Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final

Host country: Portugal (RTP)
Venue: Lisbon Arena, Lisbon, Portugal
Hosts: Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah & Catarina Furtado
Date: Saturday 12 May 2018

N.B. Any use of "tonight" or "this evening" throughout this post means Saturday 12 May 2018. Any use of "Tuesday" means Tuesday 8 May 2018, whereas any reference to "Thursday" means Thursday 10 May 2018. All times in this post are in BST.

To make this report easier to read, I've split it into sections. Click the applicable link below to jump to the section you want to read:
The Opening
The Songs
Televoting and Interval Act
Jury Results
Televoting Results
Reprise
And Finally

The Opening

After the usual Eurovision ident accompanied by Charpentier's Te Deum prelude, the Grand Final began with a short opening film. This led seamlessly into two Fado performances, Ana Moura "Loucura (Sou do Fado)" followed by Mariza "Barco Negro". After that, there was a flag procession, during which all 26 artists walked on stage, one by one, in the order they were to perform (however the artist representing the host country Portugal appeared last). Unlike recent years, the artists carried actual flags this year. The flag parade was accompanied by live music from scratching duo Beatbombers. After the parade ended, the hosts Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah and Catarina Furtado appeared on stage to give their opening speech.

The Songs

At 20:16 BST it was time for the first song. Each song was introduced by a postcard film featuring the relevant country's artist visiting a beautiful place in Portugal. Every postcard film began with the country's name in the centre of the screen, and firework-like trails in the country's flag colours descending top to bottom. They all ended with the country's name, artist, title and other details at the centre of the screen, with an abstract representation of the country's flag as a sea bed reef scene in the background. During the transition from the end of the postcard to the arena view immediately prior to the start of the song, the country / song details moved to the bottom right hand corner (they disappeared completely when the song started). Furthermore, BBC One / BBC One HD viewers in the UK had Graham Norton's commentary over the postcard films. I've mentioned some of Graham's comments at various points hereafter; if you saw the Contest outside the UK you won't have heard his comments.

Please note: once the jury and televoting points were all allocated to the scoreboard at the end, there were no tied countries on the scoreboard. I have quoted the following points and placings from the official Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final web page, which I believe and trust as the only official source.

Song 1: Ukraine - MELOVIN "Under The Ladder" (17th place, 130 points)

#UKR The first song in the Grand Final was the song which was performed last in the Second Semi-Final Thursday evening, that being "Under The Ladder" sung by MELOVIN for Ukraine. The song began with MELOVIN singing whilst lying inside a grand piano. Towards the end of the first verse, the slats which covered him opened up, and he was raised to the standing position. After he had performed the first chorus standing at the keyboard end of the piano, he descended the steps during the second verse to perform the next part of the song on the stage. Near the end he sat at the piano to play it (although the sound must have come from the backing track, as at the start of the song it looked like the hammers and strings had been removed from inside the piano), whilst flames appeared towards the bottom of the steps. I'm totally mystified as to the significance of the flames. This is a song I felt borderline about qualifying Thursday evening. Based on the Grand Final performance, it was quite a good song to start with, the chorus was undeniably catchy, and it was well performed. However, it was definitely not a winning song. For some mysterious reason, this song finished 26th with just 11 points in the jury vote, yet 7th with 119 points in the televote! It's surprising how such a huge difference in opinion between the jury vote and televote could occur, but anyway the combined result of 17th place and 130 points was about right for this song.

Song 2: Spain - Amaia y Alfred "Tu Canción" (23rd place, 61 points)

#ESP The first Big Five entry of the night was from Spain. A beautiful love ballad, performed by real-life couple Amaia and Alfred. They sang it as a duet, with good harmony at the relevant moments. This song, combined with the subtle lighting, amounted to a rather romantic performance. Sadly, this song was somewhat under-rated; it finished 18th with 43 points in the jury vote, 24th with 18 points in the public vote and 23rd with 61 points overall. I think "Tu Canción" deserved better than that; this ought to have finished in the top fifteen; possibly even top ten.

Song 3: Slovenia - Lea Sirk "Hvala, ne!" (22nd place, 64 points)

#SLO The first of two former Yugoslav countries to reach the final was Slovenia. The title "Hvala, ne!" translates as "No, thanks". That's precisely how I felt about this song being in the final, because I disliked this song so much I didn't want this to qualify Thursday evening. The line "En korak do luči" ("it is a step to the lights") early on clearly explains the usage of strobe lighting at various points in the song. I'm totally mystified as to the significance of the pause about two thirds of the way through the song though. Unsurprisingly this lively song included a well-choreographed, well synchronised routine by the four backing dancers. This song finished 19th place with 41 points in the jury vote, which I felt was more than it deserved. Thankfully it finished a more appropriate 22nd place with 23 points in the televote, and 22nd with 64 points overall. Better still, I would have preferred Poland or Montenegro in place of this.

Song 4: Lithuania - Ieva Zasimauskaitė "When We're Old" (12th place, 181 points)

#LTU A beautiful ballad sung by Ieva Zasimauskaitė for Lithuania. This was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify from the first semi-final, which is why this was among the songs I voted for during the first semi-final. I was delighted that this qualified for the final, and I liked the Grand Final performance just as much. This finished 11th with 90 points in the jury vote, 10th with 91 points in the televote and 12th with 181 points overall. I think it deserved better than that; this should have finished top five in both parts of the voting, and overall.

Song 5: Austria - Cesár Sampson "Nobody But You" (3rd place, 342 points)

#AUT Another of the songs I most wanted to qualify from the first semi-final, and I liked it just as much in the Grand Final. This was quite a powerful song, but I'm mystified as to why Cesár performed on the high platform for much of the song. On the whole, this was one of the better entries in the Grand Final, but I didn't think it was worthy of winning. Oddly enough, this song actually won the jury vote with 271 points, yet it finished just 13th with 71 points in the televote! Talk about an extreme difference of opinion between the juries and the public. Consequently, this song finished 3rd place with 342 points overall, which I feel was higher than it deserved. I think 8th to 12th is where this ought to have finished in both voting schemes, and overall.

