Forty-three acts will compete at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, but there can only be one winner. To help you make an informed decision about where to cast your vote, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has previewed and reviewed each of this year’s acts. It’s hard work being honest, but somebody has to do it.
Our jury consists of 20 jurors who hail from Australia, Bulgaria, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, the United Kingdom. We are truly international, y’all!
Each juror assesses each song independently and then awards each song a score from 0 to 10. The highest and lowest scores are then dropped to determine the Wiwi Jury average.
Reviews were made in March 2018 and are based on available versions of the songs at that time. As always, Wiwi Jury reviews will not be changed to reflect new information from pre-party performances or the Eurovision rehearsals.
Eurovision 2018 reviews and rankings
- Israel: Netta Barzilai – “Toy” (8.61)
- Belgium: Sennek – “A Matter of Time” (8.11)
- Finland: Saara Aalto – “Monsters” (8.06)
- Bulgaria: Equinox – “Bones” (7.94)
- Austria: Cesár Sampson – “Nobody But You” (7.78)
- Sweden: Benjamin Ingrosso – “Dance You Off” (7.75)
- Czech Republic: Mikolas Josef – “Lie to Me” (7.72)
- Spain: Alfred & Amaia – “Tu canción” (7.69)
- Estonia: Elina Netšajeva – “La forza” (7.67) *
- France: Madame Monsieur – “Mercy” (7.67) *
- Cyprus: Eleni Foureira – “Fuego” (7.61)
- FYR Macedonia: Eye Cue – “Lost and Found” (7.58)
- Ukraine: Mélovin – “Under the Ladder” (7.47)
- The Netherlands: Waylon – “Outlaw in ‘Em” (7.28)
- Azerbaijan: Aisel – “X My Heart” (7.22)
- Portugal: Cláudia Pascoal – “O jardim” (7.19)
- Italy: Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro – “Non mi avete fatto niente” (7.17)
- Australia: Jessica Mauboy – “We Got Love” (7.03)
- Hungary: AWS – “Viszlát nyár” (6.97)
- Greece: Yianna Terzi – “Oneiro mou” (6.94)
- Albania: Eugent Bushpepa – “Mall” (6.89)
- Germany: Michael Schulte – “You Let Me Walk Alone” (6.75)
- Slovenia: Lea Sirk – “Hvala, ne!” (6.58)
- Switzerland: Zibbz – “Stones” (6.50) *
- Serbia: Sanja Ilic & Balkanika – “Nova deca” (6.50) *
- Latvia: Laura Rizzotto – “Funny Girl” (6.47)
- Armenia: Sevak Khanagyan – “Qami” (6.39)
- Poland: Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer – “Light Me Up” (6.36) *
- Belarus: Alekseev – “Forever” (6.36) *
- Malta: Christabelle – “Taboo” (6.31)
- Croatia: Franka Batelic – “Crazy” (6.19)
- Denmark: Rasmussen – “Higher Ground” (6.17)
- Moldova: DoReDos – “My Lucky Day” (6.08)
- United Kingdom: SuRie – “Storm” (5.97)
- Lithuania: Ieva Zasimauskaite – “When We’re Old” (5.83)
- Russia: Julia Samoylova – “I Won’t Break” (5.75)
- Ireland: Ryan O’Shaughnessy – “Together” (5.67)
- Norway: Alexander Rybak – “That’s How You Write a Song” (5.44)
- Montenegro: Vanja Radovanovic – “Inje” (5.19)
- Romania: The Humans – “Goodbye” (4.94)
- Georgia: Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao – “For You” (4.86)
- San Marino: Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening – “Who We Are” (4.11)
- Iceland: Ari Ólafsson – “Our Choice” (3.83)
* Ties are broken by preferential vote.
RELATED LINKS
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2017 reviews and rankings
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2016 reviews and rankings
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2015 reviews and rankings
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2014 reviews and rankings
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2013 reviews and rankings
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2012 reviews and rankings
I’m amazed how low quality taste has Europe for music these days. Is this a circus or a song contest? Because I simply don’t see a lot of quality in the winning song. In the same time quality songs with great live performances and really strong messages has disappeared in the final chart. I don’t want to offend anyone but Moldova and Denmark in top 10?????????? Are you for real? In 2018?
