Eurovision 2018 is almost upon us. Rehearsals begin in less than a week, at which point we’ll finally get to see each country’s staging plans.
As always there’ll be majestic masterpieces and boiling hot messes. But for now, we’re judging each act solely on their official audio and promotional performances.
Since 16 March, we’ve been asking y’all to vote for your favourite act in semi-final one. And thousands of you have answered our call, with a massive 40,137 votes already cast.
The poll remains open until 7 May, but we’re going to take a sneak peek at how the figures are currently stacking up.
Israel regularly faces an uphill battle when it comes to qualification. But not this year. Netta won The Next Star For Eurovision and now you’re pegging her for victory in the first semi-final.
“Toy” went down a treat in both Tel Aviv and Amsterdam, and y’all clearly love it. It’s amassed 4,312 votes so far or 10.74% of all votes cast. Could the famous glass microphone share pride of place alongside her looper?
Netta “Toy”
Eugent Bushpepa sings “Mall”, and it’s clear a whole lot of you are yearning for him to rescue Albania from the doldrums. He currently occupies second place with 3,532 votes or 8.8% of all votes cast.
Eugent Bushpepa “Mall”
Greece is one of the few countries to skip all the preview parties. But that doesn’t appear to have dented Yianna Terzi’s appeal. “Oniro Mou” has collected 3,966 votes or 8% of all votes cast.
Yianna Terzi “Oniro Mou”
Finland’s Saara Aalto went from hot favourite to also-ran with the bookmakers. But despite the UMK staging hiccup, she remains a firm favourite with our readers. “Monsters” sits in fourth spot, receiving 3,174 votes or 7.91% of all votes cast.
Belgium rounds out the top five. Sennek has parked her day job at IKEA for the moment, jetting out to preview events in Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Madrid. The sultry songstress is sweeping up support from all over Europe, with 3,091 votes going the way of “A Matter Of Time”.
Based on the poll current rankings, Bulgaria, Estonia, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Croatia will take the remaining five spots in the final.
At the other end of the poll, Iceland’s Ari Olafsson sits in last place. “Our Choice” has received just 225 votes or 0.56% of all votes cast.
Of course, all this is subject to change. The poll remains open until 7 May. So if you haven’t done so already, vote now!
VOTE IN OUR SEMI-FINAL ONE POLL.
WHO SHOULD WIN THE FIRST SEMI-FINAL OF EUROVISION 2018? POLL UPDATE
Results as of 22:30 CEST on 23 April.
- Israel — Netta, “Toy” 10.74% (4,312 votes)
- Albania — Eugent Bushpepa, “Mall” 8.8% (3,532 votes)
- Greece — Gianna Terzi, “Oneiro Mou” 8% (3,210 votes)
- Finland — Saara Aalto, “Monsters” 7.91% (3,174 votes)
- Belgium — Sennek, “A Matter of Time” 7.7% (3,091 votes)
- Bulgaria — Equinox, “Bones” 6.63% (2,662 votes)
- Estonia — Elina Nechayeva, “La Forza” 6.4% (2,570 votes)
- Cyprus — Eleni Foureira, “Fuego” 6.36% (2,554 votes)
- Czech Republic — Mikolas Josef, “Lie to Me” 6.29% (2,523 votes)
- Croatia — Franka, “Crazy” 5.02% (2,014 votes)
- FYR Macedonia — Eye Cue, “Lost and Found” 4.79% (1,921 votes)
- Austria — Cesar Sampson, “Nobody But You” 4.14% (1,663 votes)
- Belarus — Alekseev, “Forever” 3.94% (1,582 votes)
- Switzerland — Zibbz, “Stones” 3.25% (1,303 votes)
- Lithuania — Ieva Zasimauskaite, “When We’re Old” 2.97% (1,192 votes)
- Azerbaijan — Aisel, “X My Heart” 2.5% (1,003 votes)
- Armenia — Sevak Khanagyan, “Qami” 2.08% (834 votes)
- Ireland — Ryan O’Shaughnessy, “Together” 1.92% (772 votes)
- Iceland — Ari Olafsson, “Our Choice” 0.56% (225 votes)
Total Votes: 40,137
Everyone loves Finland, what’s the hype??
Israel is original and unique. Netta’s style was never seen in Eurovision before. I know what I’ll vote for and you should too.
I think that Cyprus, Czech, Azer, Greece, Belgium, Lithu, and many others ate overrated. Saara Aalto to the final!!
You can’t tell anyone who they should vote 😀 Netta’s “style” is just over-hyped and I loved it to start with but the song and Netta-phenomenon became worn-out and dull within some weeks from its release. Just no.