Song 6: Estonia - Elina Nechayeva "La Forza" (8th place, 245 points)

#EST This year Estonia entered an Italian opera-style song, sung in Italian by Elina Nechayeva. This was another of the songs I most wanted to qualify, and hence voted for, in the first semi-final. The live Grand Final performance of this beautiful operatic song was just as impressive, even though I couldn't understand the lyrics. Elina is an extremely talented singer to be able to sing high pitched like she did in "La Forza". The performance was further enhanced by the changing patterns on her dress (presumably those were created by lighting effects). Altogether this masterpiece was one of the best songs of the night. However, it finished 6th with 143 points in the jury vote, 9th with 102 points in the public vote, and 8th with 245 points overall. I think "La Forza" deserved better than that; it ought to have finished top three in the jury and public votes, and overall.

Song 7: Norway - Alexander Rybak "That's How You Write A Song" (15th place, 144 points)

#NOR Alexander Rybak previously represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow with the song "Fairytale", which won with a then record-breaking absolute score of 387 points. This year he returned to represent Norway again, this time singing "That's How You Write A Song". I quite liked this song when I saw its online video shortly after it won Norway's national final, but at the time I had my doubts as to whether Alexander could win the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with this entry. Since then, "That's How You Write A Song" has been one of my favourite second semi-final contenders among the official preview videos. This was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify from the second semi-final and would have voted for it had the UK been voting that evening. I liked the Grand Final performance just as much; Alexander sang the song well, accompanied by the on-screen effects including the virtual keyboard. He even managed to include a real violin towards the end, just like in "Fairytale" in 2009. On the whole, this was a really catchy song. Sadly, just as I expected, Alexander could not repeat his runaway success of 2009 this year. He finished 16th with 60 points in the jury vote, 11th with 84 points in the televote and 15th with 144 points overall. Although this was clearly not a winner, I'm surprised he ended up that low; I expected him to finish 6th to 10th.

Song 8: Portugal - Cláudia Pascoal "O Jardim" (26th place, 39 points)

#POR Now for second direct qualifier of the night, that being last year's winner, and this year's host country, Portugal. This ballad, albeit quite a nice one, was rather dull and forgettable compared to Salvador's song last year. I guessed this would end up somewhere on the right-hand side of the scoreboard, but I didn't expect it to do as badly as it did. It ended up 25th with 21 points in the jury voting, 25th with 18 points in the televoting and last with 39 points overall. I think this ought to have finished about 20th overall. At the end Graham Norton said "I'm not sure we'll be returning to Lisbon next year", so evidently he didn't expect Portugal to win with this entry.

A short break followed at this point. During this break one of the hosts spoke to Lea Sirk from Slovenia and Elina Nechayeva from Estonia in the Green Room.

Song 9: United Kingdom - SuRie "Storm" (24th place, 48 points)

#GBR The second Big Five song of the night was the United Kingdom. Whilst introducing this, Graham Norton said how fitting it was for the United Kingdom's entry to be ninth in this year's line-up, because it has now become the customary time for UK viewers to raise a toast to the late Terry Wogan. This year the UK went for a ballad "Storm" sung by Susanna Marie Cork, under the stage name SuRie. Disappointingly this finished 23rd with 23 points in the jury vote, 20th with 25 points in the televote, and 24th with 48 points overall. As a UK citizen, I'm not surprised at that result. I had my doubts about this song when it won Eurovision: You Decide at the Brighton Dome on 7 February 2018. At the time, I felt "Storm" sounded somewhat similar to Germany's 2017 entry "Perfect Life" (which finished 25th out of 26 finalists with just 6 points) and would likewise end up in a similar position on the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 scoreboard. The greatest credit must be given to SuRie for the way she coped during the unexpected and uncalled-for stage invasion after the second verse. Fortunately, the invader was quickly removed from the stage, and SuRie managed to complete her performance of the song.

When SuRie finished, uncertainty arose over what would happen next. Her performance was immediately followed by an unscheduled cut to the Green Room, where one of the hosts spoke to MELOVIN through an interpreter. Just over one minute later the host announced that they were going to continue with the next scheduled entry, which was from Serbia. Serbia's postcard followed, during which Graham Norton congratulated those who did the staging for the UK, plus SuRie's backing singers.

Song 10: Serbia - Sanja Ilić & Balkanika "Nova Deca" (19th place, 113 points)

#SRB The second of two former Yugoslav countries to reach the final was Serbia. During the second semi-final I felt borderline about whether or not this should qualify. Going by the Grand Final performance alone, I'm glad this ethnic Balkan song qualified. I liked the distinct difference between the verses and choruses. This finished 21st with 38 points in the jury voting, which was a bit low really. Fortunately, it did considerably better in the televoting, 12th with 75 points, but nonetheless it still finished 19th with 113 points overall. I think it ought to have finished about 12th to 15th in both voting schemes and overall; this wasn't good enough for top ten let alone to win.

Song 11: Germany - Michael Schulte "You Let Me Walk Alone" (4th place, 340 points)

#GER The third Big Five entry of the night was Germany, which has suffered some disappointing results the last few years. This year Michael Schulte represented Germany with "You Let Me Walk Alone". It was quite a powerful song, and well sung live in the Grand Final. I liked the background messages, drawings and photographs, whatever their significance was. This finished 4th with 204 points in the jury vote, 6th with 136 points in the televote and 4th with 340 points overall. I was surprised this entry did that well; I expected it to finish 8th to 12th in both voting schemes and overall, but well done to Germany finishing in the top five after so many recent low placings.

Song 12: Albania - Eugent Bushpepa "Mall" (11th place, 184 points)

#ALB I wasn't overly keen on this song when I first saw the preview video. During the first semi-final, I felt borderline about this song, and it ended up on my "Prefer not to qualify" list. I liked it a bit better in the Grand Final though, Eugent's voice was noticeably powerful during the choruses. Even so, I still felt this was a right-hand side of the scoreboard song; its 7th place with 126 points in the jury voting was way too high. After subsequently finishing 18th with 58 points in the televoting, it ended up 11th place with 184 points, which was still too high. I think this ought to have finished 16th to 20th in the jury voting, televoting and overall.

Song 13: France - Madame Monsieur "Mercy" (13th place, 173 points)

#FRA The fourth Big Five entry of the night was from France. I quite liked this ballad on the CD album and in the preview video. On the night of the Grand Final, this was among my most-liked songs. It's a beautiful ballad, which was quite well performed live during the Grand Final. Interestingly the lyrics included the English word "Mercy" in each instance of the line "Je m'appelle Mercy", and much repetition of the French word "merci" (thank you) towards the end. Perhaps there was a little too much repetition of "merci" near the end for some. Altogether this ballad, which clearly had a message, was among the better songs of the night. After finishing a well-deserved 8th with 114 points in the jury voting, this was somewhat under-rated at just 17th with 59 points in the televoting. Consequently, this finished 13th with 173 points overall, which was lower than it deserved. I think this ought to have finished 6th to 10th in both jury voting and televoting, and overall, but it wasn't good enough to win.

