Portugal, ready for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018
March 23rd, 2018
This year will be the 63rd edition of the most famous song contest festival. Thanks to Salvador Sobral who was crowned winner with “Amor Pelos Dois” last year, Portugal will be welcoming this event in Lisbon from the 8th to the 12th of May 2018 at the Altice Arena.
Eurovision 2018
No less than 43 countries will be participating in this year’s edition. The two semi-finals will happen on the 8th and 10th of May 2018 and the winner will be rewarded on the 12th of May 2018 during the finals. Russia will be back this year after being withdrawn at last year’s edition. 19 countries will be participating at the first semi-finals while 18 will be present during the second semi-finals.
As usual, the organizing countries France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom, and the winner of the previous edition in this case Portugal, will not be competiting in the semi-finals and are automatically put through the finals.
Some countries such as Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Monaco, Slovakia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Liechstenstein won’t be participating. On March 4th, the Portuguese citizens have decided which song will be representing Portugal during the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. “O Jardim” de Claudia Pascoal has been chosen to compete for the country. Claudia comes from Gondomar, a town located not far from Porto; which makes us even prouder of the winning song! This soft and delightful song was the winning title of a competition gathering 26 artists, all competing for the same goal, performing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Festival da Cançao 2018 meant even more this year, as the winner will be performing in front of her own audience, and this does not happen every year! Not an easy task, but the jury and the votes confirmed that Claudia would be THE artist to represent Portugal in May.
Claudia Pascoal
Originally a street artist, and guitar player since she is 15, she participated in “Ídolos” (Portuguese Pop Idol) in 2010, in “X Factor” in 2013. She signed up for the “Ídolos” adventure again in 2015 and “The Voice Portugal” in 2017, where she ended up at the 6th place on the overall ranking. She released a song “Ocasionalidade” with Pedro Gonçalves which has more than 120 000 views on Youtube. She will be live in Lisbon on 12th of May during the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 to sing her song “O Jardim”.
The winning song was written, composed and produced by Isaura who made her breakthrough on Youtube with her song “Useless” that got the attention of more then 100 000 viewers in 2014. After that, she performed on many festivals including “Super Bock Super Rock”, “NOS Alive”, “Rock in Rio – Lisbon”, and many more. She collaborated with many artists such as Francis Dale, and recorded a duet with Diogo Piçarra, “Meu é Teu”.
Program Semi-Finals – 8th of May 2018
| Country | Artist | Song | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First half | ||||
 Albania | Eugent Bushpepa | “Mall“ | ||
 Azerbaijan | Aisel | “X My Heart“ | ||
 Belarus | Alekseev | “Forever“ | ||
 Belgium | Sennek | “A Matter of Time“ | ||
 Bulgaria | Equinox | “Bones“ | ||
 Czech Republic | Mikolas Josef | “Lie to Me“ | ||
 Estonia | Elina Nechayeva | “La forza“ | ||
 Iceland | Ari Ólafsson | “Our Choice“ | ||
 Israel | Netta | “Toy“ | ||
 Lithuania | Ieva Zasimauskaitė | “When We’re Old“ | ||
| Second half | ||||
 Armenia | Sevak Khanagyan | “Qami” (Քամի) | ||
 Austria | Cesár Sampson | “Nobody but You“ | ||
 Croatia | Franka | “Crazy“ | ||
 Cyprus | Eleni Foureira | “Fuego“ | ||
 Finland | Saara Aalto | “Monsters“ | ||
 Greece | Yianna Terzi | “Oneiro mou” (Όνειρό μου) | ||
 Ireland | Ryan O’Shaughnessy | “Together“ | ||
 Macedonia | Eye Cue | “Lost and Found“ | ||
 Switzerland | Zibbz | “Stones“ | ||
Program Semi-Finals – 10th of May 2018
France, Germany and Italy can vote.| Country | Artist | Song | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First half | ||||
 Australia | Jessica Mauboy | “We Got Love“ | ||
 Denmark | Rasmussen | “Higher Ground“ | ||
 Moldova | DoReDos | “My Lucky Day“ | ||
 Netherlands | Waylon | “Outlaw in ‘Em“ | ||
 Norway | Alexander Rybak | “That’s How You Write a Song“ | ||
 Romania | The Humans | “Goodbye“ | ||
 Russia | Julia Samoylova | “I Won’t Break“ | ||
 San Marino | Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening | “Who We Are“ | ||
 Serbia | Sanja Ilić & Balkanika | “Nova deca” (Нова деца) | ||
| Second half | ||||
 Georgia | Iriao | “For You“ | ||
 Hungary | AWS | “Viszlát nyár“ | ||
 Latvia | Laura Rizzotto | “Funny Girl“ | ||
 Malta | Christabelle | “Taboo“ | ||
 Montenegro | Vanja Radovanović | “Inje“ | ||
 Poland | Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer | “Light Me Up“ | ||
 Slovenia | Lea Sirk | “Hvala, ne!“ | ||
 Sweden | Benjamin Ingrosso | “Dance You Off“ | ||
 Ukraine | Mélovin | “Under the Ladder“ | ||
Program Final – 12th of May 2018
| Country | Artist | Song | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Portugal | Cláudia Pascoal | “O jardim“ | ||
 France | Madame Monsieur | “Mercy“ | ||
 Germany | Michael Schulte | “You Let Me Walk Alone“ | ||
 Italy | Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | “Non mi avete fatto niente“ | ||
 Spain | Alfred & Amaia | “Tu canción“ | ||
 United Kingdom | SuRie | “Storm“ |
