Nothing to do with Eurovision but everything to do with the Portuguese musical genre of 'Fado' ("destiny, fate"), the classic song that is "Coimbra" by Amália Rodrigues, the 'Rainha do Fado' ("Queen of Fado"), is also known as "April in Lisbon". And I suppose that is what we got, if you include the start of the Eurovision rehearsals next year probably being either Sunday 29th or Monday 30th April 2018. Yes, we now know the location and the dates of Eurovision 2018. First up, what was probably the most obvious part of the plan, the location:
Thunderbirds Are Go!
Is it just guys of a certain age that will look at the picture above and see Virgil's 'baby', Thunderbird 2, before its green paint job? It does look like a great big spaceship though and I have to say that it will be as iconic a stadium as The Globen was for Eurovision visually. Judging by the acts that have frequented the MEO Arena (for that is its proper title), it can also cope with a big musical event like the Contest and it is obvious that the EBU and RTP agreed, as this is going to be the 2018 venue...in the capital city of Portugal, Lisbon (that's for those fans of the biggest international music show who do not know any geography!).
To be honest, it was all very predictable, wasn't it?
Portugal's first ever Contest as a host so surely the capital city was always going to get the nod - somewhere with the right combination of hotels, tourist facilities, the biggest international airport in the country, good internal travel arrangements and of course the largest Arena.
Looks nice, doesn't it? I'm assuming that isn't the finished logo but the wavy lines could be interpreted as the sea (which Portugal has relied on heavily throughout its history), a river (the Tagus which runs alongside the MEO) or even the visual interpretation of a musical scale - if this is the level of detail that we get from our Portuguese hosts now, us fans may be treated to one of the well run and interesting Contests for many a year. Early days though...
So the dates to put onto your pc/phone/tablet are:
8th May 2018 - SF1
10th May 2018 - SF2
12th May 2018 - Final
Not dissimilar to 2017 or many years really - it was always unlikely to be later due to the EBU's involvement with the World Cup in Russia next June.
As for the city itself, this will be the furthest west that the Contest has ever been, further out than Millstreet and it is likely to hold that title until Iceland get their first win (Reykjavik anyone?). Judging by social media, all the die hard fans and 'press' have sorted their accommodation now the dates are known - me?
I plan to be there too, attending my first Eurovision, "boots on the ground"!
As it will be holiday as well as being at the Contest, I do not plan to sit in a press centre for two weeks! I intend to enjoy between one and six shows, whilst being a tourist wandering around the 'oldest capital in Europe' during the day. I will probably only be there for the actual Eurovision week but who knows? This time last year I hadn't planned that I would be going to Eesti Laul and being part of the press pack...
As I've never been to Portugal at all, I'll be looking at all the places to visit - this amazing aerial video gives some pointers as to where to go, with the opening flyby passing over our 'home' next May:
The Myriad still has rooms available, by the way...
In previous years when I have posted celebratory posts when host cities have been announced, I have managed to find some songs linked to that place - this year I'll give you two! First up is by Angra, a Brazilian metal band, with this morose but powerful little ditty:
That was the only song linked with Lisbon I liked initially but with the 'threat' of an early Eurovision just hours before the original announcement, the fado classic highlighted right at the start of this article seemed a more appropriate choice:
So that's it then! No months of waiting for an announcement, no pondering as to which days off we will all need to take as annual leave in 2018 and there's an end point now known for those of us who can be bothered to learn a little bit of the language for where we are headed...
We are all off to Lisboa!