Song 14: Czech Republic - Mikolas Josef "Lie To Me" (6th place, 281 points)

#CZE This was only the Czech Republic's second time in the final since its debut in 2007. Unfortunately, I don't like this style of song, so unsurprisingly "Lie To Me" was among the songs I definitely didn't want to qualify from the first semi-final. Against my wishes, this qualified, and I disliked this song just as much during the Grand Final as I did during the first semi-final. Evidently plenty of people must have liked this song though. This was another finalist which had a huge disparity between the juries and the public; it finished 15th with 66 points in the jury vote, 4th with 215 points in the televote and 6th with 281 points overall. Although it was great for Czech Republic to achieve its best placing to-date, I feel "Lie To Me" was over-rated by the juries, let alone the public. Ideally, I'd have preferred to have seen Armenia or Greece in the Grand Final instead of Czech Republic.

Song 15: Denmark - Rasmussen "Higher Ground" (9th place, 226 points)

#DEN This is one of the songs I most wanted to qualify from the second semi-final (and would have voted for if the UK had been voting that night). Although I liked "Higher Ground" just as much in the Grand Final, I think the lead singer's voice ought to have been a bit stronger for such a powerful song as this one. This was grossly under-rated by the juries, at 20th place with just 38 points. Although it did much better in the public vote, a well-deserved 5th place with 188 points, it still ended up lower than it should have at 9th place and 226 points. Although I don't think this was good enough to win, it ought to have finished top five in the jury vote, public vote and overall.

Song 16: Australia - Jessica Mauboy "We Got Love" (20th place, 99 points)

#AUS Say what you like about Australia being in the Eurovision Song Contest for the fourth year running, but anyway "We Got Love" was one of my favourite entries among the preview videos, and during the second semi-final. So much so, this was among the songs I most wanted to qualify from the second semi-final, and I would have voted for it had the UK been voting that night. I liked this song just as much in the final; it's a powerful song with a really bouncy, catchy chorus. Jessica Mauboy did Australia proud with this entry, and she performed it very well. My only dislike was the rather excessive use of strobe lighting. All in all, I felt this was one of the best songs in the Grand Final. Sadly, it was severely under-rated. 12th place with 90 points in the jury vote was bad enough, but last place with just 9 points in the televote was an insult. Overall this finished 20th with 99 points, which I feel was way too low. This ought to have finished at least top ten, if not top five, in the jury vote, public vote and overall.

A short break followed at this point. During this break one of the hosts spoke to some of the artists in the Green Room. After the return-from-break sting, one of the hosts briefly mentioned the first ever Eurovision Song Contest winner, Lys Assia, who died earlier this year. A photo of Lys Assia was briefly shown, but there was no archive clip of her winning performance from 1956.

Song 17: Finland - Saara Aalto "Monsters" (25th place, 46 points)

#FIN Although I wasn't particularly swayed towards this song whilst watching the preview videos, I liked it much better performed live in the first semi-final, and consequently this ended up among the songs I most wanted to qualify that night. Thankfully it qualified, and I liked this song even more in the Grand Final. It's a lively song, which was very well sung in the Grand Final, but I'm totally mystified as to the significance of Saara spinning on the vertical turntable during the early part of the song. This finished 24th with 23 points in the jury voting, 21st with 23 points in the televoting and 25th with 46 points overall. I think it deserved better than that; 11th to 15th perhaps, but this wasn't good enough for top ten.

During the postcard which followed, Graham Norton told UK viewers that the EBU offered the UK delegation the opportunity for SuRie to perform again, but she decided she didn't want to perform again.

Song 18: Bulgaria - EQUINOX "Bones" (14th place, 166 points)

#BUL From the moment I first saw the preview video, I didn't think "Bones" was as good as last year's Bulgarian entry. I was disappointed with the live performance in the first semi-final, which is why "Bones" ended up on my "Prefer not to qualify" list that evening. Anyway, this qualified, and I was equally disappointed with its Grand Final performance. Were the stroboscopic effects at various times really necessary for this style of song? As soon as the song finished, I was convinced Bulgaria wouldn't finish top ten let alone top five this year. This finished 9th with 100 points in the jury voting, 14th with 66 points in the televoting and 14th with 166 overall. I think 15th to 20th in both voting schemes and overall would have been more appropriate for this song.

Song 19: Moldova - DoReDoS "My Lucky Day" (10th place, 209 points)

#MDA A novelty entry from Moldova, which I wasn't overly keen on in the second semi-final, and thus "My Lucky Day" ended up on my "Prefer not to qualify" list that evening. Against my wishes this qualified, and I still wasn't particularly impressed by the song itself in the Grand Final. The most notable feature of this performance was the white wall, with the panels that opened. I liked the way they opened three vertically arranged panels as doors at the start, and single panels as windows at other times. Part way through, the three singers opened the doors to disappear behind the wall. Altogether, an entry to be valued more for the wall than the song itself. This finished 10th with 94 points in the jury vote, 8th with 115 points in the public vote and 10th with 209 points overall. I think it was over-rated by the juries and public; 16th to 20th would have been more appropriate for this.

Song 20: Sweden - Benjamin Ingrosso "Dance You Off" (7th place, 274 points)

#SWE Sweden has entered some excellent songs in recent years, but quite frankly I was disappointed with their choice of ESC 2018 entry shortly after the Melodifestivalen 2018 Grand Final ended. Since then "Dance You Off" was one of my lesser-liked entries among the official preview videos and on the CD album. I disliked the live performance in the second semi-final just as much, which is why this ended up on my "Prefer not to qualify" list that evening. Against my wishes, this qualified, and I was just as unimpressed by the live Grand Final performance. The song itself is somewhat dull to say the least. I'm mystified as to the significance of the illuminated lines which appear red, white and blue during different parts of the song. This was ridiculously over-rated by the juries at 2nd place with 253 points. Thankfully the public rated it a more appropriate 23rd place, with just 21 points, but it still ended up 7th with 274 points. I think this ought to have finished in the bottom seven in both voting schemes and overall.

