Europa Song Contest 8

Final date
 Venue
 Interval act
 Entries
 Debuting
 Returning
**Participation map**
* Participating countries     Did not qualify from the semi final or the PQR     Countries that participated in the past but not this edition
 System
 Winner

**Europa Song Contest 8**, often referred to as **ESC 8**, was the eighth edition of the Europa Song Contest. The contest was hosted in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, after Maya Berović won the seventh edition of the contest with "Nisam Normalna". It was the first time that Bosnia and Herzegovina hosted the contest. BHRT chose Olympic Hall in Sarajevo as the host venue for the edition while Seka Aleksić was selected as the presnter.

Forty-seven countries participated in the edition. Austria, Bulgaria, withdrew from the edition while Azerbaijan, Latvia and Montenegro returned after their one-edition absence and Georgia after two editions.

## Location

For further information see Sarajevo**Sarajevo** is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its current administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area, including Sarajevo Canton, East Sarajevo and nearby municipalities is home to 555,210 inhabitants. Nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alpsand situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans.

Sarajevo is the political, social and cultural center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a prominent center of culture in the Balkans, with its region-wide influence in entertainment, media, fashion, and the arts.

Due to its long and rich history of religious and cultural diversity, Sarajevo is sometimes called the "Jerusalem of Europe" or "Jerusalem of the Balkans". It is one of only a few major European cities which have a mosque, Catholic church, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighborhood. A regional center in education, the city is also home to the Balkans' first institution of tertiary education in the form of an Islamic polytechnic called the Saraybosna Osmanlı Medrese, today part of the University of Sarajevo.

## Format

### Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 26 August 2018 in Sarajevo. The big 6 countries were then drawn to determine in which semi-final each would country vote. The rest of the forty countries were divided into six pots, based on their geographical place. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final and half of the semi-final was determined.

The six pots were the following:

* Croatia
* FYR Macedonia
* Montenegro
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Switzerland
* Finland
* Iceland
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Norway
* Armenia
* Azerbaijan
* Georgia
* Kazakhstan
* Russia
 Pot 4
 * Belgium
* France
* Luxembourg
* Monaco
* Netherlands
* Portugal
* Spain
* Greece
* Italy
* Malta
* Morocco
* San Marino
* Turkey
* Czech Republic
* Hungary
* Moldova
* Romania
* Poland
* United Kingdom

### Running order

The running order of the semi-finals and the final of the edition was by producers appointed by both the EBU and the host broadcaster BHRT.

### Sneak peeks and betting odds

There were five sneak peeks with one to eight countries in each sneak peek. The countries were divided into the sneak peeks according to the order of the songs announcement with the songs that were announced first being in the first sneak peek. The broadcasters can post their result for each of the sneak peeks ranking the songs from first to last.

The betting odds of the edition are based on the rankings in the sneak peeks. The average rank of each country represented the country's odds to win the contest. After all 6 sneak peeks were released to the public, Croatia was on the lead of the edition with an average rank of 1.63 while Italy and the hosts, Bosnia and Herzegovina completed the top 3 with average ranks of 3.09 and 3.15 respectively. The least favorite country to win this edition was Armenia with an average rank of 6.56.

## Participating countries

Forty-seven countries confirmed their participation for the edition. Four countries returned to the contest; Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia and Montenegro.

However, Austria, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands, Ireland and Sweden withdrew from the edition

### Returning artists

Hayko was internally selected to represent Armenia for the second time; he previously represented the country in the seventh edition along with Super Sako. Samira Efendi, who represented Azerbaijan in the sixth edition, returned to represent Azerbaijan for the second time. Nikolija, who represented Serbia in the seventh edition, returned to represent Croatia for the first time. Abir was internally selected to represent Morocco for the second time; she previously represented the country in the seventh edition. Maya Berović was internally selected to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina for the second time; she previously represented the country in the seventh edition and she won. Bobi Andonov who represented FYR Macedonia in the seventh edition, returned to represent Australia for the first time. The Motans who represented Romania in the third edition and in the seventh edition, returned to represent Moldova for the first time.

## Results

### Semi-final 1

Twenty countries participate in the first semi-final. Andorra, Denmark and Germany also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### Semi-final 2

Twenty-one countries participate in the second semi-final. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel and Serbia also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final

## Other countries

*Further information: List of countries in the Europa Song Contest*
Countries that are active members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are also eligible to participate in the Europa Song Contest. As in every edition, an invitation to all the members have been sent in order to confirm whether they will participate or not. The following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below.

### Active EBU Members

* Austria: ORF announced that the country will take one edition break a return in the ninth edition is possible.
* Bulgaria: BNT announced that the country won't take part in the eighth edition after the poor results in the previous editions.
* Faroe Islands: Kringvarp Føroya announced that the country will take one edition break a return in the ninth edition is possible.
* Ireland: RTÉ announce that the country will withdraw from the eighth edition.
* Lebanon: Télé Liban announce that the country will not participate in this edition.
* Liechtenstein: 1FLT announced that the country won't return in the conteest a return in the ninth edition is very likely.
* Sweden: The country miss the deadline so SVT was forced to withdraw.