Lisbon gets ready for 2018 Eurovision Song Contest

Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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Millions will be watching on TV on Saturday night as the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Lisbon.

It will be the first time the contest has been hosted in Portugal after Portugal won it for the first time in Kiev last year.

Ireland will take part in the Eurovision Song Contest final for the first time since 2013 after making it through the first semi-final in Lisbon.

Israel, Cyprus and Finland - featuring former X Factor semi-finalist Saara Aalto - were among the other nine countries who progressed.

But Greece and Belgium, who had been tipped to qualify for Saturday's main event, failed to make it through.

The voting countries in the first semi-final were UK, Portugal and Spain.

A further 18 countries will take part in the second semi-final on Thursday, in which the voting countries will be France, Germany and Italy.

The UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain qualify automatically for each Eurovision Song Contest as the big financial contributors. Portugal, as the host country, also qualifies automatically.

SuRie will represent the UK this year, with her song "Storm."

Eurovision 2018: Ireland among 10 countries through to final

BBC News
9 May 2018



Ireland will take part in the Eurovision Song Contest final for the first time since 2013 after making it through the first semi-final in Lisbon.

Israel, Cyprus and Finland - featuring former X Factor semi-finalist Saara Aalto - were among the other nine countries who progressed.

But Greece and Belgium, who had been tipped to qualify for Saturday's main event, failed to make it through.

A further 18 countries will take part in the second semi-final on Thursday.

The UK, represented by SuRie, is automatically in Saturday's final as one of the "Big Five" countries. The other four are Germany, Italy, Spain and France, while hosts Portugal also automatically qualified for the final.


Ireland's Ryan O'Shaughnessy reached the Britain's Got Talent final in 2012

The acts making it through the first semi-final were:


  • Albania
  • Austria
  • Bulgaria
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Lithuania


Israel's Netta is among the favourites for the main prize after competing in the first semi-final with her track Toy, which has a powerful message of female empowerment - and a quirky chicken dance.

Cyprus, another country widely-tipped to win the grand final, was represented by pop star Eleni Foureira, who brought the tropical and catchy beats of her track Fuego.

Born in Albania, Eleni first established herself as one third of Greek group Mystique in 2007.


Cyprus's Eleni Foureira is among the favourites to win the contest

The Czech Republic's Mikolas Josef has been touted as the nation's answer to Justin Bieber. The 22-year-old's rendition of Lie To Me - a bouncy, swaggering tale of young love - has clear mainstream appeal.

He had to go to hospital after sustaining a neck injury during rehearsals.

Other notable acts included Finland's Saara Aalto, who won over UK audiences during her time on The X Factor in 2016, despite losing out in that contest to Matt Terry.

Ryan O'Shaughnessy represents Ireland, which has more Eurovision wins - seven - than any other country, but has not won the competition since 1996.

His song Together is about the end of a love affair and features two male dancers as the splitting couple.

Some viewers may remember him for reaching the Britain's Got Talent final in 2012.


SuRie said it was a dream to represent the UK at Eurovision

The fates of the semi-finalists were decided by a combination of votes from national juries and viewers.

The nine unsuccessful countries included Azerbaijan, which had previously never failed to qualify from a Eurovision Song Contest semi-final since first entering a decade ago.

The other countries to fall at the semi-final stage were Armenia, Belarus, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland and Switzerland.

The UK's hopes in the grand final at Lisbon's Altice Arena on Saturday night will rest on London-born singer SuRie, who will perform her ballad Storm.

Speaking at the first semi-final, the singer, whose real name is Susanna Marie Cork, said she was excited for Saturday, adding: "It's such a dream."


Bulgaria also made it through to the final

Eurovision 2018: Ireland among 10 countries through to final - BBC News
 
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Curious Cdn

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Tecumsehsbones said:
Best thing to come out of the Eurovision was Riverdance.
Click to expand...

Yes, I saw it the first time it went on tour. My wife and I had tickets right beside the musicians (ten feet away) and I was mesmerized. The dance was interesting and the music, up-close and personal like that was pretty fantastic. It was like being in a little pub with the Chieftans playing.
 
Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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SuRie is something like a 200-1 shot to propel the UK to its first Eurovision win since 1997.

The big mistake the UK still makes is still treating the Euroviosion Song Contest as a mere song contest. Quite bizarrely, every year the UK sends an artist just to perform a song - imagine that! - whereas other countries send men dressed as women (and win it, like Austria did a couple of years ago) or a chubby woman clucking like a chicken and screaming "I am not your toy" (which is why Israel is one of this year's favourites to win). Just like the EU, the more down-to-Earth British just don't quite get it, and still imagine it as being just a song contest as it used to be in much less enlightened and progressive times.

tecumsehsbones said:
best thing to come out of the eurovision was riverdance.
Click to expand...