Song 21: Hungary - AWS "Viszlát Nyár" (21st place, 93 points)

#HUN Hungary chose a lively rock / metal song this year, hence it's hardly surprising the live performances in both the second semi-final and the Grand Final included considerable use of strobe lighting, and flame effects. Admittedly I don't like this style of music generally, but I was shocked at Hungary's choice of entry, and detested "Viszlát Nyár" very much when I first saw an online video of its A Dal 2018 final performance shortly after the A Dal 2018 final ended. Unsurprisingly I disliked this song just as much with subsequent viewings of the official preview video, when listening to the ESC 2018 CD album and whilst watching the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Second Semi-Final. Consequently, this was one of the songs on my "Definitely don't want to qualify" list in the second semi-final. Against my wishes this qualified, and I hated the live Grand Final performance just as much. One good thing about the song is that it was performed in Hungarian; it's great when countries sing in their native language. On the whole, "Viszlát Nyár" would undoubtedly have been a dedicated rock / metal fan's favourite, but it wasn't my cup of tea. After this finished 22nd with 28 points in the jury voting (which I felt was reasonable), I felt this was over-rated by the public at 15th with 65 points. Overall, this ended up 21st with 93 points. I personally think this should have come last in the jury voting, televoting and overall. Better still, I personally would sooner have seen Poland or Montenegro instead of Hungary in the Grand Final.

Song 22: Israel - Netta "TOY" (Winner, 529 points)

#ISR Israel entered a novelty song "TOY" this year, which mentioned Barbie, Pikachu and Wonder Woman in the lyrics early on. I really detested this from the moment I first saw its online preview video, and I continued hating it on my subsequent viewings of the preview video (and occasions when I listened to my ESC 2018 album). Despite that, many bookies had this as the favourite to win, in the run-up to the semi-finals. I disliked this just as much performed live in the first semi-final, which is why this ended up on my "Definitely don't want to qualify" list that evening. Unsurprisingly, this qualified against my wishes, and I disliked it just as much in the Grand Final. Looking positively, Netta Barzilai performed the song very well, both singing the lyrics and making the chicken sounds. Altogether, this was a lively, catchy, novelty song which included dancers and pyrotechnics. It's hardly surprising this won the televoting with 317 points and overall with 529 points. Even the juries collectively rated it 3rd with 212 points, which surprised me somewhat. Whilst plenty of people evidently liked this for it to have won the public vote, I've noticed from social media that I'm not the only person who didn't want this to win. I personally would have liked this to have finished in the bottom five in the jury voting, televoting and overall; better still I'd sooner have seen Armenia or Greece in the final instead of Israel.

Song 23: The Netherlands - Waylon "Outlaw In 'Em" (18th place, 121 points)

#NED A rock-country song I felt borderline about qualifying from the second semi-final, and this it ended up on my "Wouldn't mind qualifying" list that evening. This was quite a powerful song, and well sung by Waylon. Towards the end, one member of the backing group did flip-overs and jumps; whether that was really necessary or just a customary Eurovision gimmick is open to debate. Although this wasn't among my favourite songs of the night, I much preferred this to the entries from Slovenia, Hungary and Israel. This finished 13th with 89 points in the jury vote and 19th with 32 points in the televote. Combined together, its overall result was 18th with 121 points, which I feel was about right for this song.

Song 24: Ireland - Ryan O'Shaughnessy "Together" (16th place, 136 points)

#IRL To me this song seemed disappointingly flat and lifeless on the preview video and CD, but I liked it much better performed live in the first semi-final, and I ended up putting it on my "Definitely want to qualify" list that evening. Well done to Ireland for reaching the Grand Final for the first time since 2013. "Together" is a beautiful ballad, which was well sung in the Grand Final. However, I question the need for dancers in this kind of ballad. This finished 14th with 74 points in the jury vote, 16th with 62 points in the public vote and 16th with 136 points overall. I thought it would have done a little better than that; I'd have thought it would have finished 9th to 12th in both voting schemes and overall.

Song 25: Cyprus - Eleni Foureira "Fuego" (2nd place, 436 points)

#CYP This replaced Israel as the hot favourite to win during the last few days before the Grand Final. "Fuego" was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify (and hence voted for) during the first semi-final. It's a very lively song. The well-choreographed dance routine which accompanied it fitted the beat well. I particularly liked the sideways flame effect in the middle eight (presumably that was created graphically), and the on-stage rising flames towards the end. However, I question the need for the strobe lighting effects at various points in the song. This finished 5th with 183 points in the jury vote, 2nd with 253 points in the televote and 2nd with 436 points overall. I think this ought to have finished top three in the jury vote, won the televote and won outright as, to me anyway, "Fuego" is a much better song than Israel's "TOY".

Song 26: Italy - Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro "Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente" (5th place, 308 points)

#ITA The final song in the line-up, and the last of the Big Five entries, was Italy. This year's entry from Italy focuses on wars around the world, and terrorist attacks in Europe and the Middle East. This song has an important message to convey, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks of the last year or so (e.g. Manchester Arena, London Bridge). For that reason, this was one of my favourite songs on the official CD album, among the preview videos and performed live in the Grand Final. I liked the way each line appeared, one by one, in a different language on screen whilst the entire song was sung in Italian. Altogether, this upbeat, memorable song was the perfect finalist to end with. This song was heavily under-rated by the juries, at just 17th with 59 points. Surprisingly though, it finished 3rd with 249 points in the televote. Talk about a disagreement between the juries and the public! Perhaps the juries saw this as a protest song (such songs tend not to do well in the Eurovision Song Contest), whereas viewers at home felt it had meaning and deserved their votes. Anyway, this song finished 5th with 308 points overall, which was a reasonable placing; although I felt this was among the best ten finalists, I don't think it was good enough to win.

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Televoting and Interval Act

As soon as Ermal and Fabrizio finished singing, Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah and Catarina Furtado reappeared and gave a speech. Unfortunately, their words were drowned out by Graham Norton who outlined the voting procedure for UK viewers. Once the voting procedure was outlined, Filomena, Sílvia, Daniela and Catarina said "Start voting now" together.

The voting lines opened, and a recap of the songs followed with the phone numbers at the bottom of the screen. Viewers had approximately 40 minutes in which to cast their votes. When the UK's song extract appeared, a caption at the bottom of the screen stated "UK VIEWERS CANNOT VOTE FOR THE UK ENTRY" and "Your vote won't count and you may still be charged." Were any UK viewers foolish enough to try dialling the voting stem with 09 at the end? Knowing that the lines would almost certainly be extremely busy during this recap, I
deliberately delayed voting until later. When I eventually tried voting (quite well into the televoting session), I successfully voted for Estonia, Australia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Spain, France, Denmark and Norway.

