All aboard, next stop……..
The city of Lisbon hosted Eurovison 2018, after Salvador Sobral’s win in Kyiv the previous year. This was the first time Portugal was the host. Another first was the fact that the contest had four presenters , ie Portuguese television presenters Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Catarina Furtado and Portuguese-American actress Daniela Ruah,.
Forty-three countries participated in the contest, equalling the record of 2008 and 20011. Russia returned after their absence the previous year. Another first was the fact that no no country that participated in Kyiv. , had withdrawn- a first since 2011. Another first that year was the fact that since the introduction of semi finals in 2004 Azerbaijan, Romania and Russia all failed to qualify for the final. Who can forget the image of poor Julia Samoylova smiling serenely on top of mountain, whilst being abandoned by her delegation on stage. Moldova came to her rescue and wheeled her and her mountain off the stage to a thunderous applause.
There were other controversies though. Colourful Israeli winner Netta Barzailai was accused of culturally appropriating Japanese culture, with several users taking to social media to call the performance "offensive". The accusations were made after she wore a kimono and buns, as well as Maneki-nekos being shown during the performance. Netta never responded to the accusations and just stated she loved the culture. Another controversy regarding the Israeli entry was the accusation that there had been a copyright infringement regarding “Toy” Universal Music Group claimed that there were similarities between "Toy" in rhythm and harmony with The White Stripes' song "Seven Nation Army The songwriters Doron Medalie and Stav Beger, agreed to give writing credit and a share in royalties to Jack White.
Another incident occurred during Miklos Josef’s first rehearsal, whereby he hurt himself quite severely, but in true “ the show must go on spirit”, the Czech representative altered his performance for the semi final and came sixth in the finalThen there was the stage invasion during SuRie’s performance. How the guy got past security is a mystery, as security were quite forceful with the fans if they went the wrong way. SuRie continued singing and although offered to return to the stage refused.
Who can forget the energetic performance of “Fuego” by Cypriot representative Eleni Foureira, who was awarded the Artistic Award. Bulgaria’s rather dark staging of Bones by Equinox won the Composers Award. The Press Award went to the simple, emotional and haunting performance of “Mercy” by French representative Madam Monsieur.
Macedonia, Australia, Belgium, Montenegro and Israel all fought it out for the dreaded Barbara Dex Award and the winner was Eye Cue from Macedonia. Eye Cue did manage a costume reveal though.
Jessica Mauboy unfortunately only managed to place 20th, but my highlight was Austria”s Cesar Sampson placing third. I loved the colourful staging of Moldovas song “My Lucky Day” it really did bring a smile to my face. Denmarks “Higher Ground” , sung by Rasmussen was quite a crowd pleaser.
To me 2018 had lots of great songs, too many to mention. It was a very exciting year. The song that has become the song of 2018 was of course Fuego, some have tried to recapture that performance by Eleni Foureira but until 2022 only Spain’s Chanel could really do it.
“All aboard” was 2018’s slogan, and what a ride it turned out to be. It was a year of memories, great entertainment and some memorable performances.