Israel Norway Semi Final Win

Eurovision 2018 has come and gone. But as the last bits of confetti fall to the floor and before we start thinking about booking our hotels for next year, the semi-final split results for Eurovision 2018 have been revealed. And they reveal quite a few surprises.

First Semi-Final

Eventual winner Israel also won the first semi-final, with Cyprus’ Eleni hot on Netta’s heels. The Czech Republic, Austria and Estonia rounded out the top five.

Azerbaijan placed unlucky eleventh, 14 points behind tenth place qualifier Finland. Perhaps less of a surprise, Iceland finished last in this semi-final of death with only 15 points.

1. Israel (283 points)
2. Cyprus (262 points)
3. Czech Republic (232 points)
4. Austria (231 points)
5. Estonia (201 points)
6. Ireland (179 points)
7. Bulgaria (177 points)
8. Albania (162 points)
9. Lithuania (119 points)
10. Finland (108 points)
11. Azerbaijan (94 points)
12. Belgium (91 points)
13. Switzerland (86 points)
14. Greece (81 points)
15. Armenia (79 points)
16. Belarus (65 points)
17. Croatia (63 points)
18. F.Y.R. Macedonia (24 points)
19. Iceland (15 points)

Second Semi-Final

Returning champ Alexander Rybak came out on top of the second semi-final, despite only finishing 15th in the grand-final. Sweden managed to reach second place, with Moldova, Australia and Denmark the other countries to reach over 200 points.

Fan-favourite Hungary just squeezed through to the final, placing tenth just four points ahead of Romania. Georgia ended up in last place in the semi-final, finishing with 24 points.

1. Norway (266 points)
2. Sweden (254 points)
3. Moldova (235 points)
4. Australia (212 points)
5. Denmark (204 points)
6. Ukraine (179 points)
7. The Netherlands (174 points)
8. Slovenia (132 points)
9. Serbia (117 points)
10. Hungary (111 points)
11. Romania (107 points)
12. Latvia (106 points)
13. Malta (101 points)
14. Poland (81 points)
15. Russia (65 points)
16. Montenegro (40 points)
17. San Marino (28 points)
18. Georgia (24 points)

What do you think of the semi-final rankings? Do you think the point distribution was justified? Let us know in the comments below?

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Bejn
Bejn
5 years ago

Hi guys, can we stop with all the hate just for this one event? Eurovision was created for countries to get together in a fun way, not to hate on each other just because one song got 1st place and the other got to 2nd place. Eurovision was once this one place where I could rest from terrible world news and hate that is going on in the world right now, and it’s so sad for me to read all the pouring hate against each other just because one great genre won over another. I loved both the Israeli entry… Read more »

sevzch
sevzch
5 years ago

Lets leave the hate aside i wanted to say something what a thrilling night we had ….. ELENI you slayed… NETTA you did amazing all of the other artists did great i love the music from this contest and we should leave the hate behind Congratz to israel and lets hope we will have so much fun and more next year in Israel <3 to all Be Kind to each other and love everybody treat everybody as you would treat yourself !!!

Sofia 2019
Sofia 2019
5 years ago

If they ban betting for Eurovision , we really could see real music win. With these odds even the bloggers , people that vote on the show and music professionals are turned into sheeps , they dont really score a song for what it is , but how its placed in the betting odds. Ireland was such a weak song , you remove the dancers and u get a song on the same level as Iceland, Lithuania can put into a sleep everyone listening to it for more then 2.5 min , i bet most people missed the end of… Read more »

Eva M.
Eva M.
5 years ago
Reply to  Sofia 2019

Bulgaria will benefit from learning some lessons here. They need to bring young and charismatic artists and develop some inner expertise on staging. relying o Sasha Jean Baptiste did not work well with no leds and such a motley crew. the song, of course is amazing, but it is always the whole package that counts.

MARIUD
MARIUD
5 years ago

How hard should it be for Romania, because Germany and Italy couldn’t vote for her…. The would have easily reached the final

TheDrMistery
TheDrMistery
5 years ago
Reply to  MARIUD

Romania got 12 points from Italian televoters either way.