Hello you people how is Australia in Europe? Eurovision is such a load of crap , all the countries that are next to each over vote for eatchother, their songs are rubbish and they still win. Can someone tell the presenters that Australia is not in Europe , stuipid women
I’m afraid this is not the case 🙂 Bulgaria, for example, took 0 points from its neighbors as usual
Israel 12 points
Since 2013 whoever wins Wiwi Jury, doesn’t win Eurovision
and 2018 #1 winner was spot on! Well done!
I’ve done some 15 minutes research and top views on Youtube are as follows:
1. Spain-20.5 mil ( video +live, TV
2.Italy-19 mil
3. Israel 16 mil
4. Belarus 11.9 mil ( both versions, Engish and Russian, both have vieuwers from all over)
5.Greece 10 mil
6.France 9.4mil
Wiwi top has:
1.Israel- 16 mil
2.Belgium 1.9 mil
3. Finland 4.2 mil
4. Bulgaria 3.5 mil
5. Austria 1.1 mil
6. Sweden 4.7 mil
It’ll be decided in May in Lisbon but some numbers are hard to dismiss.
In the end it all comes to personal taste isn’t it ?
It’s time for my ‘douze points’, based on what we know as of today.
I’ve noticed it changes the night itself because staging does a lot.
It’s purely based on what I like (I don’t do geopolitics at this contest:)):
Russia 1 point
Ukraine 2 points
Finland 3 points
Macedonia 4 points
Germany 5 points
Hungary 6 points
Belgium 7 points
Greece 8 points
Estonia 10 points
and finally Bulgaria 12 points.
Let’s all enjoy the contest ! And RIP Avicii…
Thanks for putting all your time and effort into these reviews Wiwibloggs; they have really helped me to not only gain an overview of how ‘music unprofessionals’ feel about every song, but also to develop my own opinion by taking your thoughts into consideration. However, there’s also been one thing that I have wanted to ask about: what does it mean at the bottom of each review when it says, “but [we] only have room for six reviews.” I understand that the written reviews do show a fair representation, but I just want to know why this is. Are people’s… Read more »
OK, thanks for the reply – I can now sleep peacefully.
Very overrated: Belgium, Sweden, Czechia, Spain, Ukraine, Portugal.
Very underrated: Azerbaijan, Hungary, Greece, Australia, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Lithuania, Russia, Ireland, Romania.
Now that all of Wiwi’s scores are up, I thought I’d waste some time and do some quick statistics comparing 2018 to all years in the Wiwi Jury past (2012-2017). BY MEAN SCORE — 1. 2018 (6.67) 2. 2015 (6.37) 3. 2016 (6.29 with Romania, 6.34 without) 4. 2017 (6.25 with Russia, 6.27 without) 5. 2014 (6.09) 6. 2013 (5.86) 7. 2012 (5.52) BY HIGHEST SCORE — 1. 2012 (9.25) 2. 2017 (8.96) 3. 2016 (8.7) 4. 2018 (8.61) 5. 2014 (8.56) 6. 2015 (8.50) 7. 2013 (8.36) BY MEDIAN SCORE — 1. 2018 (6.75) 2. 2016 (6.59 with Romania,… Read more »
Disagree with Israel first but it was to be expected I guess (gays and divas lol). At least it’s a song with a message (thinking of Cyprus and Azerbaijan). I really thought wiwi was gonna give it to Bulgaria… Well it doesn’t matter much, as seen by these two last years, fan voting is often miles away from the general audience.
Italy 17, Belarus 29, Hungary 19… What you hear? We hear the same songs? I can’t believe it.
Italy 17?! REALLY?! XD
I love you, Wiwibloggs, but like all this years except 2012 I am SO dissagree (o como se escriba) with you…
Se escriba: I disagree with you completely
Y yo tambien jaja
Loi mismo
Feminism is not a joke. It makes me sad Toy: banalization of things that affect women of all the world with insults and chickens it’s the saddest thing I ever see in this contest.
Now that the wiwi jury top is known, we know the odds of Israel actually winning come finale night got worse, and by winning OGAE, even more unlikely. So then, who is left that can win?
I’m betting either Belgium, France, or Italy, – and possibly Bulgaria.
But those are just my guesses- and nothing but guess.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a year where the winner is so unclear. A lot of songs are solid.
Russia is higher than Norway? Whaaat??
Is this an autotune contest?
No, Alexander just sent in a genuine disappointment of a song.
I mean, it’s not an AWFUL song- but we know what kind of music he’s capable of making and this song is below average for him.
