
Sweden celebrate their 60th year entering the Eurovision Song Contest, only missing out on three years before their debut in 1958. Now bidding to lift the trophy for the seventh time in Lisbon and equal Ireland’s record. Hungary, having only entered the competition 15 times, are now attempting to win the prize for the first time in their history with a psychedelic rock song ‘Viszlát Nyár’. Finally, Australia’s Jessica Mauboy has already had a taste of Eurovision when she performed ‘Sea of Flags’ during the interval act in the second Semi-Final in 2014 but is only the fourth person to represent them in the full competition.
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.
The road to the Eurovision Grand Final, unfortunately, ends for eight countries tonight as they didn’t make the final lineup. These were:
Georgia: Ethno Jazz Band Iriao “For You”
Latvia: Laura Rizzotto “Funny Girl”
Malta: Christabelle “Taboo”
Montenegro: Vanja Radovanović “Inje”
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”
Points were awarded to each country based on scores from both national expert juries and televoting. These points were then combined to give an overall score for each act, determining the final outcome. The ranking of these points, for this and the first Semi Final, 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 Two 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 2018 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final will take place on 12th May in Lisbon, Portugal. The show will see 2017’s winner Salvador Sobral take to the stage for an interval performance showcasing new material as well as revisiting his iconic winning song ‘Amar Pelos Dois’.
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”
Semi Final Two:
Australia: Jessica Mauboy “We Got Love”
Denmark: Rasmussen “Higher Ground”
Hungary: AWS “Viszlát Nyár”
Moldova: DoReDos “My Lucky Day”
Netherlands: Waylon “Outlaw in ‘Em”
Norway: Alexander Rybak “That’s How You Write a Song”
Serbia: Sanja Ilić & Balkanika “Nova Deca”
Slovenia: Lea Sirk “Hvala, Ne!”
Sweden: Benjamin Ingrosso “Dance You Off”
Ukraine: MELOVIN “Under The Ladder”