Probably the most difficult semi-final ever. Many genuinely good songs and very hard to predict. Almost everyone might make it. My prediction as things stand now: Israel, Greece, Bulgaria, Estonia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Belgium, Austria, Azerbaijan, Lithuania. Belarus, Finland, Armenia are borderline and can easily make it instead of e.g Austria, Azerbaijan, Lithuania. I wouldn’t even bet that Belgium and Estonia are surefire qualifiers here. FYR Macedonia might also appeal, Albania has chances too due to impeccable vocals. Even Switzerland and Ireland have slight chances if the juries favor them heavily. Iceland is the only country that will by not… Read more »
I feel like Switzerland should be getting more credit
I really hope Belarus will quallyfy. My best song this year.
Good luck from Sweden
For me it doesn’t matter if his english isn’t that good. The mest of US hasn’t english as our first language and we are many that isn’t that good in english. Me forexamle.
Think that the most importent is if he manage to deliver his emotion to us, the same way Michael from Poland did 2016.
Hope he has controll over hus voice in Lissbon. Think his voice improved in Madrid. Don’t you agree?
( the most of us) ; )
He will, don’t worry! Many clicked and will give him 20 votes,not like in this poll. Someone’s number 8 receives nothing! If Belarus qualified last year with that piece of crap this year they have a gem that will do well with juries and televoting. Just wait and see the amounts of votes from Israel and Spain, not to mention the ex Soviet bloc,4 of them in this semi, where he is known if not a star. I see him top 5 in the final.
The song of NAVI was much better than Alekseev’s song, as well as the vocals.
So, I really like and enjoy more than ten songs in this semi and it’s quite hard for me to even determin my personal Top 10 – there is a bunch of songs that keeps jumping in and out of it, but let me try: MY PERSONAL TOP 10 SEMI 1 1. Bulgaria (also my overall winner) 2. Greece (I like this song so much I wouldn’t mind if it won instead of Bulgaria) 3. Albania (Conviction-emotion-competence- this guy iis pure gold!) 4. Belarus (Eugent’s antipode in a way due to much poorer vocal skills but a great melody and… Read more »
“the Finnish Saara has trouble connecting with the audience and lacks likeability” – oh LOL! Saara’s likeability was the key to her huge success at the X Factor UK, she just melted the hearts of the British people. Don’t tell things when you don’t know better than that.
PREACH! Saara will slay, and whatever your name is you hater, your prediction is rubbish. Place a bet on those 10 and you’ll be begging for rice, Wednesday morning after Saara bags herself a spot in the second half of the grand final.
don t understand the vote for Netta for this song§§§§Please don t give your vote for this kind of song
Obviously this was not written by me, nor do I think this is true.
PS: My real nickname has a light blue monster avatar with green legs
Actually, I thought Norway was giving the real middle finger to the Sobrals this year. 😛
LOL
Let’s see how that is going to turn out 🙂
Ha ha, right on this one!
My SF1 qualifiers in random order: 1. Israel 2. Belgium 3. Bulgaria 4. Estonia 5. Austria 6. Albania 7. Czech Republic 8. Finland 9. Greece 10. Cyprus. I really like FYR Macedonia, but it grew on me after I listened to it several times. It sounded very messy to me at first, so I’m not sure if it will qualify. I also like Greece’s song, but I’m not quite sure how it will be live. The greek singer keeps posting videos of her singing the song with a bunch of back vocalists, so that’s not a very good sign (… Read more »
You’re running out of usernames, little trolly 😛
Then it could be Scandinavian song contest not Eurovision song contest.
This semi final is brutal and the juries have a tough job. I have 13 or so songs which deserve to qualify, based on studio versions. My ranking in order… Israel — Netta, “Toy” Belgium — Sennek, “A Matter of Time” Finland — Saara Aalto, “Monsters” Greece — Gianna Terzi, “Oneiro Mou” Cyprus — Eleni Foureira, “Fuego” Czech Republic — Mikolas Josef, “Lie to Me” FYR Macedonia — Eye Cue, “Lost and Found” Lithuania — Leva Zasimauskaite, “When We’re Old” Armenia — Sevak Khanagyan, “Qami” Ireland — Ryan O’Shaughnessy, “Together” Austria — Cesar Sampson, “Nobody But You” Bulgaria — Equinox,… Read more »
I haven’t heard stronger vocals than Eugent actually.
Why so bitter, birdy?
His vocal is not that special. I would be glad to him not qualifying.
Oops, you forgot to change the username again. You were supposed to comment under L’oiseau, but you can’t catch up with all these usernames right? Especially the ones you are stealing from others.
Not written by me
PS: My real nickname has a light blue monster avatar with green legs
I know it’s not you, don’t worry. I’m sorry your username is being used like this 🙁
Ufff… Thanks… 🙂
Not written by me
PS: My real nickname has a light blue monster avatar with green legs
Mark my words, Israel will fall down in the scoreboard as huge early favourites always do.
