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ESC2018: it’s a goer in Lisboa…

Happy Eurovision day, eurofans, and greetings from a sort of sunny Southport. In just a few hours it’ll be the culmination of the ESC2018 campaign.

Who is going to win this year? Cyprus? Israel? Perhaps Ireland will challenge as it’s now one are the hot faves. I’d be happy with any of them, as well as Sweden, Germany and France. I just hope that the winning song is one that I like this year – and it would be good if it could be an international hit.

The broadcast tonight is a bit of a marathon, that’s why I’m happy to be watching from home. We’re in the safe hands of Graham Norton’s commentary tonight. He’s been on good form on his BBC Radio 2 show this morning, so here’s hoping his script will be as entertaining tonight. Remember that song nine marks the raising of a glass for the late Terry Wogan, and this year it will be time for the UK’s SuRie to do her thang. Ever the optimist, I hope to be proved wrong that the UK won’t be in the bottom five…

The running order for the Grand Final has been decided, and as always there are fan theories/conspiracy theories about why certain songs are placed in certain positions. Well, here’s an interesting explanation from Contest producer, Christer Björkman. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the Post-it note for Spain has no details on it, despite Christer’s explanation of how they are categorised. Made me laugh! Like they haven’t put Spain second to annoy them? 🙂

As we have seen this year, lots of countries that we would normally expect to sail through to the final didn’t. This might in some way be influenced by a change in the way the professional juries vote. In previous years each member of the jury ranked all the songs from best to worst, and then they were ranked. This year they vote on every song, and then they are ranked. Confused? It’s probably had an impact. We’ll see when the vote breakdown is revealed after the conclusion of the Grand Final.

This year I’m not ranking the final on the blog. I’ve told you my faves at the start of this post. One of these twenty-six songs will take the crown. As Wogan used to say, it’s the glorious unpredictability of it all that is part of the ESC’s charm – and why we tune in!

I’ll be back for a final recap on Sunday, but in the meantime have an abba-solutely fabulous Eurovision tonight!

🙂 xx