Participating Countries
Participants selected their entries via several different methods:
- Internal Selection: The broadcaster selected the act and the song.
- National Final: The broadcaster will hold a one-off competition to determine their act and song.
- Festival: The broadcaster holds a slightly longer competition, usually with one or two semi-finals and a grand final. Sometimes the competition will take place over the course of a week (Italy’s Sanremo or Albania’s Festivali i Këngës) or over a couple of weekends (Portugal’s Festival da Cancão or Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin).
- Selection Series: The broadcaster holds a long-form competition to determine their artist and song, usually with multiple rounds of winnowing down options. Hungary (A Dal), Lithuania (Marathon), and Sweden (Melodifestivalen) are prime examples.
- Hybrid: A broadcaster may use one method to determine their artist and another method to select their song.
- Finland’s broadcaster selected Saara Aalto as their artist, but used the national final UMK to have the public choose her song.
- Israel’s broadcaster used HaKokhav HaBa (Rising Star) to select Netta, but her song was chosen internally.
Eurovision Song Contest 2018 First Semi-Final Participants
| Running Order | Country | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Azerbaijan | Aisel | X My Heart | 47 | 47 | 94 | 11 |
| 2 | Iceland | Ari Ólafsson | Our Choice | 15 | 0 | 15 | 19 |
| 3 | Albania | Eugent Bushpepa | Mall | 114 | 48 | 162 | 8 |
| 4 | Belgium | SENNEK | A Matter of Time | 71 | 20 | 91 | 12 |
| 5 | Czech Republic | Mikolas Josef | Lie to Me | 98 | 134 | 232 | 3 |
| 6 | Lithuania | Ieva Zasimauskaitė | When We’re Old | 57 | 62 | 119 | 9 |
| 7 | Israel | Netta Barzilai | Toy | 167 | 116 | 283 | 1 |
| 8 | Belarus | Alekseev | Forever | 20 | 45 | 65 | 16 |
| 9 | Estonia | Elina Netšajeva | La Forza | 81 | 120 | 201 | 5 |
| 10 | Bulgaria | Equinox | Bones | 107 | 70 | 177 | 7 |
| 11 | FYR Macedonia | Eye Cue | Lost and Found | 18 | 6 | 24 | 18 |
| 12 | Croatia | Franka | Crazy | 46 | 17 | 63 | 17 |
| 13 | Austria | Cesár Sampson | Nobody But You | 115 | 116 | 231 | 4 |
| 14 | Greece | Yianna Terzi | Oneiro Mou | 28 | 53 | 81 | 14 |
| 15 | Finland | Saara Aalto | Monsters | 35 | 73 | 108 | 10 |
| 16 | Armenia | Sevak Khanagyan | Qami | 38 | 41 | 79 | 15 |
| 17 | Switzerland | ZiBBZ | Stones | 59 | 27 | 86 | 13 |
| 18 | Ireland | Ryan O’Shaughnessy | Together | 71 | 108 | 179 | 6 |
| 19 | Cyprus | Eleni Foureira | Fuego | 89 | 173 | 262 | 2 |
Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom voted in this semi-final.
Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Second Semi-Final Participants
| Running Order | Country | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norway | Alexander Rybak | That’s How You Write a Song | 133 | 133 | 266 | 1 |
| 2 | Romania | The Humans | Goodbye | 67 | 40 | 107 | 11 |
| 3 | Serbia | Sanja Ilić and Balkanika | Nova deca | 45 | 72 | 117 | 9 |
| 4 | San Marino | Jessika (f/ Jenifer Brening) | Who We Are | 14 | 14 | 28 | 17 |
| 5 | Denmark | Rasmussen | Higher Ground | 40 | 164 | 204 | 5 |
| 6 | Russia | Yuliya Samoylova | I Won’t Break | 14 | 51 | 65 | 15 |
| 7 | Moldova | DoReDos | My Lucky Day | 82 | 153 | 235 | 3 |
| 8 | Netherlands | Waylon | Outlaw in ‘Em | 127 | 47 | 174 | 7 |
| 9 | Australia | Jessica Mauboy | We Got Love | 130 | 82 | 212 | 4 |
| 10 | Georgia | Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao | For You | 11 | 13 | 24 | 18 |
| 11 | Poland | Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer | Light Me Up | 21 | 60 | 81 | 14 |
| 12 | Malta | Christabelle | Taboo | 93 | 8 | 101 | 13 |
| 13 | Hungary | AWS | Viszlát nyár | 23 | 88 | 111 | 10 |
| 14 | Latvia | Laura Rizzotto | Funny Girl | 92 | 14 | 106 | 12 |
| 15 | Sweden | Benjamin Ingrosso | Dance You Off | 171 | 83 | 254 | 2 |
| 16 | Montenegro | Vanja Radovanović | Inje | 23 | 17 | 40 | 16 |
| 17 | Slovenia | Lea Sirk | Hvala, ne! | 67 | 65 | 132 | 8 |
| 18 | Ukraine | Mélovin | Under the Ladder | 65 | 114 | 179 | 6 |
France, Germany, and Italy voted in this semi-final.
Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final Participants
| Running Order | Country | Song | Artist | Jury | Televote | Total | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ukraine | Under the Ladder | Mélovin | 11 | 119 | 130 | 17 |
| 2 | Spain | Tu canción | Alfred and Amaia | 43 | 18 | 61 | 23 |
| 3 | Slovenia | Hvala, ne! | Lea Sirk | 41 | 23 | 64 | 22 |
| 4 | Lithuania | When We’re Old | Ieva Zasimauskaitė | 90 | 91 | 181 | 12 |
| 5 | Austria | Nobody But You | Cesár Sampson | 271 | 71 | 342 | 3 |
| 6 | Estonia | La Forza | Elina Netšajeva | 143 | 102 | 245 | 8 |
| 7 | Norway | That’s How You Write a Song | Alexander Rybak | 60 | 84 | 144 | 15 |
| 8 | Portugal | O Jardim | Cláudia Pascoal | 21 | 18 | 39 | 26 |
| 9 | United Kingdom | Storm | SuRie | 23 | 25 | 48 | 24 |
| 10 | Serbia | Nova Deca | Sanja Ilić & Balkanika | 38 | 75 | 113 | 19 |
| 11 | Germany | You Let Me Walk Alone | Michael Schulte | 204 | 136 | 340 | 4 |
| 12 | Albania | Mall | Eugent Bushpepa | 126 | 58 | 184 | 11 |
| 13 | France | Mercy | Madame Monsieur | 114 | 59 | 173 | 13 |
| 14 | Czech Republic | Lie to Me | Mikolas Josef | 66 | 215 | 281 | 6 |
| 15 | Denmark | Higher Ground | Rasmussen | 38 | 188 | 226 | 9 |
| 16 | Australia | We Got Love | Jessica Mauboy | 90 | 9 | 99 | 20 |
| 17 | Finland | Monsters | Saara Aalto | 23 | 23 | 46 | 25 |
| 18 | Bulgaria | Bones | Equinox | 100 | 66 | 166 | 14 |
| 19 | Moldova | My Lucky Day | DoReDoS | 94 | 115 | 209 | 10 |
| 20 | Sweden | Dance You Off | Benjamin Ingrosso | 253 | 21 | 274 | 7 |
| 21 | Hungary | Viszlát Nyár | AWS | 28 | 65 | 93 | 21 |
| 22 | Israel | Toy | Netta | 212 | 317 | 529 | 1 |
| 23 | Netherlands | Outlaw in ‘Em | Waylon | 89 | 32 | 121 | 18 |
| 24 | Ireland | Together | Ryan O’Shaughnessy | 74 | 62 | 136 | 16 |
| 25 | Cyprus | Fuego | Eleni Foureira | 183 | 253 | 436 | 2 |
| 26 | Italy | Non mi avete fatto niente | Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro | 59 | 249 | 308 | 5 |
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom—also known as the “Big Five”—automatically qualified for the Final. Portugal, winner of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest and host of the 2018 Contest, also automatically qualified.
#6: Stupor Saturday
The second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest started filling up this past week as nine countries made their selections. There are elevated pianos, Moldovan wedding hijinks, and baffled...
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#7: Remember the Diaspora?
It's another whirlwind trip around Europe as we hopscotch through another set of Eurovision selections. We have outlaws, humans, monsters, and wannabe heroes in the mix, but will it...
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#8: Melfest Fest
Eurovision's 2018 selection season is approaching the end, which means one thing: Sweden's Melodifestivalen! Well, two things: lots of internal selections coming through the pipeline. No matter how you...
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#9: Dita Von Teese Curtain Monster
This week we chat about the last six entries for Eurovision 2018 with special guest Barbara Sawhill. Are we buying the hype for Israel's "Toy" as this year's favorite?...
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#10: The Ones That Got Away
This week we have a mini episode where we remember some of the Eurovision national final entries that won't be making the trip to Lisbon. We also take a...
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#5: Get Excited
Three more songs have joined the 2018 Eurovision field—two from national selections and one from... just showing up? San Marino has a business proposition for you while Israel poses...
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