Eurovision Song Contest 2018: The Official Winner Is Announced, Plus, All The Controversies And Successes
The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 has come and gone already in a flurry of sequins, power ballads, and controversies, as well as the usual sheer quirkiness. So, who is the winner? The results are below.
While music streaming service Deezer released their early predictions on who would win the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 using their own data of the most streamed Eurovision songs on their service this year, the official voting gave a different result.
It came down to the wire with the public voting. The final two countries to receive the public vote were Cyprus and Israel, the two hot favorites leading into the grand final. But it was Israel who went on to take the title for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with Netta’s performance of “TOY.”
The top five results are below.
- Israel: “TOY” by Netta (529 points)
- Cyprus: “Fuego” by Eleni Foureira (436 points)
- Austria: “Nobody by You” by Cesar Sampson (342 points)
- Germany: “You Let Me Walk Alone” by Michael Schulte (308 points)
- Italy: “Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente” by Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro (308 points).
You can view the full set of results via Eurovision’s official website.
Portugal’s winner from Eurovision 2017, Salvador Sobral, performed his 2017 winning song, “Amar Pelos Dois,” as well as a new number during the voting phase of Eurovision 2018. As the BBC reported, Sobral had a heart transplant late last year after suffering from a long-term heart condition. For those watching the Eurovision Song Contest this year, it was impossible to know he undertook such a massive surgery so recently.
Along with the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 being announced, the grand final had a security breech when a man ran on stage during SuRie’s performance of “Storm.” The UK contestant was belting out her number when a man ran on stage, security close behind. He still had time to rip the microphone from her hand and say some words in a language other than English before security wrestled him off the stage. While given the option, SuRie declined performing again at the end of the competition and before voting lines opened. After the incident, it was anticipated the voting public would support her by voting. In the end, the public vote ended up contributing 25 points to their final tally.
Also, the Czech Republic’s Mikolas Josef, who injured his back during an early rehearsal of his dance hit, “Lie to Me,” surprised the audience by performing the same flip that caused him the initial injury. He did not attempt this during his semi-final qualifying performance, so the audience were not expecting the attempt. This time, it went ahead without a hitch.
Meanwhile, in China, when its official broadcaster decided to censor the program, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is behind the Eurovision Song Contest, decided to cancel their partnership. As a result, this effectively prevents Mango TV from airing the remainder of this year’s song contest according to the BBC. Some of the censorship issues included the Chinese network not airing Ireland’s performance because it included two male dancers and Albania because of their tattoos. The EBU used the fact that these forms of censorship did not fall within their values of diversity as reason to cancel the partnership. They released the following statement on the matter.
“It is with regret that we will therefore immediately be terminating our partnership with the broadcaster and they will not be permitted to broadcast the second Semi-Final or the Grand Final.”
