If there’s one word to describe Portugal’s organisation of Eurovision this year it’s efficient. And that has continued with the filming of the postcards — the little intro clips that are broadcast just before each country’s performance in the semi-finals and grand-final.
Way before each of the 43 countries had confirmed their acts and songs RTP were already getting on with things. Over the past month or so they’ve been inviting all the acts to come out to Lisbon and film their postcard.
Back in October last year RTP revealed details of what we could expect from the postcards. They’ve been funded by Portugal’s tourism board, who are flying in all of the contestants and filming them in different parts of Portugal.
It’s a similar theme to the Eurovision 2015 postcards, when Austrian broadcaster ORF filmed each act receiving a mysterious package in their hometown, which led them to completing a task in Austria, based around culture, sports, economics and science themes, both modern and traditional.
The acts and delegations have been filling up our Instagram and Facebook feeds with pictures of their various trips to Portugal. So here’s a look at some of our favourite pictures of their visits and a sneak peak into what the acts got up to. Get ready for some holiday picture envy!
Albania – Eugent Bushpepa
Eugent took to the canals of Aveiro back in late February. He noted that “Aveiro is a very warm and friendly city. I was amazed by the colors, the architecture, the nature and the combination of all these elements. I was inspired with such simplicity and diversity!”
Para disa ditesh Eugenti ishte ne Portugali, ne qytetin Aveiro per te xhiruar kartolinen e Eurosong-ut. Ai u shpreh "…
Posted by Eurovision Albania on Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Austria – Cesár Sampson
Cesár was one of the first acts to film his postcard. He headed to Monsato, where he took to the hills to do a bit of mountain biking and soak in the stunning Portuguese landscape.
Belarus – Alekseev
Alekseev took this snap during his time in Lisbon in front of the statue of King José I, found in Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square).
Belgium – Sennek
Sennek (aka Laura Groeseneken) filmed her postcard in the Port of Lisbon, where she took in the fresh sea breeze and sunshine.
Cyprus – Eleni Foureira
Eleni is the most recent Eurovision 2018 star to take the trip to Portugal. She joined one of the country’s most esteemed chefs, Justa Nobre, to cook up some local delicacies with fresh Portuguese ingredients.
Czech Republic – Mikolas Josef
Mikolas travelled to Podence, Macedo de Cavaleiros, where he got into the carnival spirit and dressed up in traditional attire to dance the day away.
MIKI ? je zp?t z Ukrajiny, kde p?edvedl super vystoupení ? a Portuglaska , kde nato?il vizitku ? P?ivezl si spoustu…
Posted by Eurovision Song Contest Czech Republic on Saturday, February 17, 2018
Denmark – Rasmussen
Taking a look around the Palace of Mafra, Rasmussen got to experience Portugal’s beautiful architecture during his trip to the country.
France – Madame Monsieur
Rocking their trademark black outfits and red trainers, Madame Monsieur joined in with some traditional Portuguese folk singing whilst in Lisbon.
Georgia – Iriao
Iriao were in Lisbon earlier in February, where they dressed up in blue karate kimonos and celebrated Chinese New Year with Portugal’s Chinese community.
Posted by IRIAO on Saturday, February 10, 2018
Hungary – AWS
After filming their postcard in Óbidos, Hungary’s AWS took some time to relax by the pool and used a drone to film their stunning surroundings.
Malta – Christabelle
Christabelle got friendly with the local animals while in Alter do Chão. She appeared to take a particular liking to this stunning beauty named Tufo.
Montenegro – Vanja Radovanovic
Vanja took the time to visit one of Lisbon’s flea markets, no doubt trying to find his next amazing jacket and trouser combo.
Serbia – Sanja Ilic & Balkanika
Sanja Ilic & Balkanika took to the streets of Porto to film their postcard, where they are shown using a red wooden door. Interestingly, as seen above, many of the other acts also appear to have filmed scenes with them walking through similar doors. Could each act be travelling to Lisbon Narnia-style through these mystical doors?
First stop – Porto! ? Postcard recording is all about exploring Portugal and we love it. ???? #postcard #recording…
Posted by Eurovision Song Serbia on Saturday, March 10, 2018
No doubt more of this year’s acts will be heading to Portugal to film their postcards over the next few weeks. Though something tells us that Australia’s Jessica Mauboy might have to wait until closer to the date of the contest to film hers.
