Eurovision 2018 • General Discussion

Pretty Great final, I mean this was a weak year but in the end I did enjoy it, now year until next one gosh

My thoughts on the finalists:

Omg I love this kind of video

Well apparently Slovakia brodcasted the final despite just as radio show but maybe it means they could plan to return or I just wanting them to return really badly

I'm speechless because of how robbed it is, even though I expected a bottom result. So I let someone else say how I feel:


2nd-to-last obviously. Despite the flip at the start of the performance this was not a memorable performance, and the song that is Catchy in the studio version was way weaker live (you can't blame Saara for that tho). Interesting to see them barely making it from the semi.
it's hard to rate it's place after the incident on stage. Surie and also the audience did a great job in covering This and continuing, so she deserves any applause for that behavior. However the song is horrible and would've deserved last place and I blame the juries for the song avoiding this since I can't blame people for pity voting. (I also think the incident overshadowed Portugal but I'm surely biased so forget this)
this had a really cute performance, but the spot in the running order killed its last chances for a good result.
the fake blackout was even worse here than in the semi since the crowd was going already here and was just interrupted. The semi results are more or less a confirmation that this just qualified because of a weak semi. I'll give probs to the song and the result for being in Slovenian, especially since the native language songs weren't doing too well this time sadly.
now this was another underrated song, but seeing how niche the genre is not a complete surprise. I guess I overrated the impact of the metal fans in my latest predictions since in my first ones it always ended around this place. The performance was great though and the lead singer was great again.
glad the televoting dragged this once again, showing how important live vocals are still. The juries also didn't overrate this as much as last years entry. The song itself is good but Jessica's dress, the staging and sadly again Jessica's vocals weren't.
I'm happy this got into the final at least, but expected a bit more of it due to the Balkan bloc voting. But the juries didn't appreciate this as much as the televoting, even in their usual voting allies, so that's why it got so low. As in the semi the first minute of the song was stellar again, the rest was still good.
nice song, the dance moves weren't fitting to the song at all though. The place is okay for this since as Hungary also this was more a niche entry.
the last place in the juries was totally unexpected and not deserved in my opinion as well. The lack of any other ex-Soviet state bar the baltics saved this in the televoting essentially. I find this underrated since I love the song and even if the performance wasnt innovative it was a great one.
whew I knew this wouldn't do as good as the betting odds suggested but seeing Ireland's recent history it's a great place for them. Also Ryan managed to beat his uncle so he achieved his goal
another song where I'm really close with my prediction. The Rybak bonus points weren't enough to save a dreadful song on the scoreboard, even though the win in the semi final was good (but also only thanks to the weaknesses of the other songs). Also no single jury member putting this first returned my faith in the juries
Zhana's long notes Improve this song so much in the live version and make it even better than the studio version. The staging was still good I think, but I see why people might disagree since it wasn't anything special too. Seeing Bulgaria's last results it's still a good one for them, but they came with high hopes and left without a left-hand side finish even.

in my opinion the biggest surprise of the evening even before Austria's and Germany's good result. I assume the performance wasn't memorable enough, maybe the fact that Italy transported it's similar message better hurtled France too. Like for Bulgaria it's still a great result, however the delegation and much more hopes. I just hope that France continues to try, because I like how they developed in the last years.
<333 The performance was perfect, and Ieva was amazing live and made the best out of a running order position that turned out even worse with the results. The song was saved by the diaspora let's not lie (especially in the semi finals), but he fact that this got more points from the other two baltics than Estonia is great.
what an amazing result for Albania after years of drought and the perfect example that a song doesn't need a revamp to be successful. Also Albania managed to be the best Balkan and best country with a song in native language out of the qualifiers. Really shows how important good vocals are.
what a fresh song with an amazing performance, most likely this was the best performance of the night. I loved how much work they put into this and that it paid off. Two top 10's in a row for a country like Moldova are great.
I'm surprised this did so well in the televoting (apparently there are more Vikings fans than I thought). The song is good but the live was quite underwhelming which just raises my surprise. Denmark seems to get back into form after their two NQs, in the end it was their best result since 2014.
I dislike the song and I'm honestly just happy to be able to avoid this until the year-end charts of some forumers. Their single results are surprising, I expected them to do much better in the Televoting, while I expected less top points from the juries, even though their place in the jury ranking was what I thought they'd get.
more iconic than the 21 points from the viewers is the fact that only 12 from them are from all other Nordics in total. This was way overrated in the jury ranking, not only because of the song but also because of the fact that this wasn't sung well. Maybe this will end that Sweden is automatically high in the jury rankings.
I'm so, so happy about this result. Mikolas did really great work and both performance and song were on a really high level. Especially proud am I for his bravery to do the backflip just less than two weeks after his accident, that showed also how devoted he is to the show and his dream. I expected a better jury result because of the performance, but 4th in the televoting is even better, what a great place. I really hope that this will be a wake up call for the Czech public and that the attention will rise in the next years.
so this won the battle of the "political" songs. I'm positively surprised about its result, especially the amazing 3rd place in the television ranking. MetaMoro did an amazing job in sending their message to the world and delivering the beautiful touch of the song, and apparently I wasn't the only one thinking so.
wow. I'm stunned about how brilliant Germany and Michael did. Even more impressive than the great 4th place in the juries was the 6th place in the televoting imo, especially since Germany is a country that traditionally sucks in that part of the split voting even more. I won't interpret to much for the future in this result, but it's great that our bad results streak ended, and that in an impressive way.

slowly and silently Austria developed into an ESC powerhouse. What an amazing result for Cesar that I didn't see coming at all. The first place in the jury ranking was a complete surprise and I'm pleased they didn't do as bad in the televoting as I feared after the jury results. It's a great song so I'm happy the juries gave it a chance to shine and do so amazing.
wow! Eleni really delivered and brought fire to the stage, but it wasn't enough. I expected more jury support for such a good performance, but it seemed like the juries were very diverted about Cyprus. Still for a country like Cyprus it's a great result, and it's nice to see even such small states do great.
and now to the winner! Israel is a great song, combining some innovative and brave elements (vocal looper and chicken sounds) with the sound of a good uptempo song. The live was a bit breathy in the end, and therefore I'm positively surprised it managed to still win. The public seemed to look over it and loved the song enough. And you shouldn't expect any controversy when the televoting winner wins the whole thing (haha good joke Luca).

So that's my summary and even though I had one day to think about what to write I think I forgot half of the things I wanted to say
Lisbon was a great host, beautiful stage and design, good openers and intervals, a nice moderation team that sometimes tried a bit too hard to be funny. The fact that a LED screen missed led (what a pun) to some innovative, great performances, and the song level and diversity was really good this year.
The results were great too, with one big exception. But I loved how exciting and unpredictable it was, in contrast to 2017 the juries were bloc voting less and had some random 12s that made it exciting. The high scores of the last places are good too and showed that there was no clearly worse song was in the contention this time. The semi results are quite messy and random ( and basically having a reversed score to the final). Almost felt like NVSC at some point, although ESC didn't fully reach NVSC's quality in terms of design

See you in , were I hopefully can be there live!