Gondomar, Santa Maria da Feira and Braga all wanted to serve as Eurovision 2018 host city. But on Tuesday Portugal’s RTP confirmed that Lisbon had won the gig and will welcome the world to MEO Arena next May 8, 10 and 12.

With a great transportation network and endless accommodation options, the Portuguese capital was the obvious choice. It has an international airport with its own subway station, allowing visitors to reach the city centre in less than 20 minutes.

The MEO Arena has hosted some of the biggest music concerts in the country’s history, and is located inside the stunning Parque das Nações (Park of the Nations), a free-access park that includes Europe’s longest bridge and its second-largest aquarium. It’s been heralded as “a shining model of urban regeneration” and represents the Lisbon — and now the Eurovision — of the future.

“Europe has always been plural, yet it’s legacy represents the wish for a brighter future, with one another,” an RTP representative said at the press conference, in a planned statement published early by eurovision.tv. “Portugal is a country in one of the far reaches of Europe, and strongly connected to it, but always wide opened to the sea. And the oceans can give us a hint into this idea of being intertwined. All things flow. And through them we too are connected. That has been the main key in Portugal’s history, bridging not only with the rest of Europe, but also with Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. By sea. Five hundred years ago Lisbon was the place where these sea routes departed from and arrived. And today, the city of diversity, respect and tolerance, with a society of all colours and creeds that shares the values Eurovision stands for, invites everyone to celebrate this willingness to come closer and stand united.”

Eurovision 2018 dates

Semi-Final 1: May 8, 2018

Semi-Final 2: May 10, 2018

Grand Final: May 12, 2018

Eurovision 2018 venue: MEO Arena

MEO Arena is the biggest venue in Portugal and has unrivalled experience hosting large-scale music events. With a capacity of around 20,000, it has already welcomed global superstars like Ariana Grande, Adele, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. If B can serve “Naughty Girl” there, then so can we.

Located in Parque das Nações, the venue boasts great transport links and other infrastructure to support the contest. Plus it’s literally by the river, which will help calm nervous performers and excited fans.

Parque das Nações

For journalists and bloggers covering Eurovision, and spending up to two weeks basically living at the arena, the area surrounding the venue is significant. In Malmö the venue was opposite a shopping mall, so it was easy to grab food and other essentials during the fortnight. But in Copenhagen the venue was in the middle of nowhere.

Thankfully the Parque das Nações, home to MEO Arena, has it all — from food to entertainment. From the Portuguese food at Bota Feijão to the Chinese at Old House to the some quick and delish pizza at Il Pizzarium, visitors will not be forced to eat at Mafia every day (if you were in Kyiv, you’ll know what we are talking about).

You can grab a selfie along the Ponte Vasco da Gama — Europe’s longest bridge — and buy clothes for EuroClub at the nearby Vasco da Gama Shopping Mall. The latter is an airy and bright temple to fashion with more than 170 shops, including 33 restaurants, six movie screens and a health club. Sign us up!

Are you excited about Eurovision 2018? Have you booked your hotel rooms and airline tickets? Let us know in the comments box below. 

READ MORE PORTUGAL EUROVISION 2018 NEWS

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Music is the key
Music is the key
6 years ago

Me and my (hopefully 😉 ) furture gilfriend and me will go 🙂 Will be a great time!

So happy Portugal won this year…pure delight musically…honest quality

sheba
sheba
6 years ago

@Paneleiro … City of respect and tolerance? Hahahaha what a joke!

Search what Rihanna has said about Portugal

GreenMoon
GreenMoon
6 years ago
Reply to  sheba

“about Portugal” or about an acephalous portuguese guy that insulted her? He doesn’t represent me.

Josh S.
Josh S.
6 years ago
Reply to  sheba

Wasn’t that Rihanna story a PR stunt? I’ve been to Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve, and I felt pretty well.

Actually, now that I think of it, Lisbon was one of the first places I visited where I saw several same-sex couples walking hand-to-hand on the streets with normal reactions by everyone else passing by. Porto was very nice as well. Went to a couple gay bars there and had no problems whatsoever xD

Nicola
Nicola
6 years ago

Even though I am not old enough to enter, but will you guys at Wiwibloggs be doing another competition to win tickets to Eurovision? Those videos were so heartwarming and funny.

brunowskii
brunowskii
6 years ago

Certainly Portugal is yet to work on all the visual/branding/theme things…. there are a plenty of excellent brand agencies/consultants over there and I assure you they will have something really good to present…. I mean, not only visually but also meaningful

beccaboo1212
6 years ago

Olá, Portugal!…and Lisbon, too! 😉

R
R
6 years ago

and the final of Festival da Canção is going to be in Guimarães, on the 4th of March! 🙂

L'oiseau
L'oiseau
6 years ago

Ufff!… The best decision was taken. Finally this controversy dies out and we can concentrate how the ESC is going to be. I am not so crazy about the ocean theme, though. Too much used in other international events held in Portugal and has really nothing to do with Eurovision. Hope RTP will find a better theme.

