Eurovision 2018 – Portugese national broadcaster RTP isn’t putting us through the city selection charade this year, it has helpfully announced today that next year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the capital city, Lisbon. Although bidding may take place for the venue, the hot favourite is The MEO Arena, one of the biggest indoor arenas in Europe, which has a capacity of up to 20,000 normally.
The Eurovision Times 
“It’s Lisbon in 2018!”
I’ve been waiting this for ages. So emotional here.
Hope this will be the Venue, I’m so over the ”cozy effect” they wanted to bring after Azerbaijan 2012.
Yeah.
This is actually a proper arena. Way bigger capacity than the previews few shows.
I hope that Shevek’s flat can accomodate all of us … ;)
Can we bring our cats btw? LOL
ROFL, my thoughts too! :P
LOL No pets allowed!
You will attend 2017 ESC????
2018? Probably not but a man is allowed to dream. I would miss my parents’ crazy ESC party …
Lets go together Toggie, I dont have company to attend esc, my friends are not fans, Im not in OGAE Serbia, lets go together?! One year you can skip the party… :) I wanna see Lisbon in few days and attend esc.. :(
We’ll see. You need to see the monasteries in Alcobaça, Batalha and Tomar too. :)
I accept!!
Yay…one of my favorite destinations ❤
I have just bought “Amar pelos dois”, “Fly with Me”, “City Lights”, “Skeletons”, “Occidentali’s Karma” (SR version), “Blackbird”, “Origo” (long version) and “Requiem” (original version). :)
In other words, and leaving “Requiem” aside, my top7 :)
Great choices! I would change “City Lights”, and buy “Grab the moment” instead. No Hungary????
Sorry, I’ve just seen it’s there! :-)
“Origo” is Hungary. :)
“Grab the Moment” is on my tentative list with 2 or 3 other songs.
Off topic:
https://www.escxtra.com/2017/05/14/eurovision-2017-old-voting/
Btw, in the old system Portugal would have broken the record of Rybaks score back in 2009 by getting a massive 417 points!! Rybak in the new system would have gotten 690 points, which means this is truly the record breaking winner we have had since the new system was introduced! :O
LOL sorry, i didn’t see your post :)
That is very impressive! :)
Interesting!
But did anyone notice that with the old system, Portugal would have recieved points from every country except… Bulgaria. Hmmm…
The fact that the Portuguese and Bulgarian juries didn’t give a single point to each other was one of the things I reacted the most at during the voting.
One of the jurors from Portugal had Bulgaria extremely low actually, but two of them didn’t ranking Bulgaria 14/26 in the end. Looking at their voting nothing seems that suspicious to me tbh. However I do think the bulgarian jury is waaaaaay more suspicious then the Portugeese one, having all of the top 10 in the bookies favorites outside of their own top 10. Thats why I mentioned it before, cause that was clearly a desperate act to win.
BGR17 was a winning project willing to use whatever it takes to win. I have a strong dislike for this political puppet show! I am over the moon that they did not win.
I was sure you would be…I am glad that such an amazing song, a great performance and a really promising artist gathered the massive 615 points – shows there is still hope.
And hopefully an equally great song and perfomer will win next year !
Btw, I like these guys very much :)
Me too :)
Yes, me too. Unfortunately Matt loves Neka mi ne svane and Nostalgija. :-(
:D :D :D
Is this accurate?
Dont know which ranking is the correct one, but the points are not that far off from them both, so it doesn’t really matter :P I kinda wanted this to be the ranking in a way to punish the likes of Austria and Australia, but at the same time I do love the new concept more doh as it makes the voting way more exciting!
So, in any case, Portugal 2017 is an all time record when it comes to points, right?
Yep, they kinda demolished Norways record with about 30 points :P or about 70 points if you compare it with the new voting.
The old system might be preferable since it pushes out of top10 songs that have been reckless in one of the voting sets – NOR, and AUS in this case, while DEN and AUT who qualified only because of jury support got what they deserved to get.
That was quick and painless.
No posturing, no finalist cities, they got straight to business.
Flights are quick and super cheap from NYC. Probably won’t end up paying more than $600 for a round trip flight.
Someone’s in the mood already! ;) <3
No doubt. I made the decision right after they won the jury vote. Actually glad they won instead of Italy, I’ve been to Rome already.
Maybe I bring back a Portuguese bride too. Lol
Lisbon tops my must-visit list :)
For me, it’s Tallinn and Baku.