I don‘t think it‘s appealing to the one time listeners and it‘s getting quite annoying all that early hype.
Also I can‘t see this doing well with juries, could easily be another Sergey Lazarev.
explain 15 m views and the most likes a song ever got on the main channel of esc… as none appealing for the one time listeners… you say stuff based on speculations… sad….
As 15 million views brings you a guaranteed victory, sorry but views say nothing about anyones chances in ESC.
It‘s sad that you can‘t accept anothers opinion….
Armenia flopping in a Wiwibloggs poll? Whew, they truly are OVER.
We were busy doing Velvet REVOLUTION in Armenia, and we did it !!!!!
So eurovision doesn’t interest most of us now.
Eugent Bushpepa is going to slay!!!
I would do anything for him! I can get on my knee and service him.
Same troll, commenting everywhere! You need help, ASAP!
Yeah, I suspect someone has something against the website and has gone insane over it.
Albania should be 1st tbh.
I think Lithuania will shock with live performance
Real perple mask, we know this is’t you. This is some lonely person full of hate that needlove from friends.
Thanks Malin.
My Qualifiers from SM1:
1. Israel
2. Bulgaria
3. Czech Republic
4. Estonia
5. Cyprus
6. Belgium
7. Austria
8. Finland
9. FYROM
10. I would like to see Switzerland qualify but it will likely be Greece or Albania
Greece is supposed to be in front of Albania, they have more points.
Albania -3532
Greece- 3210
How does Greece have more points?
Who I think will qualify:
Israel, Czechia, Bulgaria, Greece, Estonia,
FYROM, Belgium, Armenia, Cyprus, Albania/Austria
I think Finland will be the shock NQ. I can’t see it AND Cyprus making it and I think Cyprus has the better draw and neighbors voting (and both are overshadowed by Israel too). Then I see either Albania or Austria sneaking into the final. Belarus could squeeze through on the televote but there are a lot of televote-friendly songs in this SF already. I also think Lithuania has a path to make it with the jury and due to strong diaspora.
Eugent will surprise and qualify because of his excellent high notes.
My predictions in general are:
1.Israel
2.Bulgaria
3.Finland
4.Estonia
5.Belgium
6.Czech Republic
7.Greece
8.Macedonia
9.Albania
10.Belarus or Cyprus
This could be the first year of a Eurovision Grand Final without both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
I think the only thing in Eugent’s way is the running order, but he is now a clear standout act in this semifinal.
What would really push him to the final would be the jury’s vote, so let’s hope and pray for that 🙂
I really hope Eugent qualifies, his voice and stage presence is perfect for the Grand Final! He really can get lots of points from the jury and I think also the televote, specially from countries like Macedonia, Greece or Bulgaria.
Between Armenia and Azerbaijan, I’d really say Azerbaijan could do it because they always have qualified even with worse entries than “X My Heart”, plus “Qami” doesn’t have the support that Azerbaijan or Albania has in the public opinion.
Azerbaijan did pretty bad with the televoting in 2014 and in 2015, in the semifinals. Under the current voting system, they would’ve been eliminated in 2015, and that entry was a fan fave.
For me, they are a clear non-qualifier this year. Bad running order, the first dance/pop song in a semifinal full of those, and theirs is far from being one of the catchiest. Also, a song with poor jury appeal, and not many friendly neighbours voting in this semi.
Greece is slightly overrated…
Greece is always overrated.
Greece is always underrated, especially by the juries . If you don’t like the song find something else and meaningful to say.
I dislike the Greek song but it’s 100% jury bait, so we have to accept it’ll be a finalist…
Greece is very overrated.
Underrated yes,overrated no
Albania <3
My prediction for qualifiers in SF1 after the pre-parties:
In random order:
1. Israel
2. Czech Republic
3. Albania
4. Estonia
5. Bulgaria
6. Austria
7. Finland
8. Greece
9. FYR Macedonia
10. Cyprus or Armenia
Non-qualifiers:
Iceland and Ireland – the obvious
Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Belarus – which I also find quite obvious
Lithuania – might qualify tho, instead of Cyprus/Armenia
Belgium – FFF. fan fav flop. I think it is overrated as hell
Armenia/Cyprus: Cyprus might not do so well with the juries, and Armenia with the televoting.
Azerbaijan will find their way to qualification… aren’t they doing “promo” in other SF1 countries? 😉
Hopefully no one will vote for Albania
Actually I might vote for Albania this year.
So of course the three male ballads are at the bottom and most of the female diva’s are near the top… This is wiwibloggs after all… Ireland and Armenia are so underrated!
Agreed.
But what’s new?