What do you think of this year’s postcard theme? Who’s postcard do you think is shaping up to be the best? Where do you think the remaining acts will film theirs? Let us know all in the comments section below!
Madame Monsieur weren’t in Lisbon, but in Viana do Castelo.
I like they seem to have a concept. There are doors involved right there. Hope for sth a little bit different from what we usually see. Also, happy to see several places of Portugal!
The Azores islands is the best, this year.
I really don’t like it when countries turn Eurovision into an hours-long tourism commercial. I understand that you want to show off your culture and history but there is a way you can do that without using the postcards. I think the postcards should be a time where you get to know the artists and see where they are coming from. You form a connection and with them and you see them as people, not just musicians singing a song.
The original purpose of the postcards was to promote the host country, not to introduce artists. They are doing both here so it’s fine
Look how tastes are different, I like when postcards promote host country, it’s interesting:D Postcards which shows artist life and interests looks to me a bit cringe and artificial, tbh 😛 Though my favorite postcard from last year is F. Gabbani’s, funny and smart playing with nation stereotypes.
You’re right, tastes are very different. Can I ask what is cringe and artificial to you?
The thing is are we really see their true personalities in those 30 seconds? Maybe I’m wrong, but I better see their personalities when they perform and during interviews. If you would ask me to describe my life in 30 seconds, first I will laugh, and then I will point out just few good and positive sides, like in CV 😛 But, don’t mind me, it’s just my personal impression.
But are they really introducing the artists though? Are we really getting to see their personalities? Or are they doing things they would never really do but were asked to do for this occasion?
Quite the contrary – ESC should be about the country hosting, not another X-Factor dramedy show.
ESC isn’t just about the country hosting though. It’s about all the nations and the artists. Getting to know the artists wouldn’t make it another X-Factor show.
Also, these pre-parties are very good way to introduce and get to know artists.
It’s enough the way it is – interacting with the host country on this way hence win-win. I don’t wanna watch a X-Factor show. I already hate those.
I agree that the whole approach is too conservative and classical (although better than Turkey or Azerbeijan). But I’d rather they would user a more creative concept to show not only the landscape but traces of culture and way of life. For me Sweden 2000 is still to be beaten. The best combination would be to use the Swedish concept but with the artists, which is always interesting.
Interesting choice for the Chec Republic!
Rasmussen’s photo is awesome!
Hopefully there won’t be much more shot in Lisbon, six already!
Unfortunately, 16 postcards sould be filmed in Lisbon…
I liked the postcard when the guy from Iceland wrestles the guy from Belarus
Saara Aalto will film her postcard and she said that 2 hours ago.
France postcard was shoot in Guimarães, not Lisbon
Beautiful country and great host! They should have won before ehehhehe
Sorry but no. It was actually in Viana do Castelo.
Ok is similar to the old paços do concelho de guimarães..however is not lisbon, im sorry
Indeed, it’s not Lisbon. I picked it up on it as well. 🙂
The -ba desinence means ‘to Lisbon’, ‘Lisbon’ alone is just Liszabon.
It also seems that Mikolas brought a nasty “souvenir” from his trip – bronchitis. Poor guy. But he’s alright now – he had a interview in a radio and sounded ok.
Does anyone know when the 3 minute version of Mall arrives? Really looking forward to that one…
No date yet, it will come as last somg i guess, as it was chosen first on ESC they decided to piblish the mew version as last one.
At the end of this week. This is what I read on their official page.
Also, I’d love to have one of those mystical doors for my apartment.
Don’t you prefer something useful?
Is anyone else wondering where Mikolas’ Hands are, though?
It is awesome to be a Eurovision participant this year. A paid vacation to Portugal is not too shabby. Also, it probably is the best solution to have the postcards filmed with the participants in various locations in Portugal. You can showcase the country, as well as the Eurovision content.
Beautiful!
They’re probably trying to use the door as look where have I been transported to!!
Karate kimonos for Chinese New Year?
Portugal wants to show its diversity and that celebrates Chinese New Year.
karate kimonos are japanese though….
Those are not “karate kimonos” per se. They look like those uniforms you wear when you do tai chi in the morning or practice kung fu.
