Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  RTP and EBU have revealed today the first design of the stage of Eurovision song contest 2018 and no surprise it continues the theme of sea conquistadores. The inspiration is drawn from navigation, sea, maps and ships, and reflects Portugal's history and culture. Once again I feel like pointing out the same approach RTP is having to YLE's back in the day. We at the far corners of the continent seem to take more pride on our own heritage over standard multinational offerings, so often present in Eurovision events.  The armillary sphere, present also in the Portuguese flag and heraldry, will be a visual key element. Sweeping waves and art of boatbuilding will be also visible and part of the design. While the old saying goes "All roads lead to Rome" next May it will be Lisbon where all the lines on map come together. All aboard! The main design is again by Florian Wieder, who has already designed several stages, including the one in Kyiv earlier this year....

  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, Por...

The tourist tax - one euro per night - introduced in Lisbon last year will be used to cover the costs of Eurovision song contest 2018, says Lisbon Mayor Fernando Medina. The city already earned 13,5 million euros in 2016 thanks to this fee, and with the rising number of visitors and booming tourism this year the sum is surely going to be even bigger.  The same system is used in many cities and countries under various names like hotel tax etc but this is propably the first time it is used openly to finance some major event. RTP CEO Gonçalo Reis says they're excited but understand the responsability and complexity, grandeur and the requisities they are facing, but they will make the most of it. It's a huge window and opportunity to Portuguese music industry and RTP to showcase themselves internationally.Yet the contest will be one of the most economical of the recent years, but he won't go into budget details yet.  Meanwhile 27 countries have confirmed their ...

Portugal is really in at the moment. Not only they won Eurovision, but previous winner Jamala filmed her latest video there and now Madonna has bought a six million euro 18th century Unesco protected Quinta do Relogio Palace to move in in September to support her adopted son's football dreams in Bemfica juniors and become a soccer mom. She stayed in Lisbon two weeks recently house hunting and seems to love it.  Hello RTP, she's already in town, have her for interval act next year, ok? I guess she'd love to do something Lady Gaga failed.... Couldn't she just go and host the Welcome Party here, too?