After the first recap of the songs, two of the hosts announced the first interval act: Branko, Sara Tavares & Plutónio - "Ter Peito e Espaço (Branko remix featuring Plutónio)". Graham Norton said "This is the interval act, it's not the greatest we've ever had, but it's certainly mellow". This performance included singing from one member of the group and rap from another member. Once the performance ended, there was a seamless transition into the next one, Branko & Dino D'Santiago "Nova Lisboa". Once that song finished, there was another seamless transition into the song Branko & Mayra Andrade "Reserva Pra Dois", which included dancing. Altogether this medley from Branko and the other performers, which lasted just over five minutes, wasn't particularly memorable but it filled in time. At the end Graham Norton said "Ooh, it's over".

This was followed by a second recap of the competing songs, complete with the voting numbers. During this recap, UK viewers heard Graham Norton reading out viewers' messages. Once this recap ended, there was a video "53 Long Years", supposedly outlining why Portugal took so long to achieve its first win since its debut entry in 1964. Once the video finished, one of the hosts spoke to some Eurovision fans in the audience, whilst the voting numbers for the competing Grand Final entries appeared, one by one, at the bottom of the screen again. After that, one of the hosts spoke to Polina Bogusevich, who won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 for Russia with the song "Wings". Polina sang part of last year's Eurovision Song Contest winning song "Amar pelos Dois".

Next, Salvador Sobral sang his latest single "Mano a mano", accompanied by Júlio Resende on the grand piano. At the end of that performance, Salvador gave a short speech. Next, Salvador performed his winning Eurovision song from last year "Amar pelos Dois" as a duet with Caetano Veloso. Júlio provided an accompaniment on the grand piano for this song as well. I must admit, I prefer "Amar pelos Dois" the way Salvador performed it solo whilst in competition during the relevant semi-final and the Grand Final in last year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Once Salvador had finished singing, there was still time for one final recap of the competing songs, complete with the voting numbers. At the end of that recap, there was just one minute of voting time left. During this minute, Filomena and Sílvia thanked viewers for voting, and told them that if they hadn't already done so, they would have to vote right away (if they still wanted to vote) as the lines were about to close. The voting numbers for the competing Grand Final entries appeared in sequence one last time. Filomena and Sílvia counted down the final ten seconds aloud, but there was no on-screen countdown. When the countdown reached zero, they said "Stop voting now", and a caption appeared "Lines are now closed - Please don't vote as it won't count and you may be charged". Altogether the lines had been open for about 42 minutes and 20 seconds.

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Jury Results

The voting system first used in 2016 was used again this year. That meant the jury results from each country yielded one set of 1 to 12 points, and each country's televoting results generated a completely separate set of 1 to 12 points. Immediately after the voting lines closed, Daniela and Catarina said it was almost time to start the presentation of the voting results. Jon Ola Sand stated that the EBU had a valid result from the 43 professional juries, and they were ready to present the jury results. The points from the jury voting were about to be presented in the traditional way first. Graham Norton pointed out that the jury results were based on the Friday evening rehearsals, in front of a full audience, but the viewers' votes were based on the Saturday evening Grand Final.

All 43 countries, including the 17 non-qualifiers, voted in the Grand Final. The voting order was: Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus, San Marino, Netherlands, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Georgia, Spain, Austria, Denmark, United Kingdom, Sweden, Latvia, Albania, Croatia, Ireland, Romania, Czech Republic, Iceland, Moldova, Belgium, Norway, France, Italy, Australia, Estonia, Serbia, Cyprus, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Germany, Finland, Russia, Switzerland, Israel, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Portugal.

The points announced by each country's spokesperson, e.g. Ukraine, were from that country's' jury voting only. Just like in 2016 and 2017, the 1 to 10 point scores were displayed on screen when the spokesperson appeared, added to the scoreboard as a block and the spokesperson only announced the 12 point score.

Ukraine, which announced its jury points first, gave 10 jury points to Israel and 12 jury points to France. Thus, after just one set of points had been announced, France was in the lead on 12 jury points and the eventual overall winner Israel was second on 10 jury points. Austria, which ended up winning the jury vote, was fourth with 7 jury points at this stage. Thereafter the points were somewhat scattered, causing frequent changes of leader. San Marino, which was fourth to announce, gave 12 jury points to Israel, momentarily putting them in the lead on 23 points. Israel remained in the lead after The Netherlands announced their jury points. However, F.Y.R Macedonia's jury points put Cyprus in the lead on 32 jury points, Sweden second on 30 jury points and Israel third on 29 jury points. Malta gave 12 jury points to Cyprus keeping them at the top with 44 jury points. Next, Georgia gave 12 points to Sweden, putting them in the lead on 49 jury points for a moment. After that, Cyprus briefly returned to the lead, with a score of 56, after it received 12 points from the Spanish jury. Unfortunately, that was its last time in the lead, because Austria's 12 jury points to Israel put Israel back in the lead with 60 points. Israel generally held its lead (with occasional brief exceptions) until Australia had announced its jury points.

A break occurred between Belgium and Norway. The top three during this break was 1st Israel 138 points, 2nd Austria 130 points, 3rd Cyprus 112 points. During the break, there was a trailer for the upcoming event Eurovision Young Musicians 2018. One of the hosts also spoke to the artist from Austria, and another host spoke to the artist from Israel in the Green Room.

Estonia's 12 jury points to Austria put Austria in the lead. Thereafter Austria held its lead until Switzerland (38th to announce) gave 4 jury points to Austria and 5 jury points to Sweden, thereby putting both Sweden and Austria on 217 jury points (at that point, Sweden appeared top and Austria second, presumably under tie-break rule). However, Israel's 10 jury points to Sweden and 12 jury points to Austria put Austria back in the lead (229 points) and Sweden second (227 points). Clearly, there was still a cat and mouse situation this late in the jury voting. Even if the EBU had suddenly declared the entire public vote (from all countries) void and issued an announcement that the result would be determined solely on the jury votes, there would still have been plenty of excitement as the remaining four countries announced their jury points. Poland's 6 jury points momentarily put Sweden in the lead, until Poland's 12 jury points went to Austria (thus putting Austria back in the lead). A similar situation arose when Lithuania's jury gave 8 to Sweden and 12 to Austria. The penultimate country, Slovenia, gave 10 to Austria and 12 to Sweden, but Austria stayed in the lead. With just Portugal to announce its jury points, the top two was 1st Austria 263 2nd Sweden 253, thereby leading to a cliff-hanger on jury points alone. Austria finally became uncatchable on jury points alone when it received 8 jury points from Portugal (the final country to call), taking its final jury score to 271 points. Even if Portugal had given 12 to Sweden, it would have finished second in the jury vote with 265 jury points.

