RTP is not planning to spend too mcuh on hosting Eurovision song contest 2018, despite waiting for some 50 years to host it. Instead Gonçalo Reis, the Chariman of RTP is boasting to have "the cheapest Eurovision ever!"
"I can say today that we are going to make the Eurovision Festival the cheapest ever and I am confident that our creative teams will develop one of the most interesting Eurovision ever, Our creative teams are developing the concept to convey the image of a contemporary Portugal, a Portugal open to the world, a culture of inclusion, a culture of tolerance, a positive culture. This will be a mobilizing project for all creative industries, for Lisbon and for Portugal, that will design the country and help it go with this flow of great notoriety, this positive wave that the country as a whole is having, in terms of international projection, Eurovision is a spectacle, it is an event that goes beyond RTP. RTP has all the conditions to produce a major television event to promote our creative industries, the entertainment industry, Now Eurovision is something that involves the city, tourism, the whole country," he concludes.
Hosting Eurovision has generally costed about 25-40 million euros in the resent years, unless you are a country like Azerbaijan or Russia having problems with modesty and will to show the world you have millions to spend for nothing. The result on screen hasn't been any better than those events arranged with even smaller budgets in Sweden, Finland and Norway over the years.
This blogger hopes RTP indeed manages to bring on screen and on stage all the wonderful things Portugal has to offer, with their rich culture and recognizable style and image, leaving us all well aware Eurovision 2018 was in Portugal and nowhere else. Altice Arena (as MEO Arena was rebranded just awhile ago) has all the makings of a great venue, with its surroundings. Bring the nearby sea, overseas, conquistadors and rich history on stage, too! Give us some lusitan passion with amor de agua fresca, calling for music and conquistadores! Of course not fogetting love for two!
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