AngieP
AngieP
5 years ago

The split results of the semis are out! And there are some really interesting things. 1st semi: Cyprus actually won the televote and Israel won the jury vote. The televote saved Lithuania and Finland. A little surprised for Lithuania, because I thought the juries would get behind it, On the other hand, the juries saved Albania, which was 11th in the televote (I know juries would get behind this song). Greece was 10th in the televote but that wasn’t enough for them to go through. The juries had Belgium and Switzerland in. Azerbaijan missed it in 11th place! 2nd semi… Read more »

Aris
Aris
5 years ago

Fun fact: Cyprus won the public’s vote on the first semifinal!

sevzch
sevzch
5 years ago
Reply to  Aris

and israel won it in the final…. even if we remove juries israel would have won: fun fact <3

ted
ted
5 years ago

For anyone that is interested , this is how the UK televote and Jury voted for the semi final 1 12 points – Lithuania (televote) Bulgaria (Jury) 10 points – Ireland (televote) Austria (Jury) 8 points – Cyprus (televote) Israel (Jury) 7 points – Finland (televote) Albania (Jury) 6 points -Bulgaria (televote) Estonia (Jury) 5 points -Israel (televote) Croatia (Jury) 4 points -Estonia (televote) Switzerland (Jury) 3 points -Greece (televote) Finland (Jury) 2 points -Czech Republic (televote) Armenia (Jury) 1 point – Albania (televote) Ireland (Jury)zec UK televoters would have liked to have seen Greece and Albania in the final… Read more »

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago

Time to do away with jury voting. What purpose does it serve now? The days of blatant joke entries and cynical block voting are almost entirely over. Yet, the cronyism and obvious collusion in jury-voting is rampant.

Why not just trust the people? Those televote results look pretty good to me.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

Juries are definitely needed to bring up the strong quality songs into the top 10. Televoters tend to vote only for the stage act.. And less for song quality

Nicolas
Nicolas
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Thats’ why Sweden finished 2nd in jury and 23rd in televote lol.

Milan S.
Milan S.
5 years ago

Will some people ever learn to spell “hypocrite”…?

allexo
allexo
5 years ago

Well, Norway won Semi Final 2 and came 15th in the final with a song that sounds like Junior Eurovision reject
While Melovin who had a much better song came 6th in Semi Final 2 and came 17th in the final.
What the hell ?

TheDrMistery
TheDrMistery
5 years ago
Reply to  allexo

Is that a record for the lowest position in the Grand Final for any semi-final winner? It must be although it has to be said that Alexander won his semi as a consensus and wasn’t first in either televoting or jury voting?

allexo
allexo
5 years ago

This year’s Eurovision been WILD, Wild as Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Romania, Greece who are strong countries in ESC, failed to QUALIFY, Ireland ended up as a favourite, UNFORTUNATELY. Norway WON SF 2, Australia came last in televoting with 9 points, Sweden came 23rd , France only 59 points and finished 13th (CRIME OF THE YEAR), Estonia only came 8th, United Kingdom had a stage invasion, the results this year CRAZYYYY
That is all 🙂

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  allexo

Sweden did great

Elis
Elis
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

All the fun whith Eurovision is gone. Years whith hate towards sweden is enought for me. Then the fans in the arena. Shame on them. No respect towards the young winner of junior ESC and so on. And they say that escfans are the best?!

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Elis

People always hate others that are better

Marcelo
Marcelo
5 years ago

Lithuania was mostly hype, nothing much. I really didn’t believe for a minute that Lithuania had win their semi. There you have it, 9th place. But still, very good results for Ieva and her country, back to the left side of the scoreboard since 2016. This is their third best result ever in the contest.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago

And if you separate the jury vote from the televoting, the bananas turn into pineapples!!!

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo.

Malta last with the televoting again.
Some stats:

Best result ever for: Cyprus, Czech Republic, and ofc Israel.
Worst result ever for: Iceland, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, FYR Macedonia, Australia, Romania, Croatia, and Georgia (also last place in 2014).

Marcelo
Marcelo
5 years ago

Iceland scored nul-points with the televoters in the First Semi-Final. Well, I knew his song wasn’t the best and wasn’t particularly liked but poor Ari, he doesn’t deserve a big fat zero from the public at all.

Virtus
Virtus
5 years ago
Reply to  Marcelo

Gabriela Gun?íková and Nathan Trent also got zero… :-/

TheBoyNextDoor
TheBoyNextDoor
5 years ago

So the Austria was in 4th place in its Semi which later won the Jury votes in Grand Final? This is bananas!

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  TheBoyNextDoor

Austrias song was great

esc1234
esc1234
5 years ago

Clearly nobody likes Australia, second year last its like telling them politely to leave the party

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  esc1234

I politely ask Australia to send better songs.

Vrede
Vrede
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo.