Oh, really. Belgium is better than Bulgaria, Estonia, Ukraine? I don’t think so.
My top 5 is
1. Bulgaria
2. Ukraine
3. Switzerland
4. Estonia
5. France
I think that everything will change after live performances in Lisbon.
It will. The ones that need to qualify have 4 performances they need to be at their best and the big 5 and Portugal need 2 stellar performances to end on top. We have not seen all acts live and that might shift things a lot. Than there is the staging that always has an impact. Mans would probably not have won without his and Russia possibly lost by over-staging the next year. Finally we have the mood-factor. It’s hard to predict what mood a major part of Europe will be in and that affects the outcome a lot. Is… Read more »
FOR SURE: AUSTRIA, BELGIUM AND SWEDEN DONT TAKE TOP 5 IN THIS YEAR, DONT DESERVE IT
Wow, this ranking! Austria at #3, Spain at #6 and Belarus at #27?! You guys are living in a parallel universe!
If Finland comes first…
Im sorry but Equinox has a waaay better song than Sennek :/ Also her live performance…
her performance in amsterdam was better than in Israel so that’s a plus.
i do believe she will improve espcially on the big day
HER DESAFINATION IS REAL ALWAYS. SHE CANT SING THAT SONG
Her WHAT now? What are you trying to say?
“Desafination” isn’t a real English word. It doesn’t mean anything.
No Equinox do not have a better song than Sennek. At most, they have a more high impact song because of the harmonies in the voices and 5 singers. But Belgium has class.
yesc class and desafination
Had you listen to her performance in Amsterdam you would have seen she was only out of tune in Israel.
No mention of her horrible live vocals whatsoever. I do think she can improve but if you’re going to rank some entries based on bad vocals showcased in live performances such as the NF ones, then do it for everyone. Or just rank everyone based on studio. *cough cough* Belarus.
Your bias is showing again
As explained elsewhere this ranking is established somewhere in March I believe and they are not allowed to modify their votes later on depending on live performances or other occurrences.
At leats the rules are clear.
Austria second?, byeeee
Sameee
And Bulgaria is just 0.16 points ahead…
Don’t understand that either. But I doubt that it’s been anyone’s fav, so while it does and will do good with juries ranking all of the songs, it will likely fail in the televote just like Austria, Australia and Denmark last year.
And actually I think the same about Belgium, although it gets even more hype in the bubble. Some people say that the Czech Republic could be a surprising non-qualifier but I can rather see that happening to Belgium and Austria is far from safe.
Can’t understand the high ratings of so many songs. As with most years many of the songs are pretty ordinary but are really hyped up in the reviews. Sweden in the lead doesn’t make sense to me also, but then Sweden never seems to do wrong in Eurovision land, regardless of the quality of the song!
Thank you Wiwibloggs…this Song is perfekt and Cesar’s Voice is perfekt…and he goes straight Tod the Final
Thank you Wiwibloggs…this Song is perfekt and Cesar’s Voice is perfekt…
Is Wiwibloggs saving the best for last ?
they are doing a countdown.
I will never understand Robyn’s reviews. She gives Fuego a 8.5, and this just over a 5.
ok.
I actually always agree with her lol
I have a completely different taste as well. Same goes for Deban… I’m mostly with William…
My current thoughts on Wiwi jury’s scores thus far: Very overrated by Wiwi jury: Azerbaijan, Moldova
Somewhat overrated by Wiwi jury: Spain, Cyprus, Ukraine, Netherlands, Latvia
Somewhat underrated by Wiwi jury: Italy, Lithuania, Ireland, Romania
Very underrated by Wiwi jury: Greece, Georgia
Everything else is just about right
I don’t know… I see Spain either winning the final because many will just feel the emotion of the song, or ending way in the bottom. I can’t see any other option for Spain this year (unless theres a huge public/jury split).
I guess it will be something like this:
1. Israel (9+)
2. France
3. Finland
4. Bulgaria
5. Australia
6. Spain
not sure about czech rep and sweden
What happened to all the jurors? Last year there were 38, and now we’ve dropped down to just 20. I would prefer a larger sample size, but I guess there must be a reason for this…
Shamful that the masterpic from Estonia is just 0.06 ahead of Cyprus among wiwiblogg reviewers. REALLY????
The song is a bit divisive; not everyone is into opera. Some people really love it and others don’t, but they respect her talent. The result is an average score.