ABBA.

It's now 20 years since the UK last hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. Two decades of mostly underwhelming results since Katrina and the Waves landed the crown in 1997 mean that the buzz of welcoming the cream of European pop - as Lisbon is set to do this weekend - is something the nation has almost forgotten.

It wasn't always this way: seven of the first 27 were held in the UK, but 1998 is the only time in the past 36 contests that Eurovision has been staged here.

As it turned out, the event at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena proved to be one of the great nights of Eurovision. BBC News takes a trip down memory lane.

In recent years the UK has spent more time in the bottom half of the table than the top - with the ultimate rejection coming in 2003 when Jemini didn't score a single point - but back in 1998 it was still a nation that believed in its ability to deliver a continent-pleasing pop tune.

While Britain might now be the sick man of Eurovision, it is still actually the third most successful country - level with Luxembourg and France and behind only Sweden and Ireland - having triumphed five times.

Sandie Shaw, Lulu, Brotherhood of Man and Bucks Fizz had all graced the top spot, before Katrina and the Waves won with Love Shine A Light in 1997.

Dana, Imaani and Ulrika: When Eurovision last came to Britain - BBC News
 
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Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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Our relationship with Eurovision is lost in translation – just like our relationship with, well, just about every other aspect of European life.

Tonight’s event will be the last time we compete in the Eurovision Song Contest as a member of the EU, and many Brits probably assume the contest is itself run by Brussels. It’s not. It’s not even exclusively European: participants have to be active members of the European Broadcasting Union, which stretches from the sands of Morocco to the mountains of Azerbaijan.

Nevertheless, the contest was created out of the same pan-continental idealism as the Common Market...

As with the EU, our relationship with Eurovision has been lost in translation

Tim Stanley
12 May 2018
The Telegraph


Hotly tipped: Israel's Netta performs 'Toy' during the 2018 Eurovision semi-final CREDIT: FRANCISCO LEONG/ AFP

Israel will probably win this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. It’s mad enough. A demented woman clucks like a chicken screaming “I am not your toy”. Is it a joke or a rallying cry for vegetarianism? And how are we supposed to compete with this nonsense?

The United Kingdom can only look on in wonder. If we send a serious song, the Europeans declare it boring; if we send a man dressed as a duck, they say we’re taking the mick.

Our relationship with Eurovision is lost in translation – just like our relationship with, well, just about every other aspect of European life.

Tonight’s event will be the last time we compete in the Eurovision Song Contest as a member of the EU, and many Brits probably assume the contest is itself run by Brussels. It’s not. It’s not even exclusively European: participants have to be active members of the European Broadcasting Union, which stretches from the sands of Morocco to the mountains of Azerbaijan.

Nevertheless, the contest was created out of the same pan-continental idealism as the Common Market. In 1956, seven countries met in Lugano, Switzerland, for what was first called the Eurovision Grand Prix, an experiment in live TV, a dream of uniting Europe in song. Britain joined in 1957. Our first entry was “All”, sung by a girl called Patricia Bredin from Hull.

Those were our glory years of the contest, because we sent serious artists (Sandie Shaw, Cliff Richard) and we sometimes won: five times before 2000. The reason? Because, like our early membership of the Common Market, we understood what we were getting into.

Even back then, it all looked daft. The costumes were pure Buck Rogers; the lyrics bridged the language gap by using sounds rather than words. In 1977, Austria spoke for millions when it sang: “Boom, boom boomerang / Snadderydang/ Kangaroo, boogaloo, didgeridoo.”

But the contest was cosily small and overwhelmingly west European, because everyone else was stuck behind the Berlin Wall, singing songs about tractors. French yé-yé music – upbeat bubble-gum pop with a hint of self-awareness – was popular. It’s a testament to the sheer class of early Eurovision that, in 1965, it was won by France Gall singing “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”, a Serge Gainsbourg composition. Nothing in Eurovision nowadays comes close in terms of musical quality or cultural significance.


Cyprus's singer Eleni Foureira performs the song "Fuego", the last-minute bookies' favourite to win

Against Europeans doing their best to be the next Beatles, we stood a chance. But things changed. Eurovision, like the EU, got bigger, and the new participants altered the character of the contest. The collapse of the USSR in 1991 gave several former Soviet states the chance to compete.

