International song competition
The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Lisbon, Portugal, following the country's victory at the 2017 contest with the song "" by Salvador Sobral. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTP), the contest was held at the Lisbon Arena, and consisted of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May, and a final on 12 May 2018. The three live shows were presented by Portuguese television presenters Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto and Catarina Furtado, and Portuguese-American actress Daniela Ruah, marking the first time that the contest was presented by four hosts.
Forty-three countries participated in the contest, equalling the record of the 2008 and 2011 editions. Russia returned after their absence from the previous edition, and for the first time since 2011, no country that participated in the previous edition withdrew.
The winner was Israel with the song "Toy", performed by Netta and written by Doron Medalie and Stav Beger. Cyprus, Austria, Germany, and Italy rounded out the top five, with Cyprus achieving its best result to date. Israel won the public vote, and came third in the jury vote behind Austria and Sweden. Further down the table, the Czech Republic also achieved its best result to date, finishing sixth.
The EBU reported that 186 million viewers watched the contest, surpassing the 2017 edition by over 4 million.
Location.
Venue.
The Lisbon Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena 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 Parque das Nações (Park of Nations) riverside district in the northeast of Lisbon, which was completely renovated to host the 1998 world's fair. 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.
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 European Broadcasting Union (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 Lisbon Arena 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 Kyiv:
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 . They also had the opportunity to present their first plans for the 2018 contest, including multiple proposals for the 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 the Lisbon Arena is located, as the site for the shows.
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Other sites.
The Eurovision Village was the official Eurovision Song Contest fan and sponsors area during the event weeks, where it was possible to watch performances by contest participants and local artists, as well as the live shows broadcast from the main venue. It was located in Lisbon's downtown Praça do Comércio (also called "Terreiro do Paço"), a large central square open to the Tagus river.
The EuroClub was the venue for the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants. Unlike the Eurovision Village, access to the EuroClub was restricted to accredited fans, delegations, and press. It was located at the "Ministerium" club, next to the Eurovision Village.
The "Blue Carpet" event, where all the contestants and their delegations are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place on 6 May 2018 at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon's Belém district. This preceded the official Opening Ceremony of the 2018 contest, which took place at the nearby Electricity Museum.
Participating countries.
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.
It was initially announced on 7 November 2017 that forty-two countries would participate in the contest. Russia confirmed their return after their absence the previous edition, while Macedonia's participation was provisionally blocked by the EBU due to unpaid debts by its national broadcaster MRT. However, ten days later, it was announced that Macedonia would be allowed to enter the contest, raising the number of participating countries to forty-three, equaling the highest number of participants with the 2008 and 2011 editions.
Returning artists.
The contest featured two representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same countries. Alexander Rybak won for Norway in 2009 performing "Fairytale" (and also sang entry No. 1500) and Waylon placed second for the Netherlands in 2014 as part of The Common Linnets performing "Calm After the Storm".
The contest also featured Jessica Mauboy, representing Australia, after taking part in 2014 as the interval act for the second semi-final, performing "Sea of Flags". In addition, the contest featured four lead singers previously participating as backing vocalists, two of them for the same countries. Lea Sirk backed for Slovenia in 2014 and off-stage in 2016, and Equinox member Vlado Mihailov backed for Bulgaria in 2017. Cesár Sampson, representing Austria, backed for Bulgaria in 2016 (also as a dancer) and off-stage in 2017. SuRie, representing the United Kingdom, backed for Belgium in 2015 (also as a dancer) and was the musical director again for Belgium in 2017. Sara Tavares, who performed in the interval act, was the representative from Portugal in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Chamar a música" reaching 8th place.
Other countries.
Active EBU members.
Active EBU member broadcasters in Andorra, Luxembourg and Slovakia confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU. Despite hopes expressed by past Turkish representatives Sertab Erener (2003 winner), Hadise (2009) and maNga (2010), Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Bekir Bozdağ and Turkish broadcaster TRT denied any plans for a return of the country.