The Cyprus result is a bit shameful indeed. The most respected esc fan site collectively endorses a “diva” who may or not be able to sing live, a song with no special meaning, which she did not compose and in fact was made for another artist to sing. To me this is the most fast food song of the year, acceptable yes, fun at times sure, but not for top 15, less alone number 2 (at the moment).
Cheer up, mate! Cyprus may “just” offer a happy song but it’s a great one. And you know what? It makes me smile and I think that’s an excellent thing. I will happily listen to it now as well as after the contest. It brings me joy. What’s wrong with that? You like Estonia and think she’s da bomb. Cool. She happens to be #26 on my list. We just have different tastes and appreciate different things. Oh, and also: if she turns out to be a screaming mess on the night she will be suitably punished in terms of… Read more »
As I said, I like the song. But in the upbeat songs section, FYR of Macedonia, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden are all above that one. For my taste that is. And they all seem much better artists than Eleni. Last, I did use more arguments than the can se he sing, cant she.
But that’s just the thing. The jury isn’t a device for speculation on live vocal potential or the final package. It’s a judgement on the studio cuts of these songs. Cyprus’ studio cut is good, and assessing it based on its studio cut alone, its position makes complete sense. If things fall apart in Lisbon, the coverage there will most likely testify to that, but if all they have to judge the song right now is the clean, studio version, the marks will show the quality of what is available to them.
I agree, for me, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Slovenia are highly overrated in this list, and Denmark, Lithuania and Norway are underrated.
Norway or Alexander?
For me the answer to that is pretty simple.
Have you ever listened to just the instrumental of “La Forza” by itself? Without the singing.
Yeah…
Well I know you are biased against Rybak, Norway and don’t get it is a song written to be performed in a family show on TV. Well, there are of course more interesting songs.I am happy you put Switzeland up, because I really liked them in London, but Lithuania should be further up here.
Who chose this boring order for score reveal? It seems that one country keeps getting added on top, one in middle, one at the bottom!
So we already know that none of the ones which are already up are near the top!
Why not choose a more random order?
The preferential vote means that the song that came out on top had more top scores, isn’t it?
Macedonia first???? Azerbaijan third???? Ahead of entries like Denmark, Croatia, Poland, Latvia, Malta, Serbia and Armenia?! Gosh…….
CONGRATS WIWIS MACEDONIA FIRST ANS NORWAY LAST THIS IS HOW MUS TO BE. FELICIDADES BIEN VOTADO.
Hi guys! I’m running a poll about Eurovision 2018! The first step (the semi-finals) is already done but you can still vote in the most important part: the Grand Final!
Find out who qualified and vote here:
https://goo.gl/forms/ZbTha4pf7U9FETNd2
wiwibloggs is just that a load of blogg nonsense
has anyone looked at last years results and compared them to this nonsense forum and jury set up by this site
there is no need for this –
Your comment is worse nonsense. That’s like saying that everyone’s top should be the same with the final results. Looks like you are not celebrating diversity!
Why Lithuania still haven’t got its review video ?
Is there a way to upvote this comment? Because it needs to be seen and the question needs to be answered. There are now five reviews up that don’t have a corresponding review video. It’s not like they require heavy editing. They’re one take on a couch in someone’s flat!
These are just their opinions, far far away from the Eurovision reality. In 2017 their winner Italy ended up on the 6th spot in the grand final, same as their 9th place (Israel) = 24th in the grand final. Others, like FYR Macedonia (5), Finland (7), Estonia (11) or Serbia (12) didn’t even make it to the final… Romania (31) ended up on 7th place in the 2017 grand final, while the actual winner, Portugal was on #29 in this wiwi jury chart, so….that being said, things will be completely different in May. Good luck to everyone!
The huge difference between the Wiwibloggs jurors and the Eurovision way of rating the songs is the fact that the Wiwi jurors are invalidating each other. If one of them gives an 8 to a song and other gives it a 4, that song has just a 6. In Eurovision is about winning points. It doesn’t matter if you have a huge amount of invalidating people if you also have a huge amount of people that are voting for you. I was surprised to see that Romania was just 31st (as you say) last year on Wiwibloggs. But the explanation… Read more »
That’s interesting, but I like the rating system too, maybe even much more. I was just saying it isn’t very relevant as an indicator for the contest. I think you should do both.