It’s actually not true, as Terry Wogan used to complain, that East European countries only vote for their neighbours – or to placate countries they fear might invade them. In fact, Scandinavia seems to be the overall beneficiary of Eurovision expansion, because it writes good tunes and casts them well.

This year, Norway is sending back Alexander Rybak, a cute-as-a-button boy with a violin who won before, and it can’t hurt that he’s a migrant from Belarus. Scandinavia’s repeated success is, however, almost the exception that proves the rule among the original participants. France has not triumphed since 1977, Italy since 1990.

That Britain is the biggest casualty of this trend is all the more painful considering that nowadays almost everyone speaks in English: the dominance of our language is nothing to do with our popularity as a country but the emergence of a new, bland pan-European identity with which we have little in common.

I have viewed all 43 entries in this year’s Eurovision (don’t worry: just 26 will perform in tonight’s Grand Final), and they mostly fall in to one of two categories: noisy disco and war tribunal.

“Nova Deca”, Serbia’s entry, is one of those grim ethnic ballads that sounds so agonising in its native language that you really don’t want to know what the lyrics actually mean. Old man on a flute? Check. Sad lady wearing a dead albatross across her shoulders? Check. She is presumably mourning the villagers who were taken by the partisans.

This all speaks to a European history of tragedy that the United Kingdom doesn’t share – thank Heavens – while the eurodisco speaks to a European present we cannot abide. This is the noise one has to ring down to reception to complain about when holidaying two-star. Nightclub music that seems to cater exclusively to drunk men in red tracksuits is composed precisely so that it will sell in every country in Europe, and thus is specific to none.

In recent years, the United Kingdom has thrown everything at this contest in vain hope of just making it to the left hand side of the leaderboard: rap numbers, singers dressed as schoolgirls, even Andrew Lloyd-Webber. It doesn’t work. It’ll never work – because, like the EU, the reality is that we’re taking part in something that’s moved beyond our comfort zone, towards a cultural consensus that we don’t quite share.

Ultimately, Eurovision is political. Consider the last time we won it, 21 years ago: Katrina and the Waves, in 1997. “Love Shine A Light” was a good tune, yes, but it helped that we’d just voted in New Labour and the Europeans wanted to say “bravo”.

Countries with most Eurovision wins:

Ireland: 7 (1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996)
Sweden: 6 (1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015)
France: 5 (1958, 1960, 1962, 1969*, 1977)
Luxembourg: 5 (1961, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1983)
United Kingdom: 5 (1967, 1969*, 1976, 1981, 1997)
Netherlands: 4 (1957, 1959, 1969*, 1975)

(* Shared victory)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/eu-relationship-eurovision-has-lost-translation/
 
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Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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A man is in police custody after invading the stage while the UK's entry SuRie was peforming.

The man grabbed her microphone and shouted "Nazis of the UK media, we demand freedom" before he was dragged off. SuRie - who was the 9th performer of the 26 - carried on performing and later declined the offer to perform again. She finished 24th out of 26 with 48 points.

The contest was won by Israel and the song "Toy" by Netta. It is the first time since 1998 in Birmingham that Israel has won the competition and puts the country level with the Netherlands as the fourth-most successful Eurovision country with four wins.

Host country Portugal finished bottom.

Stage stormed during UK's Eurovision song

13 May 2018
BBC News



A man stormed the stage while the UK's entry, SuRie, was performing at the Eurovision Song Contest.

SuRie was singing her song Storm when a man wearing a rucksack ran onto the stage, grabbed her microphone, and appeared to say: "Nazis of the UK media, we demand freedom."

He was swiftly dragged off stage and SuRie continued performing the song.

Israel won the contest with 529 points while SuRie's song was third from bottom, gaining 48 points.

The invader is in police custody, the European Broadcasting Union said. He is understood to be a European citizen but not British.



It is thought the same man invaded the stage at the National Television Awards this year, and The Voice in 2017.

SuRie was given the chance to perform again, but declined. The BBC said: "SuRie and her team are extremely proud of her performance and have together decided that there is absolutely no reason to perform the song again."


The stage invader took the microphone off SuRie, before being dragged off stage

The Eurovision 2018 final in Lisbon, Portugal, was watched by an estimated TV audience of 200 million.


Stage stormed during UK's Eurovision song - BBC News


Eurovision 2018: Netta wins for Israel with Toy

BBC News
13 May 2018



Israel's Netta has won the Eurovision Song Contest for her quirky dance song Toy - complete with its trademark chicken dance.

She had been an early favourite, but the vote went down to the wire with Cyprus finishing in second place.

