Eurovision 2018

Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Analysis

Here are all the 26 finalists, in the order they will perform tomorrow night:
Ukraine, Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, Austria, Estonia, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Serbia, Germany, Albania, France, Czech Republic, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Bulgaria, Moldova, Sweden, Hungary, Israel, The Netherlands, Ireland, Cyprus, Italy.

Now for the 17 countries which failed to reach the final, but will still vote tomorrow night:
OUT: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Switzerland.

Now let's look at some country groups:

Baltic States (Ex USSR)
IN: Estonia, Lithuania. OUT: Latvia.

Benelux
IN: The Netherlands. OUT: Belgium. (Luxembourg didn't enter yet again)

Nordic area
IN: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden. OUT: Iceland.

Greece and Cyprus
IN: Cyprus. OUT: Greece.

Former Yugoslavia
IN: Serbia, Slovenia. OUT: Croatia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Montenegro. (Bosnia & Herzegovina didn't enter this year).

Founding Seven
By this I mean the seven countries which appeared in the very first Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano in 1956:
IN: France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands. OUT: Belgium, Switzerland. (Luxembourg didn't enter yet again)

A more detailed analysis is available here:
http://nemesis-nick.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/eurovision-song-contest-2018-analysis.html

Israel near the business end of the running order. That should pick up a few more votes from the 'post-pub' UK crowd. Watching it on Tuesday was like being trapped in the head of a 5 year old, whose eaten 3 packets of Haribo's in 5 minutes, and now od'ing on sugar additives and E-numbers.

I want Ireland to win. If only to see where they would hold it next year. The entire Eurovision contest has outgrown the 3arena (The Point) and there isn't a massive 8,000 seater indoor stadium in the country to hold it. Pretty sure the EBU wouldn't allow it outdoors at the Aviva Stadium or Croke Park.

There is somewhere suitable - the SSE arena in Belfast - but there's a whole shelf of canned worms waiting to be opened with that one.

Nah Cyprus are winning I reckon.

The 3Arena in Dublin has capacity of 13,000, and the SSE Arena in Belfast has a capacity of 10,800...So it would be fine at the 3Arena.

Wasn't the Danish venue converted within the year?

Millstreet calling?

ITV seem to be all over Eurovision this year for some reason. There was a report on it for the And Finally on last nights News at Ten. I've seen mentions and interviews of it on GMB, Lorraine and This Morning.



And even the regions have got in on the act. ITV Central aired the below report last night though what relevance it has got to the region... I'm not quite sure. It is of course 20 years this year since Birmingham last hosted the contest, but no mention was made of that apart from the mugs on the desk and the guests t-shirts from the 1998 contest.

Is it just coincidence that for the third year running, the first song to be performed at the Grand Final is the last song that was performed in the second semi-final?

Watched the jury final live in Lisbon last night - normally I listen to lots of the songs online in advance (sometimes months earlier) but this year I went in "blind", not seeing or hearing any of them until their live jury performances. I wanted to try and recapture the surprise I used to get seeing acts perform on the night - Ukraine 2007 would have been much less of a "Haha what?!" moment had I known and heard it in advance.

It partially worked, but felt detrimental to some of the really big favourites as the songs were drowned out by audience cheering and singing along. But from what I could hear of those first impressions here are the votes from the BillyH Jury:

12 Estonia
10 Australia
8 Czech Republic
7 Cyprus
6 Israel
5 Finland
4 Hungary
3 Norway
2 Denmark
1 Ireland

Looking back at that France is a notable omission and might end up being higher after I give it another listen at tonight's final.

General consensus seems to be that Cyprus has won it, but still plenty of hope for others around - even so it's been good these last few years to not have an unstoppable early favourite that everyone knows will win, which dented the late 00s/early 10s contests a bit. Looking forward to tonight!

Today is Saturday 12 May 2018. The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final takes place at the Lisbon Arena, Lisbon, Portugal this evening, starting at 20:00 BST. Here are all the 26 finalists, in the order they will perform tonight:

Ukraine, Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, Austria, Estonia, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Serbia, Germany, Albania, France, Czech Republic, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Bulgaria, Moldova, Sweden, Hungary, Israel, The Netherlands, Ireland, Cyprus, Italy.

Of course, as a UK citizen, I would like SuRie to win tonight with the UK's entry "Storm", especially as it's now 21 years since the UK last won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997. However if bookies' odds are anything to go by, tonight could be a close two horse race between Cyprus and Israel. If Cyprus wins, it'll be their first ever win since their first ever entry in 1981. If the winner has to be Cyprus or Israel, I'd like it to be Cyprus as I really detest Israel's "TOY". Ireland or France also look strong contenders to win. Still, bookies' odds aren't the be all and end all; anything could happen tonight.

There are a few songs I wish hadn't qualified for the Grand Final. I still think Armenia and Greece deserved the places Czech Republic and Israel took on Tuesday evening, and that Poland and Montenegro deserved the places Hungary and Slovenia took on Thursday evening.

Anyway good luck to all 26 finalists in Lisbon tonight. May the best song win.

I reckon the crazy chicken lady will end up winning this year.

Can’t bear the Israeli entry I’m afraid. I’d be very happy for France, Cyprus or Australia to win. I’d love for Ireland to win too - it’s a very sweet song and the staging is good. I wasn’t as excited by Sweden’s performance in Lisbon compared to when I saw it on melodifestivalen. Somehow it looked much better then, I could see the framework holding up the led bars in Lisbon and it kind of spoiled the effect for me.

Whoever wins, it’ll be a cracking contest this year. The order is great, there’s a good mix of songs and styles and I love the fact there’s no reliance on video walls.

Bring it on.