Even better: send better singers. The song was a bop. Jessica seems like a lovely lady and gave a great perfromance. But the vocals, oh my…

Vrede
Vrede
5 years ago
Reply to  Vrede

By performance I mean stage presence. She really is a star with charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent who commands the stage. A joy to watch.

beccaboo1212
beccaboo1212
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo.

And here’s a petition to get SBS to select Australia’s 2019 entrant through a televised national final:

https://www.change.org/p/european-broadcasting-union-australia-national-selection-for-eurovision-song-contest-2019

Nicolas
Nicolas
5 years ago
Reply to  beccaboo1212

I prefer a petition to get Australia out of Eurovision.

TheDrMistery
TheDrMistery
5 years ago
Reply to  esc1234

Australia was 2nd last the previous year even though Isaac got only 2 points to Jessica’s 9.

Alex
Alex
5 years ago

I really hate how they share the jury votes. I want to know how the country voted not a few random people!!! I hope they change it!!! The jury should be last….

Vic
Vic
5 years ago
Reply to  Alex

That would make people feel robbed if the televote’s favorite is announced first and the jury felt otherwise…

Alex
Alex
5 years ago
Reply to  Vic

Makes sense~

Camilla
Camilla
5 years ago
Reply to  Alex

I agree. They should give the jury votes first but just ranking them from last to first place and then give the full points of teh televotes instead. I’d much rather know the 12 points if the televotes than the juries.

Kyna
Kyna
5 years ago

Gosh how much I wish to become a jury member one day so I can PUT JUSTICE IN PLACE.

LawStudent
LawStudent
5 years ago
Reply to  Kyna

Even as a jury member you won’t be able to put justice anywhere you’ll be a single screw in a five member machine in a single country out of 43 lol.

alina
alina
5 years ago

My country Romania was close, but I’m happy it did not qualify. It was not good enough, and to be honest, I never liked that label ”100% qualification”. Is like people suspect you of something shady.

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago
Reply to  alina

Romania was only 4 points behind Hungary and didn’t qualify, but Hungary gave Romania 12 jury votes in the semi and Romania gave to Hungary 3 jury votes and 10 televoting, and again 10 points televoting in the final. No geopolitics and clearly not strategical!

TheDrMistery
TheDrMistery
5 years ago
Reply to  alina

I believe every country should not qualify at least once. Ukraine shouldn’t have already in 2012 but juries pushed them… IDK why.

Coolhand
Coolhand
5 years ago

I am still baffled at how Austria won the jury vote in the final but came only 4th in their semi and didn’t have a good running order at all. Some thing Seems weird haha

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Coolhand

Yes, but he finished 2nd with the juries in the semi-final, just one point above Albania.

Dan
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  Coolhand

19 juries in Semi 1

vs.

43 juries in Final?

Elin
Elin
5 years ago
Reply to  Coolhand

I think that some songs benefit more than other when it comes to the opportunity to perform two times. I think some people discovered Austria in the semi and then grew for them even more the secound time they saw the performance. I think songs that hasn’t been a favorite and hasn’t got the spotlight from media benefit from this two times.
Then there are four diffrent times the artist performe. The juries judge an other day.

Hooler
Hooler
5 years ago

Norway won the semi and that Sweden guy only gave him the 7th spot in the grand final but he gave Sweden one of the best spots. Biased much!

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Hooler

Sweden did great. Norway flopped. Get over it.

Hooler
Hooler
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Yep. Bottom with the televote. Loser.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Hooler

Aww its sweet to see other countries grasping for straws…. Sweden did great.

esc1234
esc1234
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

At least Rybak wasn’t suspiciously supported by juries *eyeroll*

Tuvddtgccj57g
Tuvddtgccj57g
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

I wouldnt call one of the last points in televote ‘great’. People clearly werent impressed, as opposed to biased jury

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Tuvddtgccj57g

Take your pills… Get over the fact that Sweden still placed great

Pierre
Pierre
5 years ago
Reply to  Hooler

The swedes are unbiased people that sings beautifully, Sara said. So it must be true.

ovelha
ovelha
5 years ago

Semi 2 results are just… wow. And Mélovin was robbed. Meh.
At least thankfully Romania and Latvia were there close.

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago
Reply to  ovelha

Romania was 11th, 4 points after Hungary and I’m sure they gave Hungary lots of points, in the final they gave them 10 points, after Moldova and before Israel! No strategical voting here! Kudos!