Let’s hope Meo Arena gets selected; it’s very easy to get there by underground, bus and train. There is a big shopping center next door with a big food court and a big supermarket (Continente). There are plenty of hotels nearby and the whole area, known as Parque das Nações, is lovely. :) It can be a bit windy, because it’s on the river bank; the Tagus is vey wide there and the views are beautiful.
This is the train station (very close to the venue); the underground station is underneath it.
Hotels? What hotels?
I have already taken up Togravus’ offer of staying at your place. I don’t have any pets either. I’m the perfect guest. Ok maybe not perfect perfect. Lol
LOL
All joking aside it’s going to be fun.
ET needs to arrange a reader’s meetup. Looks like a lot of the regulars are going to be there next year.
:)
I have seen Tajo in April in Toledo, it looks very differnet there! :P lol :D
Id like to attend ESC in Lisbon so much! :(((((
Tejo (in Portuguese) is much smaller in Toledo; the Tagus Estuary includes a natural reserve and is the largest wetland in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe.
I know it! ;) I studied geography..
:)
Today I have booked Estoril Eden hotel in Estoril for my clients, I had to contact hotel later and they were so kind, I haven’t met so kind personal in a while lol :D
… and the airport is only 3 subway stations away.
Quite.
RTP have already started to invite composers to write songs for FdC 18; Luísa Sobral was invited again, but she said no, claiming this a was a unique moment that she wants to cherish with her brother.
Wise move from Luísa, there is always another year to submit further down the line, am sure she is more than capable of writing another gem.
I agree.
I can already see this is going to cost less than Kobenhavn.
Flights are dirt cheap and there are so many rentals by the water. I have found 3 bedroom places that cost less than one bed in Kobenhavn.
Plus Sporting Lisbon matches. I’m keeping my promise, Shevek.
Lisbon get ready, NYC is coming!
Ok, I need to calm down, it’s still 12 months away.
It’s low season now … and don’t forget that prices will escalate in the month of the contest.
True, the housing will go up. But flights won’t, because there are so many of them.
Also, I doubt that a McDonald’s chicken sandwich will cost 11 dollars in Lisbon.
Yes, it actually cost that much just for the sandwich in Kobenhavn.
Portuguese fans welcoming The Sobral siblings:
You made me cry again :-)
And the mooning incident is gone:
Some great news from my brothers and sisters in Estonia: the EL people got “inspired” by the win of POR and they want to go back to their roots by entering Estonia language songs that celebrate their culture, instead of sending songs to maximize their ESC scores.
More Angel and Sandra entries is 1000000% endorsed by me.
I’ve always said EL should not allow English language songs to enter.
“maximize”? they failed to Q twice. that’s your lesson.
Don’t care why they change course. As long as they do. Looks like they will.
In fact, I should be one of the EL jurors.
Who better than me, a bastion of honesty, integrity, and impartiality. Lol
Hopefully Iceland will follow too :)
Everyone should. People rip the 2000’s but one advantage it had was that nobody gave a crap. They went out there to entertain themselves. They didn’t care if they sang bad, looked bad, anything.
Now you have record labels, professional PR stooges, slick production, and most everyone has stars in their eyes.
Hopefully not and the nordics will hold against this wave of musical nationalism.
On the other hand this return to the past will boost further those daring to move forward and stay loyal to contemporary music – possibly in english. If Bulgaria for example is not fooled and stays on track they may win this next year by a landslide next year. Or it could be Sweden’s turn to hit the 7 victories !
10 -15 songs in national language next year won’t do any harm to the contest, I reassure you. You’ve been overreacting since Saturday. Way too much catastrophology imo
I have every reason to be worried given the lack of dignity of the winner and an agenda creeping up in the contest. And I am afraid it wont be just 10-15 it will be more but I m sure you are happy about this musical nationalism.
Any broadcaster that puts lingual criteria to their selection is an automatic DQ on my list – e.g. in this case Estonia or Germany. I was right when i said such a victory will have very negative consequences on the contest. Songs like “City Lights” and “Beautiful Mess” will most probably be nowhere to be seen.
Anyway the more musical nationalism the better for those daring to go for contemporary accesible music – and very good news for the UK, Ireland and Malta as well – probably Sweden too.
1944 won last year and only ARM followed the trend in 2017. I believe you are creating so much drama out of nowhere. Anyway, hopefully next year, one of your favourite wins. That will save me from much negativity like the one you ve been spreading all these days.
I m not spreading negativity, I am criticizing damaging to the contest behaviours. Sobral is spreading the negativity I am afraid.