As expected there were a few exchanges of 12 jury points within certain country groups. Unsurprisingly Greece (which failed to qualify for the Grand Final) gave its 12 jury points to Cyprus, though to be fair that was justified this time as Cyprus was strongly tipped to win outright. Montenegro gave 12 jury points to Serbia. Surprisingly though, that was the only 12-point vote between two ex-Yugoslav countries on jury voting. Even more surprising was the jury voting among the Nordic countries; there were several instances of no points or low points between pairs of countries within this group. The highest jury score between two Nordic countries was just 10 jury points from Norway to Sweden; there were no 12 jury point scores awarded within the Nordic group. A more detailed analysis of bloc voting is available here.

Once the spokespersons from all 43 countries had announced their jury voting points, the scoreboard looked like this on screen:

Austria	271	Ireland	74
Sweden	253	Czech Republic	66
Israel	212	Norway	60
Germany	204	Italy	59
Cyprus	183	Spain	43
Estonia	143	Slovenia	41
Albania	126	Denmark	38
France	114	Serbia	38
Bulgaria	100	Hungary	28
Moldova	94	United Kingdom	23
Lithuania	90	Finland	23
Australia	90	Portugal	21
The Netherlands	89	Ukraine	11

Austria was currently in the lead, with a margin of 18 points ahead of Sweden. Altogether announcement of the jury points took about 36 minutes. Daniela said "Now that all the national juries have sent in their votes, let's take another look at the scoreboard". The complete scoreboard was briefly shown again, and the current top three was announced. Graham Norton said "I don't want to crush anyone's dreams, but at this point I think it's unlikely that SuRie's going to win but, she could do a lot better than that, she could end up on the other side of the scoreboard. We just don't know". Sílvia briefly spoke to Cesár Sampson from Austria, the country which was currently in the lead.

Of course, anything could happen next when the televoting points were announced. At this stage, even Portugal or Ukraine could have still won, if a) they received 12 televoting points from a large enough number of other countries (not necessarily all 42) and b) Austria and the other currently high placed countries all received very low televoting totals.

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Televoting Results

Daniela asked Jon Ola Sand if the televoting had gone according to plan. He said it had, and the EBU had a valid televoting result. Daniela and Catarina explained how the televoting works. In each of the 43 countries, the public's phone / text / app votes were totalled up, and converted to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 points to the top 10 voted-for songs. However instead of going around all the 43 countries and having the spokespersons announce each country's televoting points in the same manner as the jury points, all 43 countries' televoting points were added together behind the scenes to produce one total televoting score for each finalist. Daniela and Catarina announced the total amount of televoting points each finalist had received from each of the other 42 countries.

Daniela and Catarina began by announcing the bottom 16 countries of the televote, from 26th to 11th, in rapid succession as follows. The scoreboard appeared on the left hand side of the screen, and Daniela and Catarina appeared in a window on the right. Daniela and Catarina announced the countries alternately. Graham Norton's comments are shown in brackets at the applicable points.

The country with the lowest score, with 9 points is Australia (That is such a shock, and booing in the stadium)
With 18 points we have Portugal (More booing in the stadium and in the home team)
Also with 18 points we have Spain (Now poor old Spain, they were performing second)
With 21 points Sweden (Well that changes everything ladies and gentlemen, we will not be going to Sweden next year)
With 23 points we have Slovenia (This is great for SuRie)
Also with 23 points Finland
With 25 points we have United Kingdom (That, there's no shame in that, whatever happens now, we won't be coming last)
With 32 points, the Netherlands
With 58 points we have Albania
With 59 points France (Ooh)
With 62 points Ireland (I mean that's a very respectable number for them, we thought they might do better)
With 65 points Hungary
With 66 points Bulgaria
With 71 points Austria (So we won't be going to Vienna either. So it is now Israel, Germany or Cyprus)
With 75 points Serbia
And with 84 points Norway

In each case, the televoting points total was displayed briefly at the left of the applicable country name, the country name was highlighted in light blue, the running score to the right of the country name was increased to the final total it would get, and the country was moved to the correct place on the scoreboard.

Once the bottom 16 countries had been announced, the scoreboard looked like this (countries which had received their televoting totals are in bold):

Austria	342	Australia	99
Sweden	274	Moldova	94
Israel	212	Hungary	93
Germany	204	Lithuania	90
Albania	184	Czech Republic	66
Cyprus	183	Slovenia	64
France	173	Spain	61
Bulgaria	166	Italy	59
Norway	144	United Kingdom	48
Estonia	143	Finland	46
Ireland	136	Portugal	39
The Netherlands	121	Denmark	38
Serbia	113	Ukraine	11

The countries placed 10th to 4th in the televote were announced at a much slower pace, still with the scoreboard on the left, and Daniela and Catarina in a window on the right. Daniela and Catarina announced the recipients of the top ten scores alternately. Each time the country name appeared in the bottom right hand corner (in the same typeface as appeared during the jury voting), the televoting points total was displayed briefly at the left of the applicable country name, the country name was highlighted in light blue, the running score to the right of the country name was increased to the final total it would get, and the country was moved to the correct place on the scoreboard. After that, viewers were given a brief shot of the applicable artist in the Green Room. Once again, Graham Norton's comments are shown in brackets at the applicable points.

