Hello my dearly beloved readership,

on May 12th, 2018 last but not least the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 has taken place in Lisbon the captial of Portugal. Tension was inevitable, the show very touching thanks to the charming hosts and some highlights will make Eurovision 2018 unforgettable

Big 5 & Impressions

The so called Big 5 are basically “nothing more” than the founding-members – the first members to participate when the Eurovision Song Contest came into being in 1955. These countries were

• the United Kingdom
• France
• Germany
• Italy and
• Spain

Meanwhile 63 years later as more than 40 countries take part in the Eurovision Song Contest regularly one more country joins the Big 5 (unofficially Big 6) – this is the host-country when it is not one of the Big 5.
Note: In 2013 the Turkish national broadcaster TRT announced that they refuse to keep on participating in the Eurovision Song Contest as long as the EBU continues to treat the Big 5 preferred that they are automatically nominated for the Grand Final as they used to end up with a bad result in the final ranking having taken a long break of two decades until its return in 2011. A loss or not? Well Turkey amazed us every year with very catchy performances and alluring artists. In my opinion one of the best Eurovision participants. What do you think? Vote in my Instagram story.

Read my last six impressions below:

1. Spain – Alfred & Amamia “Tu Cancion”: The two Spanish lovebirds are simply cute and turned the whole stage literally into Gold with they beautiful performance. Just listen and dream away.
2. Portugal – Claudia Pascoal “O Jardim”: I have to admit, Portugal is definitely not my most favorite country to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest (nevertheless it proved to be a fantastic and super-adorable host-country!). Apart from their song and performance being very weak this has been the third and for me the third too much LGBT-propaganda on one Eurovision stage for one night. They can be lesbian if they want to but they should leave me and the public alone with that. Nevertheless I like Claudia’s pink hair. But I still wonder of which material her giant earrings have been.
3. United Kingdom – SuRie “Storm”: She was one of the most professional artists of the nights and a real heroine on the stage. The way she kept on after the disturbia during her performance which just lasts three minutes and the refuse of her right to perform once again was very strong! Her song itself and her voice were becalming but encouraging.
4. Germany – Michael Schulte “You Let Me Walk Alone”: To be honest he was not my first choice to win the national final but he proved musical skills and talent and touched the whole Altice Arena along with its worldwide audiance.
5. France – Madame Monsieur “Mercy”: Already during the national elections I have been a huge fan of them. Not only in means of fashion but as well as artists. A typical French-style song to listen and feel happy. Madame Monsieur are not only married with children but as well a very inspiring duo on stage.
6. Italy – Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro “Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente”: One of the strongest performances with definitely the strongest message of the night with no unnecessary drama (what is more than I can say for Israel). A minimalistic song with lots of power in it. Very refined: the different languaged visualized. However the only thing I missed there was the Armenian language as well since Armenia is currently having issues as well. My advice: if you perform something like this make sure to cover all the concerned countries and languages.

The Final Ranking V.S. My Personal Ranking

Before coming to the ranking it is important to shortly explain the way the points are given. Since 2016 a new point-system exists: the voting results and jury results have been separated. One day before the actual show there is an extra show taking place where the artists perform for the jury in order to give the national juries the chance to make their judgement. The spokesmen and -women of every country visualize the jury points during the actual show for the nine countries they liked better than the rest (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10). While before 2016 the spokesmen and women had announced the 8 and 10 points too nowadays only the 12 points are announced for the country the jury likes best.

Note: The national juries change each year and are a team of three to give different artists and one former participant in Eurovision.

After that the hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest announce the voting results that are made into points in the relation of number of calls and SMS’ sent. They start with the lowest points up to ending with the highest points. Attention: The voting-results can completely mix the order given through the jury results. The first might become the last one and the winner of the jury-results and the winner of the voting-results might still not become the winner of the show.

The final ranking

1. Israel
2. Cyprus
3. Austria
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Czech Republic
7. Sweden
8. Estonia
9. Denmark
10. Moldova
11. Albania
12. Lithuania
13. France
14. Bulgaria
15. Norway
16. Ireland
17. Ukraine
18. Netherlands
19. Serbia
20. Australia
21. Hungary
22. Slovenia
23. Spain
24. United Kingdom
25. Finland
26. Portugal

My personal ranking

1. Moldova
2. Czech Republic
3. Estonia
4. Norway
5. France
6. Ukraine
7. Netherlands
8. Austria
9. Italy
10. Spain
11. Germany
12. Cyprus
13. Sweden
14. United Kingdom
15. Lithuania
16. Israel
17. Albania
18. Slovenia
19. Bulgaria
20. Finland
21. Serbia
22. Hungary
23. Denmark
24. Australia
25. Portugal
26. Ireland

Even if it may not look like this in my personal ranking I liked very much that the public reflected my personal impression and that the LGBT-propagandas were ranked rather badly. Lithuania’s song was not bad indeed pretty much in the middle but she was so overwhealmed with emotions that she sang rather bad during the final in comparison to the semi-final.

Highlights Of The Eurovision Song Contest 2018

As I have previously mentioned. Every Eurovision Song Contest is unforgettable in its own way as every year we find recordbreaking highlights. Here are my personal ones:

(Married-)couplevision

Family first! Married couples support each other! But this year each partner of a married couple has never showed so much effort like this year. The French wife and husband have written and composed their song together, the Lithuanian woman had given her husband a special guest appearance twice on the stage and the Spanish lovebirds enchanted the whole audiance.

Fashiovision

If one of the most famous and popular designers in the fashion szene is involved in Eurovision it is no suprise that one couple is going to pull all eyes on them: namely Jean-Paul Gaultier who has supported Madame Monsier. It is very cute when couples show that they belong together with a partner-look they did it on the most important appearances during Eurovision: the opening ceremony (so called Blue Carpet), the appearance in the green room and on stage – always shade in shade. Unity never looked so beautiful.

Another eye-catcher: Talking about the opening ceremony and national fashion legends the Estonian fashion designer Kristina Viirpalu was competing with JPG on the same level with the dreamlike dresses she has equipped the Estonian participant of this year with. My personal highlight was the dress that had the title of her Eurovision entry “La Forza” engraved on it.

O-Tonevision

“I’m still waiting for Eurovision becoming a national holiday here in Estonia”, said the Estonian spokesman before announcing the points who was nothing more than the lead singer of Evestus, one of the finalists during the national pre-elections. I really hope that one day someone is going to make his words real, not only in Estonia but all around the world. At least the flight-prizes get very high during that time when the host country is your destination.

“She has brought her real husband with her to stage”, the German host explained after the performance of the Lithuanian participant. This expression was not wrong but funny as I joked with my husband that I am also going to take my “real” husband with me to EurovisionJ.

“After Eurovision is before Eurovision”, this o-tone is coming from me personally and comforts me when I am sad at the end of the show. I mean, we are talking about Eurovision with family and friends, we cannot wait to get more instructions about the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest (especially about in which city it is going to take place and which countries are going to participate) and I am sitting here writing about the show and cannot be fast enough on buying the Eurovision album and load my most favorite songs onto my phone and listen to the songs once again. Eurovision simply is all over the year. Therefore have a quick recap of everyone who made Eurovision 2018 unforgettable.

Love, Johanna