And you know very well this has nothing to do with one of my favourites not winning.
My initial reaction was to congratulate him and say how much I respect this victory.
But he has been unable to live up to any standards of decency since the moment he won – and now all these trends are appearing even in national finals that stood out every year for their quality like Eesti Laul.
Criticizing is your prerrogative. Assumpting stuff about next year’s edition and songs in such an early stage is plain “silly” imo.
I do not assume anything. I react to reports from the german and estonian broadcasters, two realiably progressive in their esc approach broadcasters, regressing.
Who knows how many others will follow suit. Hopefully none and hopefully even those two will go back on statements about implementing lingual and genre criteria but I think now it is the time to react. If we wait for the songs to be selected based on those novel, Sobral-inspired criteria damage has been done alread…
“Musical nationalism”??? Honestly, your drama queening is priceless. In fact, it’s probably the best drama queening I have ever seen. Incredibly accomplished drama queening … ;) :)
I am just sticking to the facts here but nice try to degrade my opinion. Unfortunately everything I fear is coming true. The drop in quality of the german and estonian entries has been confirmed and probably more will follow.
Anyone who puts lingual criteria to their selection next year gets automatically DQed on my list.
You are happy because the contest goes your way and I get that. What I see is the gradual dipping of the contest back to irrelevance.
Have you listened to the 2018 German and Estonian entries already? I mean how do you know there will be a drop in quality? You absolutely make no sense!
When you start putting linguistic and genre criteria to your selection you limit the pool, discourage creativity and artists who advocate for it to enter and that rationally leads to a drop in quality.
Estonia has an abundance of english oriented song writers, singers and bands accross all genres and in the indie alternative genres more predominantly and those have largely defined the identity of Eesti Laul over the years.
If the comment above is true and they implement linguistic and genre criteria in picking EL entries then the impact on the very character of EL will be profound and most likely negative.
If you dont see how lingual nationalism will lead to a drop in quality as it is such an arbitrary non musical criterion then I m sorry but that doesnt make me irrational.
I hope I am wrong and these are just gut reactions and such measures wont be implemented at the end.
There can still be creativity and genre diversity in local language too. Besides, it’s much more natural to express oneself in own language. Feels more redeeming. It’s actually foreign languages that put the barrier in one’s expression imo. I believe it’s wiser to wait before jumping to conclusions regarding next year’s songs and level of quality.
As I said any broadcaster that puts linguistic criteria in choosing their entry is DQed in my books. This is pure musical fascism imo and I want nothing to do with it.
What language each artist finds it more natural to express themselves into is up to the artist to decide and their decision to sing in english must not be a disqualifying criterion in any selection that wants to be called musical.
If we end up with 30 folk songs in national languages that nobody will care about as soon as the contest is done I will be around to tell you “I told you so” be sure of that :-P
I doubt we will end up with 30 folk songs. I’m willing to talk to you again about this aspect in early 2018 when esc season will be on and hot. Till then, there’s no need to hop on the “catastrophology” bandwagon.
PS : Feel free to disqualify any country you want from your lists. Thing is that you respond to “fascism” with pure fascism too imo.
It’s called taking a stance. As just a fan it is all I can do to express my disapproval.
I hope you are right and EL remains open and welcoming to music.
That’s probably a wise move considering that they got their best results with “Rändajad” and “Kuula” in the past years. :)
You wisely forgot “Goodbye to Yesterday” there – their biggest post contest commercial success as well.
More Angels, less Kuulas.
Even though the 2012 entry was indeed great, I’ve marked it down because he was one of the jury members that buried Kui tuuled pöörduvad at EL.
Still haven’t gotten over that one.
That has to be one of the best songs to run to. My best runs occur when I just play it in a loop while jogging. Perfect tempo.
And more bad news from Estonia apparently :( Goodbye Stig and Elina, goodbye Kerli, goodbye anything that made EL stand out…Lingual obsession and nationalism from now on and probably tacky folk tunes. Another national final probably ruined and turned into dated fest like FdC.
Will anyone stand up for contemporary music in esc without lingual fetishes for 2018 I wonder ? I hope Sweden sticks to its guns…
Don’t you realise that you do exactly the same thing you blame Salvador for?
I do nothing of that nature. I just want Eesti Laul to continue being Eesti Laul with no forced lingual or genre criteria as it is till now. As you remember I was among the biggest supporters of Estonia 13 and their entry in estonian but it came as a result of the natural process of the contest not some forced lingual or genre fetishes just because Sobral sets the trends now.