Truth teller
Truth teller
5 years ago

Iceland is 19th aka 43th and still got 15 points too many.
I am statisfied with those results, only Finland should not have even qualified. I wonder if all the lunatics on here shouting over everyone about how she’d win Eurovision are in a straightjacket right now, where they belong? 😛
Hypocrisy is of course running rampant on here once again. Now, it’s Netta this, Netta that.
My beef is with the juries though: Sweden got what it deserved from the telemeters. It’s time to go back to 100% televoting, make Björkmann less powerful again.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Truth teller

Sweden placed seventh. Dont smirk… He did great… Juries awards top quality songs like Austria and Sweden top marks..

Sweden is still a super power…

Truth teller
Truth teller
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

The televote disagrees with you and that is the only thing that matters to me. And btw, nobody should be a super power in Eurovision. This is not China and at some point, the Björkman lobbyism will stop working.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Truth teller

Juries award top songs like Sweden and Austria their top marks in points. Sweden placed 7th in aclose race… They did great. Get over it…

Truth teller
Truth teller
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Yeah, see, I don’t argue with delusional people.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Truth teller

Still here you are… Butthurt

Alex
Alex
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

>Bottom 5 in televote
“B-but Sweden did w-well” says increasingly nervous woman for the n-th time today.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Alex

Alex, stop being butthurt

Pierre
Pierre
5 years ago
Reply to  Alex

Dear alex in sweden Sara is a mans name.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago

Sweden did great , norway crashed… Though norway scored number 1 in the semi.

E T
E T
5 years ago

Clearly the juries and televoters see the songs differently. Rather than dispute this difference every year why dont Eurovision celebrate the difference and award two prizes. The winner of the jury vote becomes the Eurovision Jury winner and the winner of the televoting also becomes the Eurovision Televote winner. Who gets the final next year? The winner with the most votes in their category. for example.. Nation A wins the jury vote with 212 votes. They become the Jury Winner. Nation B wins the televote with 210 votes. They become the Televote Winner. Nation A with more votes than Nation… Read more »

Cc TA
Cc TA
5 years ago
Reply to  E T

What would happen if Nation A won both the televote and the jury? My little proposition is maybe juries decide who goes through to the finals, and then the televote decides the winner of the final. So we still have both, they just aren’t combined as much. The big 5 need to cease being a thing. That I think is the factor behind a series of dismal results for most of them bar Italy. Hype is a thing that songs need and the big 5 struggle to gain support because they haven’t had to go through the semi which exposes… Read more »

sal
sal
5 years ago

Crazy results. Crazy differences. Not only between jury and televote but between semi 1 and semi 2 and between the semis and the final. So much analysing for Wiwibloggs to do!

I will add that we can really see the difference in quality between the two semi-finals. Norway 1st in the semi to 15th in the final……..
I think we can also say that running order really does matter sometimes. It seems that average songs are boosted by late peformance positions..

Marcelo
Marcelo
5 years ago
Reply to  sal

Still Sweden, Moldova and Denmark overtake Norway claiming Top 10s. That’s definitely the power of the people. If Sweden weren’t pushed that much by juries, it would came under Norway.

And look at how Sweden look pale in televote in the Semi, they came 6th, not common for Sweden’s standards.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Marcelo

Sweden still did great. Juries loved them. Sweden is still a power house

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Sweden did great with 215 so-called experts who can’t find their backsides with both hands. They did less great with millions of viewers.

Powerhouse?

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

Juries are music professionals. Not teenager in Moldova who just got their first cellphone…

Pierre
Pierre
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Perhaps for stabbing and sexual misconduct where you take a well deserved top spot in europe, but music not so much.

Pengu
Pengu
5 years ago

And I can’t believe Latvia gave Russia 12p in televote, so damn embarrassing..

Kyna
Kyna
5 years ago
Reply to  Pengu

Lmao and I say thank god this time we dodged the bullet with that.

Frifri
Frifri
5 years ago
Reply to  Pengu

You are totally some random Russian hater. Every single comment is you being obsessed with Latvia. Everyone knows Russians living in Latvia voted for Russia and Moldova, not Latvians.

Milan S.
Milan S.
5 years ago
Reply to  Frifri

Still, Russia got 12 from Lat via, voter nationality does not really matter.

nik
nik
5 years ago

In terms of results, this is one of the craziest eurovisions ever….

Zorz
Zorz
5 years ago

I think we can expect a new voting system for the next year. Probably something like the Big 5 starting with 300 points in advance. ? Jk but I think they will change something. And secondly congrats to Israel, she was much better in the GF than in SF. But honestly I think that Eurovision song contest should be a contest that includes European countries only. Which means no Australia and no Israel and countries that are not in the Europe.