Daniela: The 10th highest score, with 91 points is Lithuania. (It's nice that the viewers responded to her song, it was very sweet)
Catarina: The 9th highest score, with 102 points is Estonia. (People liking the opera)
Daniela: The 8th highest score, with 115 points is Moldova. (I know, it's Eurovision, there's no explaining it. You should be thrilled, look happy)
Catarina: The 7th highest score, with 119 points is Ukraine. (That is quite a turn-up, they performed first which is such a disadvantage)
Daniela: The 6th highest score, with 136 points is Germany.
Catarina: The 5th highest score, with 188 points is Denmark. (Extraordinary the difference between the jury vote and the viewers' votes)
Daniela: And the 4th highest score, with 215 points is Czech Republic. (This is getting down to the wire, between Israel and Cyprus)

At this point the scoreboard looked like this (countries which had received their televoting totals are in bold):

Austria	342	Norway	144
Germany	340	Ireland	136
Czech Republic	281	Ukraine	130
Sweden	274	The Netherlands	121
Estonia	245	Serbia	113
Denmark	226	Australia	99
Israel	212	Hungary	93
Moldova	209	Slovenia	64
Albania	184	Spain	61
Cyprus	183	Italy	59
Lithuania	181	United Kingdom	48
France	173	Finland	46
Bulgaria	166	Portugal	39

Daniela announced "Only three countries left that still haven't received their points from the televote, this is getting exciting everyone. So, in the lead we have Austria with 342 points, but there are still three other countries to receive their points; will it be enough to overtake Austria? Those countries are Israel, Cyprus and Italy." It has to be said, it's a wonder she worded her announcement that way, because at this point, it was obvious that both Israel and Cyprus would now get at least 215 points each (if they both tied with Czech Republic on total televote points), causing both of them to overtake Austria. Whatever happened next, it was now mathematically impossible for Austria to hold its lead and win outright. Anyway, Graham Norton said "Now if Italy get the top scores, that will scupper things. This is such a good voting system". Green Room shots of the artists representing Austria, Cyprus, Israel and Italy were displayed in four windows on screen during the next announcement.

Catarina: The country that got the 3rd highest score, with 249 points is Italy. (This is it, it's down to the wire. Israel or Cyprus, one of them will be the winner tonight. Eleni and Netta must be so nervous. A great result there for Italy; how extraordinary for the audience to respond the way the juries didn't.)

Catarina announced "Only two countries left to receive their points from you guys at home, so now Cyprus is leading the vote but …". Daniela intervened "We'll see what happens" before Catarina continued "Yes, everything can change". Graham Norton pointed out "Cyprus isn't leading the vote, Austria is, are you trying to tell us that Cyprus has won?" Austria was still in the lead with its final score of 342 points, even though it was now obvious that both Cyprus and Israel would leapfrog Austria and finish top two, thereby leaving Austria in third place. During the next announcement, Green Room shots of the artists representing Austria, Cyprus and Israel were displayed left to right across the screen. It's a wonder they bothered showing a shot of Cesár Sampson from Austria at this point as it was now mathematically impossible for Austria to hold its lead and win outright.

Daniela: The country that got the 2nd highest vote is, with 253 points is Cyprus. That momentarily put Cyprus in the lead on 436 points, but no shot of the scoreboard was shown. Graham Norton said "I think, I'm pretty sure, that means that Netta has won."

That meant Israel was officially the winner of the public vote, with at least 253 televoting points. Since Israel's jury total (212) was higher than that of Cyprus (183), it was obvious that Israel would overtake Cyprus and win outright no matter what it's actual televoting total was (253 or more). Unsurprisingly Daniela went straight into the next announcement:

Which means Israel is the winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2018, the winner is Israel, with 317 points. Israel wins with 529 points.

Israel won with a final score of 529 points. With a possible maximum of 12 jury points from each of the other 42 countries (including the 17 semi-finalists which failed to qualify), i.e. 504, plus 12 televoting points from each of the other 42 countries, i.e. 504, the maximum achievable score was 1008 points. Thus, Israel won with 52.48% of the maximum possible score, which is quite low. The record for the winner with the highest percentage of the maximum possible score since 1975 still rests with United Kingdom - Brotherhood of Man "Save Your Kisses For Me"; 80.4% in 1976.

Altogether, announcement of the televoting totals took about 7 minutes. Just before the scoreboard was shown for the final time, the UK's televoting results were displayed in a panel at the bottom of the screen, and Graham Norton read each of the ten scores out. Did other countries' broadcasters present their own televoting points in a similar manner?

When the scoreboard was shown for the last time (with Israel's televoting total included), it looked like this:

Israel	529	Bulgaria	166
Cyprus	436	Norway	144
Austria	342	Ireland	136
Germany	340	Ukraine	130
Italy	308	The Netherlands	121
Czech Republic	281	Serbia	113
Sweden	274	Australia	99
Estonia	245	Hungary	93
Denmark	226	Slovenia	64
Moldova	209	Spain	61
Albania	184	United Kingdom	48
Lithuania	181	Finland	46
France	173	Portugal	39

At this point Graham Norton said "I'm afraid SuRie, for all her bravery, professionalism and spirit came 24th out of 26, but she can go home with her head held high. She really is a national heroine after what she did tonight, it was extraordinary, I don't know how she coped in those horrible circumstances. So congratulations to SuRie, a lot of people would have been watching her performance and cheering her on, and rightly so, because she did a terrific job for the United Kingdom, and we're just sorry that wasn't reflected in the result."

An in-depth analysis of the jury voting and televoting is available here.

A sortable table, with all the jury, televoting and final points and placings, is shown below.

#	Countries	Jury Points	Jury Place	Televoting Points	Televoting Place	Final Points	Final Place
1	Ukraine	11	26	119	7	130	17
2	Spain	43	18	18	24	61	23
3	Slovenia	41	19	23	22	64	22
4	Lithuania	90	11	91	10	181	12
5	Austria	271	1	71	13	342	3
6	Estonia	143	6	102	9	245	8
7	Norway	60	16	84	11	144	15
8	Portugal	21	25	18	25	39	26
9	United Kingdom	23	23	25	20	48	24
10	Serbia	38	21	75	12	113	19
11	Germany	204	4	136	6	340	4
12	Albania	126	7	58	18	184	11
13	France	114	8	59	17	173	13
14	Czech Republic	66	15	215	4	281	6
15	Denmark	38	20	188	5	226	9
16	Australia	90	12	9	26	99	20
17	Finland	23	24	23	21	46	25
18	Bulgaria	100	9	66	14	166	14
19	Moldova	94	10	115	8	209	10
20	Sweden	253	2	21	23	274	7
21	Hungary	28	22	65	15	93	21
22	Israel	212	3	317	1	529	1
23	Netherlands	89	13	32	19	121	18
24	Ireland	74	14	62	16	136	16
25	Cyprus	183	5	253	2	436	2
26	Italy	59	17	249	3	308	5

A more detailed comparison between the jury and televoting results is a available here.