AWS hit #1 in Hungary with “Viszlát nyár”: http://zene.slagerlistak.hu/single-track-top-40-lista/2018/9
Won’t Saarabloggs write about it?
This is the best way to do the postcards I believe. It’s a good opportunity to showcase the host country and the artists have the chance to get to know it a little better before the contest. Win-win!
And if he isn’t, who cares!
Hahahahaha. I believe with their anti-gay presidents (or dictator in case of Belarus xD) there has to be many closeted homosexuals in Belarus and Russia. Ukraine is a bit more open-minded.
@Slavko was ironic. And no, Ukraine is not more open minded, anyway, to say people are gay when they’re not, is just as worse as saying they are straight when they’re not.
Yeah but everyone wants to be with Ukrainian guys, whether they’re gay or straight, they’re just hot as hell. And flirty too, you never know whether they are talking normally or whether they are flirting with you. Whereas Russian or Belarussian guys are just normal, their women tend to be the pretty ones.
I hope <3 cuz he's a cutie
Actually it’s just Lisszabon, but yeah it sounds cool 🙂
It’s a Finno-Ugric language, it puts endings onto words for different functions in the sentence
No different from the many sounds you can make with the letter C using various accent markers.
The Netherlands too! https://www.instagram.com/p/BgTmlK5AM_L/?taken-by=songfestival.avrotros
lol@Alekseev with his 45,000+ likes. Impressive.
That’s quite a contrast to the other acts barely reaching a few 1000s and some not even a 100
I these pictures are at least 4 doors. What is that?
Is this what is like to live in warm climate?
You don’t need a house, just the door is enough.
What a bad joke (a little racist, maybe?…)
Is racism against warm climate. Everybody knows warm climate is the real victim in society.
Check your privilege, cold climate! Your’re toxic!
The assumption of this post / joke suggests that people in warm climates don’t build houses, but have doors for “decorative” purposes pretending to have houses, hence they are stupid and uncivilised. Next thing you know is to say that people in warm climates don’t wear clothes, don’t need to work because they can eat from the trees and basically can be animals… This is the very origin of racism. And it belittles RTP’s effort to be original, without knowing the actual effect it will have on TV. Anyway, I suggest tedi to have a stance, unless you are using… Read more »
BTW I hope will rain in Portugal between 8 and 12 of May. Big Big Rain.
These professional victims like Portugal, deserve to rain on their parade. Does anybody knows the weather for May in Lisbon?
Why, if I may ask? So people can concentrate more on the shows? Otherwise this comment seems quite hateful to all the people that is going to be there, suggesting that you are the author of the joke and the subsequent posts, not admitting it. And also suggesting that you think exactly like I have described and are envious of the so-called never ending sun. On the other hand, rain at this time of the year would be very important for the the forest and preventing fires in the Summer.
Well, I know that… But the fact remains that there is a lot of this discrimanatory talk against all sorts of people, including in the comment section of this site. I even saw posts assuming that Portugal would do a terrible job hosting the Eurovision, for the simple reason that they are southernes, poor and by definition incompetent.
Portugal is poor?? Really? I though Portugal was a developed country a high income economy…if Portugal is poor what the hell is Ukraine? Hungary? Poland? Latvia? Lithuania? Serbia? Romania? Bulgaria? yeah right….
Of course it is… I was only talking about wrong assumptions people have in many parts of Europe… Actually, on the countries you partly mentioned, Lithuania was in 2016 at 75% of EU average of GDP per capita, whilst Portugal was at 77%. So not much difference. Also Hungary, Poland and Latvia are not so far off at 67%, 68% and 65% respectively. But they all have higher economic growth rates than Portugal.
im sorry all those countries are poorest than Portugal
look at their minimum wages…lowest then Portugal.
Yes, this is absolutely true. There are some other mitigating factors, though.
higher economic growth rates than Portugal.?? Sure…Like Portugal has higher economic growth than Germany of France…so what? 🙂
They have higher economic growth potential than Portugal. For example, Portugal was surpassed by Slovenia and Slovakia in recent years. Slovenia is at 83% GDP per capita EU average.
Im sorry thats not true! Slovakia didn´t surpassed Portugal at all..
Slovenia since the 90´s has minimum wage higher than Portugal….even in Yugslavia days Slovenia was the richest part of the country.
