The Eurovision 2018 finalists were chosen – who’s gonna win this year?
After two semifinals, The Eurovision Song Contest has finally completed its list of 26 finalists who will face off for the greatest title in music this year. The grand finale is scheduled for this Saturday, May 12th 2018.
At the end of the second semifinal, eight countries have ended their way through the contest, while the rest ten contestants earned enough votes last Thursday during the semifinal and got on the list of finalists for the Grand Finale that will air this Saturday.
The lucky ones this Thursday were Ukraine, Slovenia, Australia, Moldova, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Serbia, Sweden and the ones that went home were Russia, Latvia, Georgia, Montenegro, Malta, Romania, San Marino and Poland.
The first semifinal was held last Tuesday, May 8, where the first ten Eurovision finalists were selected. The group known as ‘the big five’, along with Portugal, the winner from last year’s edition, were automatically qualified for the final. Worth mentioning is that ‘the big five’ are represented by Italy, Germany, France, the UK and Spain, the five countries that provide the greatest financial contributions to the EBU – European Broadcasting Union.
There’s a very simple math rule applied when it comes to calculating votes: half of them come from the viewers who vote their favorites through text messages or online, while the other half are cast by a professional jury.
This year, 43 countries entered the competition, yet only 26 of them will be seen in the final this Saturday. The 63rd edition of Eurovision will be held in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, at Altice Arena, as last year’s winner of Eurovision was Salvador Sobral, the Portuguese contestant.
On a sour note, there are some bad news this year, as the organizers of Eurovision decided to tore up the contract they had with Mango TV, a Chinese TV broadcast company, after it supposedly censored two performances last year.
According to what officials from the EBU said, censorship “is not in line with the EBU’s values of universality and inclusivity and our proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music.” However, they didn’t mention which two performances had been censored by Mango.
As far as this year’s contestants are concerned, competition is quite high, since there are many great singers that have made a name in the music industry over the past years. One serious contender this year, according to specialists, is Alexander Rybak from Norway, who is also a former winner of the Eurovision contest. He is also the one to have opened the second semifinal with a song called “That’s how you write a song”.
Neighboring country Sweden for instance is another powerful contender, especially since the song called “Dance you off” performed by Benjamin Ingrosso provided people with wide grins and dance moves.
There were all kinds of music genres present on the stage Thursday night, starting from ethno and going on to rock, dance and so on.
The order in which contestants will get up on stage this Saturday for Eurovision Grand Final is:
- Ukraine – Under the ladder by Melovin
- Spain – Tu canción by Amaia & Alfred
- Slovenia – Hvala, ne! by Lea Sirk
- Lithuania – When we’re old by Ieva Zasimauskaitė
- Austria – Nobody but you by Cesár Sampson
- Estonia – La forza by Elina Nechayeva
- Norway – That’s How You Write A Song by Alexander Rybak
- Portugal – O jardim by Cláudia Pascoal
- United Kingdom – Storm by SuRie
- Serbia – Nova Deca by Sanja Ilić & Balkanika
- Germany – You let me walk alone by Michael Schulte
- Albania – Mall by Eugent Bushpepa
- France – Mercy by Madame Monsieur
- Czech Republic – Lie to me by Mikolas Josef
- Denmark – Higher Ground by Rasmussen
- Australia – We Got Love by Jessica Mauboy
- Finland – Monsters by Saara Aalto
- Bulgaria – Bones by Equinox
- Moldova – My lucky day by DoReDoS
- Sweden – Dance You Off by Benjamin Ingrosso
- Hungary – Viszlát Nyár by AWS
- Israel – Toy by Netta
- the Netherlands – Outlaw in Em by Waylon
- Ireland – Together by Ryan O’Shaughnessy
- Cyprus – Fuego by Eleni Foureira
- Italy – Non mi avete fatto niente by Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro
Image source: visitlisboa.com