Gav
Gav
6 years ago
Reply to  L'oiseau

I thought they looked like sound waves and reflected the shape of Lisbon as well as being waves.

Gav
Gav
6 years ago

Just watched the host city video on YouTube. I thought it was very refreshing. Very clean. Very modern. Great logo – more free flowing and lighter than the past few years which felt very forced. Lots of new vides here!!!

jim
jim
6 years ago

the slogan should be “sos fast food music” and the logo will be a hamburger or a pizza
the presenter should be salvador so prepare yourselves for a lot of awkwardness and embarassment with his comments
also maybe portugal is going to ban sweden from taking part coz they are too much fast food, after all music is feelings (and farts)

No Name
No Name
6 years ago
Reply to  jim

Christer Bjorkman is that you?

GreenMoon
GreenMoon
6 years ago
Reply to  jim

I think you are obsessed with Salvador.
This subject already smells mold, try to be more creative for the next time

Alvaricomg
Alvaricomg
6 years ago
Reply to  jim

Wow you are butt hurt aren’t you? ?

azaad
azaad
6 years ago
Reply to  jim

Actually, whenever Sweden have hosted this century Portugal have opted out- do you think Sweden will return the “favour”?

Ddraven
Ddraven
6 years ago
Reply to  azaad

Sweden has already confirmed participation. At the very least, Melodifestivalen will be held in 2018.

Gariv Voge
Gariv Voge
6 years ago
Reply to  azaad

Yes I wonder if they will-that will be interesting……..

Leo Herlington
Leo Herlington
6 years ago

I loved pretty much everything about this. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the fact that Portugal and RTP are clearly not trying to immitate Sweden, Ukraine or any other previous host country.

They are going for their own identity and seem to be trying to create an Eurovision Song Contest based on Portuguese own style and strengths.

The simplicity of the watercolors and drawings were beautiful, and so was the backgound music. I’m excited!

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  Leo Herlington

I can imagine the postcards related to the sea or the river, something very different. Maybe which country would throw a bottle in the ocean with a message inside.

Frisian ESC (jr)
Frisian ESC (jr)
6 years ago

“Portugal is a country in one of the far reaches of Europe, and strongly connected to it, but always wide opened to the sea. And the oceans can give us a hint into this idea of being intertwined. All things flow. And through them we too are connected. That has been the main key in Portugal’s history, bridging not only with the rest of Europe, but also with Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. By sea. Five hundred years ago Lisbon was the place where these sea routes departed from and arrived. And today, the city of diversity, respect” Ocean… Read more »

Paul D.
Paul D.
6 years ago

I literally cannot wait! It’s going to be a memorable edition imo

Ddraven
Ddraven
6 years ago
Reply to  Paul D.

They have already announced it will be less expensive than recent years and that they are going to make it more simplistic. AKA anyone that hated Salvador/ anyone that likes visual presentations will greatly dislike next year.

Leo Herlington
Leo Herlington
6 years ago
Reply to  Ddraven

Well… Stockholm was 14M€… Kyiv was more than 30M€… I would pick Stockholm xP

Ddraven
Ddraven
6 years ago
Reply to  Leo Herlington

What I mean is, besides it probably being less than 14M, RTP is looking for far less stage tricks and visuals and for countries to opt for simplicity. I can understand where they are coming from, I just hope they won’t deny countries possibilities just for the sake of simplicity.

azaad
azaad
6 years ago
Reply to  Ddraven

Well Stockholm is one of the world’s most expensive cities and Kyiv, while not a war zone, was fairly close to one for a city hosting a major event, so perhaps that contributed to the costs? I’m not an expert on event management, but I would wager that ESC 2018 would have lower starting costs because Lisbon is a cheaper city (in financial terms only- it’s a lovely city laden with history and culture!)

AngieP
AngieP
6 years ago

No surprise here. Lisbon, do your best!

As for the logo at the end of the Eurovision channel video, I don’t know if it’s going to be the official logo, but I’d love to. I really like it!