Netta thanked juries and the public for "choosing different" as she lifted the glass microphone trophy.

UK entrant SuRie, whose performance was interrupted by a stage invader, finished 24th out of the 26 countries.


SuRie came 24th out of 26 countries

She was part-way through singing Storm when a man, with a rucksack on his back, ran on and grabbed the microphone from her hands. She was given the chance to perform again but declined.

SuRie later tweeted that she knew "anything could happen" on stage.

SuRie ✔

@surieofficial

Well, I've always said anything can happen at Eurovision ... 🤷*♀️

12:42 AM - May 13, 2018

9,809 Likes 2,410 people are talking about this

Netta - full name Netta Barzilai - picked up a total of 529 points to take the title, while bookies' favourite Eleni Foureira from Cyprus got 436 points, with Fuego.

Austria had topped the leaderboard of the 63rd annual contest after the juries' votes had been given, with Cesar Sampson's Nobody But You the surprise frontrunner.

But it became clear it was between Netta and Eleni when the viewers' votes started coming in.


Cyprus's Eleni Foureira singing Fuego

On stage, the Israeli singer said of her win: "Thank you so much for choosing different. Thank you so much for accepting differences between us.

"Thank you for celebrating diversity. I love my country!"


It is Israel's fourth Eurovision win and its first since 1998 in Birmingham



She later added: "It's an empowerment song for everybody, for everybody who's been struggling being themselves - struggling with their bosses, with the government, with someone stepping on them.

"I've been told so many times that I'm not pretty enough, that I'm not smart enough, that I'm not skinny enough to do what I want to do."

Asked about the close race with Cyprus, Netta said: "I always said that comparing between musical genres is funny - and comparing between musicians is a little bit peculiar... I was competing with myself."

She said everything about the moment of winning was "a black blur", and that she thought "what is happening?" - partly because she couldn't see the points on the board without her glasses.

Netta said she never felt she had to deliver a message, adding: "I just had to be me, no matter what my size is."

This year's final was held in Lisbon, Portugal, with the 2019 contest now set to take place in Israel. The last time Israel won Eurovision was 20 years ago in Birmingham, when Dana International was victorious with Diva.

Watch Netta performing the winning song:


Countries with most Eurovision wins:

Ireland: 7 (1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996)
Sweden: 6 (1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015)
France: 5 (1958, 1960, 1962, 1969*, 1977)
Luxembourg: 5 (1961, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1983)
United Kingdom: 5 (1967, 1969*, 1976, 1981, 1997)
Netherlands: 4 (1957, 1959, 1969*, 1975)
Israel: 4 (1978, 1979, 1998, 2018 )

(* Shared victory)

Analysis by Lucy Todd, BBC News entertainment reporter in Lisbon


Netta looked shocked by her win

This is not the first time Eurovision has rewarded the person who sees themselves as an outsider struggling to fit in.

Conchita Wurst winning in 2013 and before her Dana International in 1998 suggests Europe embraces those who are true to themselves.

Netta told BBC News she had always been told she should "diet a little bit", wear black because it was "more flattering", and to "sing like Adele".

But she decided not to follow these rules: "We're only here for a minute, why are we busy being unhappy?"

A decidedly happy Netta spoke to the international press after her victory, and told us she was "proud and honoured" - although it was still all "a little hard to take in".

In the interview, she also revealed she had a secret weapon during her performance. She said she had been given her late grandmother's ring by her father shortly before the contest. She said the ring gave her "power" and "a lot of confidence" for the competition.

Netta also admitted she had no idea what was going on during the results stage of the show, because she didn't have her glasses on to see the scoreboard. She said she had to piece together the results from the shrieks of her team around her.

Finally, when asked the first thing she would do when she got home she replied simply: "Houmous!"

Eurovision 2018: Netta wins for Israel with Toy - BBC News
 
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Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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OpposingDigit said:
When did Israel become European? I thought that Israel was situated in the Middle East?
Click to expand...

Since when did Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan (each of whom were knocked out in the semi-finals) and Australia become European?

For some reason, I quite enjoyed Denmark's song, performed by a bunch of Vikings:

 
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OpposingDigit

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Aug 27, 2017
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Hi! Blackleaf

The 3 countries you mentioned are Eurasian. Part of the combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia. Australia might be said to have it's own continent.
 
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OpposingDigit

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Aug 27, 2017
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Oh! Eligibility is not by Continent ....It is about whether or not you are within the broadcasting area, which has changed a lot since 1956 with modern technology.

Eligible participants are those who are located in states that fall within the European Broadcasting Area, or are member states of the Council of Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest



 
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