Eurovision Song Festival 7

The Eurovision Song Festival 7 will be the 7th edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. It will take place in the Loro Boriçi Stadium in Shköder, Albania. This will be the first time the contest will take place in Albania. The contest is expected to consist of two semi-finals on 15 March and the final on 17 March 2018.

On the 27th of February, the EBO confirmed that a total of 44 countries will be present in the seventh edition of the Eurovision Song Festival.

## Location

### **Bidding phase**

On 27 February 2018, the EBO confirmed that four cities were in the race to host the seventh edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. The host city will be announced on the 27th of March 2018. The head of the contest, Adéla Bronislava, announced that the host city announcement will take place on 22:30 CET.

All cities were allowed to submit a venue for hosting the contest. The cities had to announce the venue and the capacity for the show. In the end, four cities were submitted to host the contest. The following cities are in the race to host the contest:
  †   Host venue
  ‡   Shortlisted

### **Venue**

The Loro Boriçi Stadium (Albanian: Stadiumi Loro Boriçi) is a multi-purpose stadium in Shkodër, Albania, which is used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Vllaznia. The initial stadium was built in 1952 and named after the communist partisan Vojo Kushi. It was reconstructed during the 1980s bringing its capacity to around 15,000. In 1990, during the fall of communism in Albania, the stadium was renamed in honour of former footballer Loro Boriçi. Between 2015 and 2016 the stadium was rebuilt into a modern All-seater stadium with a capacity of 16,022. The stadium is also the second largest stadium in Albania behind the Qemal Stafa Stadium in Tirana.

#### History

##### **Early history**

Work on the stadium began on 17 May 1950 and was it inaugurated on 1 May 1952.

On 29 March 2003 the stadium hosted a match for the UEFA Euro 2004 qualifiers between the Albania national football team and Russia. The match ended in a 3-1 win for Albania.

##### **2015 Reconstruction**

The stadium was last renovated in 2001 and in October 2014 the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, promised the reconstruction of the stadium. He stated that the stadium will have a renewed capacity of about 20.000 seats. On 3 May 2015, construction work officially started, bringing the stadium to a renewed capacity of 18,100.

##### **Loro Boriçi Stadium as Kosovo national football team stadium**

Loro Boriçi Stadium was Kosovo national football team's stadium during the qualifying matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, because the two Kosovo national football stadiums were under renovation. Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, also stated in a post on Facebook that the new Kosovo national football team will play qualifying matches for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the Loro Boriçi Stadium.

##### **The Inauguration of the Stadium**

Loro Boriçi Stadium was inaugurated with the opening match between Albania and Macedonia on 5 September 2016. Albania won the match 2-1. This was the first victory of the Albanian national football team after the stadium's reconstruction.

## Format

On the 8th of December, the EBO confirmed that 2 Semi-Finals and the final were scheduled to take place in March. There is a jury and a televote. They both decide 50% of the score. There was also a big 6 pre-qualified to the final. Those countries were the host Albania, Georgia, Finland, Serbia, Armenia and Israel.

## Participating countries

Participating countries had until 20 February 2018 to submit their applications for participation in the contest. The EBO announced on 27 February that 44 countries would participate in the contest.

## Results

### **Semi-final 1**

Nineteen countries participated in the first semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### **Semi-final 2**

Nineteen countries participated in the second semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### **Final**

\* - The song contains some phrases in English.