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Trophy Presentation

At this point Netta proceeded from the Green Room to the stage to receive the winner's trophy, which was presented by last year's winner Salvador Sobral. Once Netta had her trophy, she took the opportunity to give a short speech. Afterwards Filomena, Sílvia, Daniela and Catarina appeared together one final time to give their closing speech.

Reprise

Finally Netta, together with her backing dancers, performed the winning song "TOY" again. Shots of the audience dancing along were shown during this performance. After they finished, the closing music was played, and the closing credits scrolled upwards at the right-hand side of the screen. UK viewers also saw the BBC's own additional credits at the bottom of the screen. As the credits scrolled, Graham Norton said "Party like it's 2018, the Altice Arena is rocking. Congratulations to Netta. That is it, thanks for watching tonight, it's been an extraordinary night and regrettably for SuRie, she didn't do so well, and had a really horrible time to be honest, but thanks for watching, and we'll see you in Israel. Thank you very much, goodnight." Finally, the Eurovision ident accompanied by Charpentier's Te Deum prelude "Marche en rondeau" marked the end of the show.

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And Finally

Altogether another great Contest. Many thanks to RTP for producing such a spectacular Grand Final. As always it was good to have a mixture of song styles in the final. Most of the songs were OK or very good; there were just a few that I'd rather not have qualified to the final. I personally would have preferred to have seen Armenia and Greece in place of Czech Republic and Israel in the final, and Poland and Montenegro in place of Hungary and Slovenia in the final. Nonetheless I appreciate many people have different musical tastes to me, and I accept that millions of viewers evidently liked the entries from Czech Republic, Israel, Hungary and Slovenia. I cannot possibly expect to have all the songs I personally like the most qualify for the final and have all the ones I dislike eliminated in the semi-finals.

Congratulations to Israel for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with 529 points. As much as I personally dislike the song "TOY" (it's not my taste in music anyway), Netta Barzilai did amazingly well to win for Israel in a field of 26 finalists, especially as there was such a close-run vote this year. That means Israel has now won four times since its debut entry in 1973. Israel - Winners 1978, 1979 1998, 2018. 20 years gap between its two most recent wins (1998 - 2018).

Congratulations also to Cyprus (which I would have preferred to have won instead of Israel) for finishing second with 436 points, and to Czech Republic for finishing sixth with 281 points. It was great to see both of those countries achieve their best places to-date. Well done also to Germany for finishing fourth with 340 points; a vast improvement after its last (or second last) placings the last three years.

Commiserations to the United Kingdom, which finished 24th out of 26 with just 48 points; Although the UK received more televoting points this year than the last two years combined, its jury score and placing was considerably down on the last two years; hence its overall result. The biggest credit must be given to SuRie for how she coped during and after the uncalled-for stage invasion. I was shocked and disgusted when I spotted the stage invasion, but thankfully the invader was quickly removed from the stage and SuRie continued with her performance. She was offered the chance to sing again but declined to do so. I guess she would have been too stressed to sing again and might have given an inferior performance second time around, in which case that may have been detrimental to viewers voting for her. Looking positively, 24th out of 26 finalists is still nothing to be ashamed of; two finalists finished below the UK (Finland and Portugal), and a further 17 countries failed to reach the final. At the end of the day, the important thing is not to win, but to participate.

If anything could have been better, I'd say it was the interval acts whilst the televoting lines were open. The Branko acts in particular were a bit dull, and the video "53 Long Years" was, in my opinion, a bit silly really (I'm not convinced some of the song snippets were of actual past Eurovision Song Contests entries from Portugal). Nonetheless, every year the interval acts are only fillers whilst the televoting lines are open, and since the introduction of the current voting system in 2016 it really has become necessary to allow 30 to 40 minutes for the public to vote, as not everyone is able to vote at once. It is highly likely that many viewers miss much or all of the entertainment whilst the lines are open, especially if they use that time to go to the toilet, make tea / coffee and vote for their chosen songs (some may need to try several times before they get a clear line to successfully vote). On the night of the Grand Final, I for one paid little attention to the interval acts, due to me doing all of the above, as well as posting my top ten from "My Eurovision Scoreboard" smartphone app in various Eurovision groups on Facebook. It was only when I saw my video recording of the Grand Final in full a few days later that I properly watched the interval entertainment.

Once again, the voting sequence was exciting, particularly when the televoting totals were announced. There were quite a few shocks and surprises among the televoting totals. Sweden, which finished second with 253 points in the jury vote did really badly in the public vote. Some countries which had low jury scores / placings did considerably better in televoting. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the night was Cesár Sampson from Austria, who won the jury vote with 271 points, but finished 13th with 71 points in the televote, and consequently 3rd with 342 points overall. The most exciting moment of the televoting sequence was when Daniela and Catarina were about to announce which country (Cyprus or Israel) finished second in the televote. Although both were guaranteed to leapfrog Austria by then, there was still uncertainty as to whether Cyprus or Israel would win outright. Sadly, once Daniela announced that Cyprus finished second with 253 points in the public vote, an anti-climax followed because it was obvious that Israel (which had already received the higher jury total out of Cyprus and Israel) would overtake Cyprus and win outright.

The finish would have been much more exciting if the top two of the televote had been Israel second with 253 points, and Cyprus first with 317 points. In that scenario, Israel's final score would have been 465 points, momentarily putting it in the lead. Most likely the scoreboard would have been shown, with Israel's 253 points being added, and hence going into the lead with 465 points. The announcement of Cyprus as winner of the televote would have been the highlight of the night because, for a moment, it would have been uncertain whether or not Cyprus would get enough points to pass Israel. Daniela would, almost certainly, have said "The winner of the televote is Cyprus, but will they get enough points to overtake Israel in the lead?" Green Room shots of Eleni (Cyprus) and Netta (Israel) would, no doubt, have been shown on screen whilst Daniela announced the actual number of points Cyprus had received from the televote. Daniela would, most likely, have said "Cyprus gets 317 points, putting them in the lead. Cyprus is the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, with 500 points". Most likely they would have shown the scoreboard with 317 points appearing alongside Cyprus, and it moving to the top of the scoreboard with 500 points.

Roll on the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest from Israel. Can IPBC (Kan) do as well or better? Time will tell. Mark my words, next year's Contest will tell another story as far as the results are concerned, especially if the EBU retains the method of separate jury and televoting points from each country. Who knows, the UK might win next year!

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