We have waited a year, but tonight the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 will start. In this article you will find everything you need to know about the first semi final of the contest in Lisbon.
The show starts at 21:00 CET and will be presented by four female hosts: Catarina Furtado, Daniela Ruah, Filomena Cautela and Silvia Alberto. 19 countries will take to the stage in Lisbon, but only ten will qualify for Saturday’s Grand Final. The others will see their Eurovision dream come to an end tonight. Spain, the United Kingdom and host country Portugal will also broadcast and vote along in this show.
Get a sneak peek of the show at ESCDaily
Over the last week, we were in Lisbon following all rehearsals for you. We can provide you with a sneak preview of the show in three articles. You can find an in-depth description of all performances from semi final 1 HERE. If you want to know more about the over-all look of the show, the interval acts, the presenters et cetera, check out this liveblog of the Monday afternoon dress rehearsal. You can also read back in our vocal assessment article how the jury show went. Juries have already given out 50% of the votes last night based on the performances of that show.
Where you can watch the First Semi Final of Eurovision 2018
If you live in one of the 43 participating countries you can watch on television via your national public broadcaster. You can also watch the show (without commentary and voting details) via the official Eurovision YouTube channel. Beware: due to rights limitations, the YouTube live stream is not available in the United States, Canada, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Don’t forget to go to ESCDaily’s Facebook page right after the show for a live interactive analysis!
How you can vote in Eurovision 2018
Is your country taking part in the tonight’s first Semi-Final or are you living in Spain, the United Kingdom or Portugal? Then you will be able to vote for your favourites. Once all songs have been performed, the voting window will be open for 15 minutes. Voting is possible via the official Eurovision app, by telephone and SMS through the numbers shown on your screen.
Contestants first semi final Eurovision 2018
In case you don’t know the names and songs yet, here is the full overview of tonights list of contestants.
# | Country | Artist(s) | Song |
---|---|---|---|
01 | Azerbaijan | Aisel | X My Heart |
02 | Iceland | Ari Ólafsson | Our Choice |
03 | Albania | Eugent Bushpepa | Mall |
04 | Belgium | SENNEK | A Matter Of Time |
05 | Czech Republic | Mikolas Josef | Lie To Me |
06 | Lithuania | Ieva Zasimauskaitė | When We’re Old |
07 | Israel | Netta Barzilai | Toy |
08 | Belarus | Alekseev | Forever |
09 | Estonia | Elina Nechayeva | La Forza |
10 | Bulgaria | Equinox | Bones |
11 | FYR Macedonia | Eye Cue | Lost And Found |
12 | Croatia | Franka Batelic | Crazy |
13 | Austria | Cesár Sampson | Nobody But You |
14 | Greece | Yianna Terzi | Oniro Mou |
15 | Finland | Saara Aalto | Monsters |
16 | Armenia | Sevak Khanagyan | Qami |
17 | Switzerland | Zibbz | Stones |
18 | Ireland | Ryan O’Shaughnessy | Together |
19 | Cyprus | Eleni Foureira | Fuego |
Top stories of this semi final
With Israel, Estonia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and newcomer Cyprus we have no less than 5 favorites for Eurovision victory in this semi final. All of them have interesting stories to tell.
- Read more about Israel, about Netta Barzilai and about her looper
- Check out all the news about Mikolas Josef’s back injury
- Equinox from Bulgaria do not think that their performance is “too dark”
Below you can find an overview of all the important stories in this first semi final:
DearESC Daily
May I wish all the countries in tonight’s first pre-qualifier of the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal all the best of luck!
Yours Truly
David James Toft
United Kingdom
Yes, you may! Enjoy the show David!