2018 Eurovision Song Contest | Lisbon, Portugal

Selection Season Info

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.

First Semi-Final

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

These are the countries that competed in the first semi-final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal. The first semi-final was held Tuesday, May 8.

Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom voted in this semi-final.

Second 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

These are the countries that competed in the second semi-final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal. The second semi-final was held Thursday, May 10.

France, Germany, and Italy voted in this semi-final.

Grand 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

These are the countries that competed in the Grand Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal. The Grand Final took place Saturday, May 12.

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.

Alekseev lights up the stage at the national final for Belarus (Photo: BTRC)

#5: Get Excited

February 20, 2018 0:49:30

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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Laura Rizzotto will be Latvia's "Funny Girl" at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest (Photo: LTV / Eurovision)

#6: Stupor Saturday

February 28, 2018 45:42

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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Finland's Saara Aalto performs "Monsters" during the UMK selection show. (Photo: Miikka Varila)

#7: Remember the Diaspora?

March 7, 2018 59:26

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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Alexander Rybak will offer a Eurovision tutorial for Norway with "That's How You Write a Song" in Lisbon. (Photo: NRK)

#8: Melfest Fest

March 13, 2018 1:06:51

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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Georgia's Iriao pulled back the curtain to reveal the 43rd entry of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. (Screen: YouTube)

#9: Dita Von Teese Curtain Monster

March 21, 2018 1:03:59

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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We're still stanning for Ida Maria from Norway, who won't be going to the Eurovision Song Contest this year. (Photo: NRK)

#10: The Ones That Got Away

March 28, 2018 28:11

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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