“They have higher economic growth potential”? Says who?…
I don’t mind about the joke, but it does bother me to have people think that Portugal has a tropical climate. It doesn’t you folks! It’s atlantic climate in the north and mediterranic in the south. And the winter is cold, no snow, but still cold.
The doors are obviously there for narrative purpuses.
Yes I agree, that is another common stereotype reflected in that post, based on ignorance or poor knowledge.
no snow? For go sake…maybe you live in the coast line! Theres a lot of snow every single yeah in several portuguese regions!
God i hate the powerfull territorial marketing in Portugal who put the world think that Portugal is mediterranic and sub-tropical!
Theres a lot of snow every single yeah in several portuguese regions!??
Sorry, but that doesn’t seem correct! The only place in Portugal that has a lot of snow every year is a mountain peak. In other regions of the interior it might snow but usually only a little, or even nothing depending of the year. Unless of course for you a little snow is already a lot!!!
Im sorry thats not true! Slovakia didn´t surpassed Portugal at all..
Slovenia since the 90´s has minimum wage higher than Portugal….even in Yugslavia days Slovenia was the richest part of the country.
“They have higher economic growth potential”? Says who?…
Look, I agree with you that Portugal is not poor. But the thruth is that minumum wage is not the indicator for wealth, GNI or GDP per capita is. And yes, sorry, to tell you but Slovakia surpassed Portugal in 2017 in GNI. Look it up in Eurostat. And Slovenia after the break up was indeed the richest part of Yugoslavia, but a lot behind Portugal in the 90’s.
I agree with that, minimum wage is not the most important indicator, but for some reason you only have a single country richer than Portugal with a lower minimum wage and its Czec Republic. Eurostat say Slovakia and Portugal, both are 77% of EU level, you don´t have official results for 2017 yet…
Slovenia was not that poor in the 90´s, not compare with Portugal it was a small difference: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/purchasing-power-parities/statistics-illustrated
stay peacefu
I am always peaceful 🙂 To prove that, I will condone that indeed Slovenia had already a higher income in 1995 than Portugal, according to the World Bank. In time of accession (2003) Slovenia was at 77% of average EU GDP per capita, Portugal at 75%. Slovenia was in 2016 at 83%, whereas Portugal at 77%… So it had a more substantial growth. BTW Slovakia had 51% at accession, so imagine how they have developed in 12 years…
Well, never thought to discuss economics here 🙂 Peace
warm climate? LOL
Portugal has winter, pretty cold days and lots of snow….Portugal is not just Lisbon or the ALgarve get some information read some books!!
Tell Sweden about your stupid winter.
Excuse me? Why this stupid comment??
Wanna talk about stupid swedish summer?
theres is no winter in Portugal? no ski resort? No snow? no cold days? LOL….
Swedish summer is great. In 2017 it was on Wednesday. Great day. You see, Swedish summer is not stupid, it lasts 24 hours.
weak answer….
i have more than 14 days of snow in my town…no thats what i call a “stupid winter”….
Yes, and for three glorious days… Sweden is beatiful. I love it. Not exactly a Summer destination, though. Why this narrative Sweden vs Portugal?… What is the problem with you?
i don´t have anything against Sweden I just don´t care…someone talk about it first!
Im sorry for you people who think Portugal has no winter…
That post wasn’t meant to you. It was meant to Nadja, who seem to have some sort of problem.
I was joking because I know Sweden is not summer destination. WTHell. Why are you taking so seriously this summer/winter fight. You must see something politically incorrect EVERYWHERE.
not at all…you´re just to much provocative….
It will rain in May tho.
So hateful… God have mercy on your poor soul
The rain is welcome, the tourists not so much, too Manny already!
Always nice to see such a proud display of local culture. Those are my favorite kinds of postcards. Plus, I know the best of them gets Graham Norton’s snark going like nothing else.
I’m envious.
And of course Cyprus had something to do with produce.
I didn’t get why to assist/watch a chef cooking…she probably went shoping in the market before, but still… oh well, maybe i’ll figure it out then.
It’s cliché, but it’s nice. Much better than those “my daily routine” in the past few years.
I agree, we can still see the artists style by these postcards, and hey, they will most likely be smiling!
2015 has the Amazon-like mystery packages, and now were getting Narnia doors/stargates this year?
Where can I buy one? haha