After my second round of evaluations, this is how I see it:
1) EST; 2) ISR; 3) ALB; 4) GRE; 5) BUL; 6) CZE; 7) LTU; 8) AUT; 9) ARM; 10) FIN.
(BUL, FIN in; BEL, SUI out)
I will evaluate the entries for the last time, this weekend. EST is my #1, with FRA 2nd and ITA 3rd.
Albania went so high probably due to 3 excellent live performances.
Totally agree.
is it just me or does eugent always get overrated on wiwibloggs? everywhere else he’s in the bottom but he’s always on top here… why is that? anyways my predicted qualifiers are (in random order)
bulgaria, cyprus, fyr macedonia, greece, belarus, lithuania, israel, estonia, czechia, and belgium.
You are so right. Just like Spain, Belgium, Estonia and Lithuania… we all know Wiwibloggs flavour certain entries. They get paid by the broadcasters most likely. This is like Cambridge Analytica for Eurovision – trying to influence the fan vote.
^Not the real Mask.
Ah, so you ARE trying to bring down this website? Good to know.
What obscure “everywhere else” are you referring to? Especially after live performances he is a qualifier of S1 everywhere. Look here: https://scorewiz.eu/poll/results
Odds on the other hand are a whole different story. Albania had the same exact place even before the song was even made public.
Or maybe he is properly rated by Wiwibloggs, and wrongfully underrated in other places. Everything is relative my friend!
Youtube comments are mostly positive about him.
He won chatvote yesterday though… And they have predicted 2010, 2012 and 2017 winners in the past. Also, every other year their winners qualified (except for 2014, that was Israel and it flopped hard because of the awful life so it’s understandable).
So he’s not overrated here. Like at all.
Samantha sis you need to stop embarrassing yourself with this Lithuania stanning, it’s not qualifying and Macedonia isn’t either. And Belarus too.
Who I think will qualify:
1. Israel 2. Finland 3. Azerbaijan 4. Armenia 5. Cyprus 6. Greece 7. Belgium 8. Czech Republic 9. Estonia 10. Bulgaria
Who I want to qualify:
1. Israel 2. Finland 3. Greece 4. Cyprus 5. Bulgaria 6. Albania 7. Ireland 8. Estonia 9. Austria 10. Belgium
Ireland is so underrated in this semi. But I do expect a bloodbath. As long as Azerbaijan doesn’t qualify I’ll be happy.
You are predicting all divas will qualify and that’s not gonna happen. Someone will fail.
I think Finland is in serious danger.
And Belgium looks like a flop live so I’m not sure. Stage will make or break it.
I think Albania might well qualify.
And Austria just screams “jury” so It has a chance even tho televote will not really support it.
Finland will get serious support from U.K. and Ireland. Saara is a well established name in those two countries after XFactor. Then there is the constant support from Estonia and Iceland. She is definitely going through.
4 countries is not enough tho.
I don’t think she’ll get that massive support from UK and Ireland.
UK will vote for Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland as their Top 3 in televote. Then also Israel and Greece or Cyprus might do better. Also Czech Rep even. Ireland will give 12 to Lithuania.
As I said too many pop diva entries and somebody will not stand out. Juries might save Saara tho
For those who want to see how the stage will work, in these case with the Hungary’s performance. who cares about LED’s, if we’ll have all of those lights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nISmZ2hMk0
Aye. In part, it reminds me of the Oslo 2010 stage. They had LED lights, but not a full LED CGI screen. A cross between that and the 1997 contest, where it was basically lights.
In this contest, it’s either bring your own hi-tech equipment (like Estonia is doing), and hope you can integrate it into Lisbon’s system, or make do with what Lisbon has and send your ideas of what you want their system to do.
Clue me in again on what I saw in that clip: There is no CGI graphics floor this year, like in all of the contests this decade except 2010; am I correct?
… Fast food music won in the end. A damn shame. Oh well…
A fast tempo song does not mean fast food. There are plenty of examples of fast food songs this year… Israel is not one of them.
The intro alone is the kind of magic you don’t get at KFC. Netta and her musical talent may make FUN music, but it is in no way cheap, simple or common.
her song has depth, unlike some other songs that all the eurogays praise im lookin at u saara
comparing women to chickens who complain about men is an extremely cheap way to look deep.
But women are chicken. They must don’t realise it that is all.
You’re not even the real purple mask, who (surprisefully) has purple mask as an icon.
Thanks Frisian esc.
*But women are chicken. They just don’t realise it that is all…
And you need a hug and love from someone.
So you’re calling your own mother a chicken? The one who gave birth to you, raised you, looked after you, took care of you, loved you, the one who just wants your best interest and all that… A word that’s usually associated with cowardice when she’s one half of your parents who presevere everyday to get to where you are today?
You’re a cold, heartless, ungrateful brat.
And I know you aren’t the real Purple Mask.