EUROVISION 2018: 43 COUNTRIES TO TAKE PART

RTP has revealed today there will be 43 countries taking part in Eurovision song contest 2018 in Lisbon. That means those three countries (Macedonia, Moldova and Russia) that haven't yet officially confirmed are in as expected.

43 is however a troublesome number as it has been reached before but then dropped to 42 for various reasons, like EBU kicking Romania out in 2016. But twice before this record number has been reached: 2008 in Belgrade thanks to debuts of Azerbaijan and San Marino, and 2011 in Dusseldorf thanks to return of Italy. In 2018 sadly Bosnia & Herzegovina and Turkey still stay out and no new record numner is reached.

Participating countries in Lisbon 2018:

Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceand, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

UPDATE: The curse of the 43 might strike again: Macedonia is in money trouble with EBU and unless they ay off their debts they might end up shut off of all EBU programming, including Eurovision just like Romania a couple of years ago.....

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Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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