Final results

[voting results entered at ~11.30pm GMT / 6.30pm ET on May 12th 2018. My predictions shown in brackets]

1. Israel ‘TOY’ (2)
2. Cyprus ‘Fuego’ (1)
3. Austria ‘Nobody But You’ (x)
4. Germany ‘You Let Me Walk Alone’ (4)
5. Italy ‘Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente’ (x)

My predictions (actual placing shown in brackets):

1. Cyprus ‘Fuego’ (2)
2. Israel ‘TOY’ (1)
3. Ireland ‘Together’ (16)
4. Germany ‘You Let Me Walk Alone’ (4)
5. France ‘Mercy’ (13)

So I missed Austria and Italy completely, but got the first two (albeit reversed) and predicted three of the top four.

Of the soft predictions:

• The Danes’ ‘Higher Ground’ (my personal favourite) will do well, but won’t win.
  CORRECT. Denmark came 9th (of 26)
• Finland’s ‘Monsters’ will be in the top half of the voting.
  WRONG. Finland were 25th out of 26!
• The Netherlands’ competent and enjoyable US country-rock ‘Outlaw in ‘Em’ will get some votes but will be in the bottom half.
  CORRECT. 18th of 26.
• The Estonian operatics won’t do well.
  WRONG. Estonia were 8th of 26.
• The Hungarian metalheads will get crucified. Which will probably suit them just fine.
  CORRECT. Hungary were 21st out of 26.

Predictions

[Written at at 10:19pm GMT (5:19pm ET) on May 12th 2018, before voting begins]. As always, I’ll leave the predictions here permanently, and post the real results when the voting is complete.

1. Cyprus ‘Fuego’
2. Israel ‘TOY’
3. Ireland ‘Together’
4. Germany ‘You Let Me Walk Alone’
5. France ‘Mercy’

Soft predictions:

• The Danes’ ‘Higher Ground’ (my personal favourite) will do well, but won’t win.
• Finland’s ‘Monsters’ will be in the top half of the voting.
• The Netherlands’ competent and enjoyable US country-rock ‘Outlaw in ‘Em’ will get some votes but will be in the bottom half.
• The Estonian operatics won’t do well.
• The Hungarian metalheads will get crucified. Which will probably suit them just fine.

Intro

Welcome to the 2018 Eurovision live musicology blog, now in its eighth year. This site has provided live music analysis of the ESC final every year since 2011, previously during the UK live broadcast. Since 2016, the text has been written from Boston USA, 5 hours behind UK time and, this year, also the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal, where the live show takes place. [Read more…]