Must say your main photo is amazing! Lisbon is so beautiful! Love the colourful buildings!

Paneleiro
Paneleiro
6 years ago

City of respect and tolerance? Hahahaha what a joke! Ask brazilians, latin americana, romanians, muslims, africans and Black people from any country how they were treated in Lisbon and in Portugal and you all will hear a horror story.

Kai
Kai
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

really EU say Portugal is 2nd best european country about integration policies to immigrants…
Portugal don´t have any problems with muslims or black people, indeed Portugal is considered the 3rd safiest and peacfull country in this world! What the hell are you talking about?!? LOL

Jake
Jake
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

They can’t be treated any worse than where they came from or they wouldn’t be there to begin, right?

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

I’ve never heard Brazilians complaining with Portugal about immigration. Maybe some few cases, but not the majority.

Melow
Melow
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

I’m from Brazil and I’ve heard numerous reports from Brazilians who visited Portugal and were discriminated because of where they come from, especially females in student exchange programs who were called “prostitutes” for being from Brazil.

Miguel
Miguel
6 years ago
Reply to  Melow

I am not from Lisbon but i studied there for 5 years.
I never heard of this, and i met a lot of brazilian students.
Also, those “females in student exchange programs” are usually rich lazy brats who just want to spend their parents money and use the program as an excuse to visit Europe (im generalizing here). That is the reason why people probably didnt like them, not because they were brazilians.
* Regular (brazilian) students are very nice people.

ol
ol
6 years ago
Reply to  Melow

that’s lies. portuguese people are just distrustful of brazillians, because many are thieves and the women wanna use men to get citizenship or live in europe. They’re always known for being gold diggers.

Melow
Melow
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

As it happens in most of Europe, the discourse of “tolerance and diversity” only applies to white, rich LGBT people.

Miguel
Miguel
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

There is some prejudice mainly against black people and gypsy in Lisbon.
But compared to most cities and countries in the world, Lisbon is a paradise!
Of course… some people will look at you in a funny way and feel uncomfortable at times, but no one will say anything or do anything. And this happens more with older generations. Young people are very openminded in Portugal. I dont think this is an issue.

Miguel
Miguel
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

Mucho menos que en cualquier otra parte de europa, paseate por el i nterior de inglaterra mira los resultados de la ultraderecha en la liberal holanda polonia o hungria sin comentarios y en estocolmo les cuesta digerir fisonomiasd el sur en su casa aunque les encante en vacaciones. Portugal en ese sentido es respetuoso en terminos generales y lisboa persigue un modelo barcelona , que no es un mal ejemplo.

ol
ol
6 years ago
Reply to  Paneleiro

your comment is a joke. first of all, portugal barely has muslims, so that makes you a liar cause you cant ask if there’s not much of them.

Denis
Denis
6 years ago

No real news here basically. Everything is as expected. The water is still wet!

Though I am sure it will be a marvelous ESC! Can’t wait ?

Felipe
Felipe
6 years ago
Reply to  Denis

Don’t say things you know know please. LOL I’m Brazilian and Lisbon is the best city to live in

NickC
NickC
6 years ago

Quelle Surprise!

Kai
Kai
6 years ago

Lisbon the 2nd oldest european capital will be a great host
Wonderfull city, unique identity it will be a great show 🙂

Fusedmarc is the real winner
Fusedmarc is the real winner
6 years ago

These dates are much better than May 1st, 3rd and 5th, great to hear it!

Ddraven
Ddraven
6 years ago

I hope I’m able to see you here next year, that would be awesome.

olvresc
olvresc
6 years ago

It’s been two months and Portugal is already a better host than Ukraine.

Ugilt DK
6 years ago

What do you guys think of the logo with waves in the end? Do you think that it’s a hint of the officiek logo/catch phrase for the ESC18? It reminds me a little of the ESC06 in Greece with the water waves/sounds frequencies…

TACV
TACV
6 years ago
Reply to  Ugilt DK

Well Portugal has a strong historical, cultural and poetic connection to the oceans and the seas, so i wouldn’t be surprised if the logo had something to do with that.

Jo
Jo
6 years ago

YOOOOODEEEL IT IN LIXXXXBOA!!!

Kalenoz
Kalenoz
6 years ago

Was that the logo they revieled on the video on Eurovision official youtube?

azaad
azaad
6 years ago

In other news, water is wet.

Still, well done to RTP for determining this quickly (I know it was Ukraine’s second time hosting so there was more genuine debate, but still)!