Associate EBU members.
Kazakh broadcaster Khabar Agency became an associate member of the EBU on 1 January 2016. This opened up the possibility of their participation since 2017, under the condition of a special invitation, as for Australia. The country was not invited in 2017 but broadcast all the shows. Turkvision Song Contest 2014 winner Zhanar Dugalova expressed interest in representing her country at the 2018 contest; however, the country was not invited in 2018 either and it did not appear on the final list of participants.
Non-EBU members.
Kosovan broadcaster RTK, with the support of national broadcasters across the Balkans (except for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia), expressed hopes to become an EBU member in order to debut at the 2018 contest; however, the EBU clarified that this was not possible due to the limited international recognition of Kosovo and the country not being a UN member.
Production.
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 the marine ecosystem.
Stage design.
The stage design for the 2018 contest was revealed on 5 December 2017 and was designed by German production designer Florian Wieder, who also devised the stage concepts for the 2011–12, 2015 and 2017 contests. Drawing inspiration from Portugal's nautical heritage and culture, the circular stage consisted of a series of overhead LED edge-lit concentric circles depicting an armillary sphere, with 28 pairs of 4.5m × 13.5m vertical wooden 'ribs' at the rear of the stage to represent sea waves.
Unlike in previous years, RTP decided against implementing LED screens or projections into the stage design, influenced by the stage performance of "Amar pelos dois" the year prior and Sobral's comments upon receiving the winner's trophy, where he stated "music isn't fireworks, music is feeling." The decision was not embraced by all participating countries; some delegations opted to continue using video content, computer-generated graphics and "more [props] than ever before" during performances, which was met by mixed reaction.
Postcards.
The postcards, filmed between March and April 2018, involved the act emerging from a door into Portugal to take part in a themed activity, such as mountain biking, making a salad or "pastel de nata", or visiting popular attractions. The location where the activity took place was written in Portuguese at the start of the postcard. At the end of the postcard, the act posed for the camera, the slogan's hashtag appeared on the bottom corner of the screen, and song information was printed onto the country's flag. All the postcards had the same score, composed by Luis Figueredo.
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Presenters.
RTP and EBU announced on 8 January 2018, 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 was the first time since 2015 that the contest did not feature a male presenter, and the second consecutive year that the presenters were all the same gender. It was confirmed on 4 May 2018 that Cautela would also host the green room.
The Blue Carpet opening ceremony was hosted by actress Cláudia Semedo, radio host Inês Lopes Goncalves, actor/TV host Pedro Granger and actor/director Pedro Penim. Granger and Penim moderated the press conferences, as well.
Format.
Voting system changes.
On 27 April 2018, the EBU announced changes to the jury voting system for the 2018 contest. Each ranking position between first and last would be assigned a predefined value, starting with the value of 12 for a first rank and decreasing exponentially for lower ranks. The sum of these scores for all twenty-six songs from the five jury members then create the national jury result for each participating country. The exponential weight model gives more weight to higher-ranked songs, thereby lessening the impact of an individual juror placing a song lower in their rankings on the final result.
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 the Lisbon City Hall. The thirty-seven semi-finalists were divided over six pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest's official televoting partner Digame. The purpose of drawing from different pots was to reduce the chance of "bloc voting" and to increase suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final each of the six automatic qualifiers – host country Portugal and "Big Five" countries France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom – would broadcast and vote in. The ceremony was hosted by contest presenters Sílvia Alberto and Filomena Cautela, and included the passing of the host city insignia from Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv (host city of the previous contest) to Fernando Medina, mayor of Lisbon.
With the approval from the contest's reference group, Italy broadcast and voted in the second semi-final following a request from Italian broadcaster RAI, as the date of the first semi-final coincided with the scheduled final of the fifth season of "The Voice of Italy".
Contest overview.
Semi-final 1.
The first semi-final took place on 8 May