Eurovision Song Contest 2018

The **Eurovision Song Contest 2018** was the 63rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place for the first time in Lisbon, Portugal, following the country's first victory at the 2017 contest in Kiev with the song "Amar pelos dois", performed by Salvador Sobral. The contest consisted of two semi-finals and a final held on 8, 10 and 12 May 2018 respectively.

No country made its debut or withdrew from competing while Russia returned after withdrawing from the 2017 edition, following the ban of their representative from entering Ukraine, host country of 2017 contest.

It was won by Netta Barzilai who represented her home country Israel with the song "Toy". This was the country's fourth victory, coming 20 years after their previous win.

## Location

### Venue

 File:440px-Pavilhão Atlântico - dynamosquito.jpg

### Key

 Gondomar
 Guimarães

## Format

**Semi-final allocation draw**

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals will take place on 29 January 2018, . The thirty-seven semi-finalists have been allocated into six pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest's official televoting partner Digame. Drawing from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called "bloc voting" and increase suspense in the semi-finals.

* Croatia
* North Macedonia
* Montenegro
* Serbia
* Slovenia
* Switzerland
* Finland
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Norway
* Sweden
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Georgia
* Russia
 Pot 4
 * Bulgaria
* Cyprus
* Greece
* Hungary
* Moldova
* Romania
* Austria
* Czech Republic
* Israel
* Malta
* San Marino
* Estonia
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Netherlands
* Poland

## Participants

### Returning artists

 Alexander Rybak | Represented his home country of Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow and gave the country its third win with the highest amount of winning points under the old voting system.

### Semi Final 1

 Portugal,  Spain and  United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. The countries highlighted qualified for the final:

### Semi Final 2

 France,  Germany and  Italy voted in this semi-final. The countries highlighted qualified for the final:

## Incidents

### Chinese broadcaster censorship

During the Chinese broadcast of the first semi-final on Mango TV, both Albania and Ireland were edited out of the show, along with their snippets in the recap of all 19 entries. Albania was skipped due to a ban on television performers displaying tattoos that took effect in January 2018 while Ireland was censored due to its representation of a homosexual couple on-stage. A spokesperson for the broadcaster's parent company Hunan TV said they "weren't aware" of the edits made to the programme but nonetheless the EBU terminated its contract with Mango TV. Ireland's representative, Ryan O'Shaughnessy told the BBC in an interview, "they haven't taken this lightly and I think it's a move in the right direction, so I'm happy about it."

### Stage invasion

During the United Kingdom's performance, a protester ran onto the stage and grabbed the microphone from the nation's representative SuRie, which left her shaken. The man was quickly tackled by security and taken away. She was given the opportunity to perform the song again after the other acts had performed, which she declined.