Europa Song Contest 7

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 7**, often referred to as **ESC 7**, was the seventh edition of the Europa Song Contest. It was held in Akranes, Iceland as it was the host's country chose Akranesvöllur while Greta Salóme was selected as the presenter.

Forty-eight countries participated in the edition including Austria, France, Slovakia, and Turkey returning with Austria after two editions, and the rest after a one-edition break. However, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Liechtenstein and Montenegro announced their withdrawal from the seventh edition.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was crowned as the winner of the edition with the song "Nisam Normalna" performed by Maya Berović. The song gathered a total of 350 points, 0 points ahead the runner-up, Serbia. Denmark finished on third place, while Germany, Andorra and Israel completed the top 6 of the edition.

## Location

For further information see Akranes**Akranes** was settled in the 9th century by the brothers Þormóður and Ketill, sons of Bresi. They came from Ireland. The town started to form in the mid-17th century as a fishing village. In 1942, it was formally chartered, and in the following years it had the biggest surge in population in its history. Industry has been a big and growing employer: a cement plant has been operated in the town since the 1950s, and an aluminum smelting plant has been in operation near the town since 1998. The fishing industry remains the town's most important source of employment, but commerce is also a significant employer as Akranes acts as a service center for a large rural region surrounding it. The town is expected to grow further in the coming years because of growing industry and improvements of transportation to the Reykjavík area, following the construction of the 5.57 km-long (3.46 mi) Hvalfjörður Tunnel which was opened in 1998, one of the world's longest underwater road tunnels. Akranes has a strong football tradition. The local team, ÍA, has for many years been among the best of the Icelandic football league. Former Sheffield Wednesdayand Arsenal midfielder Siggi Jonsson was born in Akranes and had three spells as a player with ÍA.

The Akranes Folk Museum, formerly known as the Akranes Museum Centre, consists of a folk museum, an exhibition hall and a few 19th century buildings and boats in Garðar, Akranes, Iceland. The museum houses a few exhibitions, as well as a large open-air museum, which consists mainly of houses and boats, including the old Garðar house and the 86-tonne ketch Sigurfari*.*

The main purpose of the Akranes Folk Museum is to collect, register, preserve, research and display artefacts and other objects of cultural and historical value for the Akranes area and Iceland. The Akranes Folk Museum is located at Garðar in Akranes, near the town's cemetery. It is easily accessible from Reykjavík via car or bus route 57.

### Logo and theme

The seventh edition logo of the Europa Song Contest was previously designed by George Rospier the main producer of Europa Song Contest. The main idea was to transmit something shocking, intense and energetic due to the some issues that the contest was suffering in the last edition. Overcoming those issues between all the producers and participants, led to this magnificient logo and everything is possible if you want to the *Do It All* which that's where the Support Banners was made them by the Icelandic broadcaster RÚV.

## Format

### Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 10 March 2018 in Borgarnes. 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:

* Austria
* Bosnia-Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Serbia
* Slovenia
* Estonia
* Finland
* Faroe Islands
* Ireland
* Lithuania
* Sweden
* Belarus
* Israel
* Kazakhstan
* Moldova
* Russia
 Pot 4
 * Andorra
* France
* Italy
* Monaco
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Spain
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Germany
* Luxembourg
* Netherlands
* Poland
* Malta
* Morocco
* Slovakia
* Switzerland
* Turkey
* 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 RÚV.

### Sneak peeks and betting odds

There were five sneak peeks with one to eight-nine 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.

## Participating countries

Fifty-two countries confirmed their participation for the edition. Five countries returned to the contest; Austria, France, Slovakia and Turkey.

However, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Liechtenstein and Montenegro withdrew from the edition

### Returning artists

GJan was internally selected to represent Lithuania for the second time; she previously represented the country in the first edition. Francesca Michielin, who represented San Marino in the third edition and Italy in the fifth edition, returned to represent Italy for the second time. Inna was internally selected to represent Romania for the second time; she previously represented the country in the first edition along with Marcus & Seba. The Motans was internally selected to represent Romania for the second time; they previously represented the country in the third edition along with Delia. Gülşen was selected via the national selection to represent Turkey for the second time; she previously represented the country in the first edition. Luis Cepeda, who previously represented Spain at the fourth edition as a part of OT 2017 also returned, making his solo debut.

## Results

### Semi-final 1

Twenty-one countries participate in the first semi-final. Australia, Iceland and Norway 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. FYR Macedonia, Greece and Romania also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### Final

Twenty-six countries participated in the final, with all forty eight participating countries eligible to vote.

## Voting grids

### Semi-final 1

#### 12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country in the first semi-final.

Countries in bold represent those awarded full 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to a specified entrant.

### Semi-final 2

#### 12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country in the second semi-final.

Countries in bold represent those awarded full 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to a specified entrant.

### Final

#### 12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country in the final.

Countries in bold represent those awarded full 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to a specified entrant.

## 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

* Azerbaijan: AzTV announce that the country will take one edition break but they will return in the eight edition.
* Georgia: On 17 June 2018, GPB announced that they won't return, adding that they were looking forward to participating in the eighth edition with a national selection.
* Latvia: LTV announce that the country will participate in the seventh edition, but later Latvia was forced to withdraw.
* Lebanon: Télé Liban announce that the country will not participate in this edition, a possible returning in the eighth edition.
* Liechtenstein: On 7 June 2018, 1FLT announced that the country will participate in the seventh edition but on 6 July 2018, one day before the pre-qualification round, the broadcaster announced that the country will withdraw after the poor results in the previous editions.
* Montenegro: RTCG announce that the country will represented by Slavko Kalezić with the song "Sudnji Dan", but later the country announce that they won't participate.