George
George
5 years ago

Wtf is going on with Australia and Sweden doing so well in the semi finals and then almost back flipping completely in the finals

Susan
Susan
5 years ago
Reply to  George

They were put into so weak semi, that no wonder they did good there. If they would been in semi 1, then Australia wouldn’t even qualify.

Matthew
Matthew
5 years ago
Reply to  Susan

Are you sure about that? We beat Finland in the final.

Cc TA
Cc TA
5 years ago
Reply to  Susan

Its unfair to compare semi final results, if a said country from semi 2 was placed in semi 1 hypothetically, could completely change the running order and then maybe another country like Lithuania would have missed out.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  George

Sweden did great. Norway flopped

Kyna
Kyna
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Compared to what some small group of people vs THE WHOLE EUROPE, Sweden flopped harder than Norway. Face the reality hunty, Sweden is the biggest loser of the night.

Cc TA
Cc TA
5 years ago
Reply to  Kyna

All this talk about who apparently ‘flopped’ and who didn’t. No country in the final flopped, they made it to the final so thats something in itself.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Kyna

Placing 7th overall and being loved by the juries is not flopping. Being amajor favourite and not placing high either by juries or televoting like Norway is a flop. But please continue grasping for straws

Kyna
Kyna
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Who gives a sht of the jury anyways? They are in minority, unforfunately given way too much power, are not so-called “experts” (seriously, how can you rate Italy with the strongest lyrics so low, shame) and doesn’t reflect what the public wants.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Kyna

You care apparently…. Juries are professionals in music. They loved Benjamin. Get over it

Milan S.
Milan S.
5 years ago

Croatia that low? I really liked her… the 1st semifinal was a bloodbath!

Kirby
Kirby
5 years ago
Reply to  Milan S.

Awwww, sí…es cierto. Franka lo dio todo en el escenario

Denis
Denis
5 years ago

Uh h. Norway, Sweden and Australia all did well in semi finals but didn’t get that many votes in final. Is there something going on?
Televoters are weird sometimes..

Marcelo
Marcelo
5 years ago
Reply to  Denis

And considering Norway won being the Semi opener, it’s much weirder that Rybak flopped so hard. He’s the IMRI of 2018. Or maybe that’s Jessica.

Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Denis

Sweden placed seventh… Did great… Norway though

Kirby
Kirby
5 years ago
Reply to  Denis

Yeah, you have to consider ALL viewers’ ages, tastes and intentions

Pengu
Pengu
5 years ago

Damn, Latvia only 5 points from 10th place..

Cc TA
Cc TA
5 years ago
Reply to  Pengu

I think if she did make it through, she would have struggled in the final.

Pengu
Pengu
5 years ago
Reply to  Cc TA

That’s for sure.

Eurovision Now
Eurovision Now
5 years ago

When will the full split results be released? Surprised with Czech Republic being 3rd and 6th in the final? so proud of my country

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
5 years ago

Australia got 212 points in their semi and qualified 4th, but flopped hard in the final. Really strange statistic there.

Cc TA
Cc TA
5 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

I can’t help but think her performance wasn’t any better or worse in the GF, so maybe she just got lost in that row of songs 13-18, and struggled to make an impact. If the voting was just with the arena spectators, she would have been top 5 for sure.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

In her semi-final, she still finished below Ingrosso in the televote and he finished 4th bottom in the televote in the final.
Australia still came 12th in the final jury vote. I have no idea what the juries were listening to….

Klabb
Klabb
5 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

Weak semi.

Lola
Lola
5 years ago

Belgium and Switzerland so close <3 still in my top five from this year!

Sara
Sara
5 years ago

Sweden did great… Norway crashed… Weird..

Tas
Tas
5 years ago
Reply to  Sara

Sweden didn’t really get any points fro the public, though….

Jenny
Jenny
5 years ago

Still suprised that Rybak didnt do better in the final since he won the semi final from the first slot!

drag kvinna
5 years ago
Reply to  Jenny

moye imeh leah eh

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
5 years ago
Reply to  Jenny

Agreed, that is most perplexing.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago
Reply to  Jenny

I haven’t been able to explain it yet.
Am wondering if it had to do with the viewership. Semi Finals are generally viewed by Eurovision fans and although many of these fans hated Rybak’s song, many others were strong supporters (me, included) and would have voted. Finals, on the other hand, have a wider demographic who might not have taken to the song on the first listen.