When is the Eurovision Song Contest 2018?

When is the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 on TV?

The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final takes place on Saturday, May 12th. You'll be able to watch the show live on BBC1 from 8pm with Graham Norton on the night, or you can tune in on BBC Radio 2 with Ken Bruce from 8pm.

There were also two semi-finals, on May 8th and 10th, to decide who would join the Big Five (Spain, France, Germany, Italy and The UK) and hosts Portugal in the Grand Final.

Here are all the acts who are currently through to the Grand Final. Click the links to find out more about each act.

What's the running order for the Eurovision Grand Final?

The running order for the Eurovision 2018 Grand Final is as follows:

Who decides the Eurovision running order?

Allow the Eurovision experts to explain...

What time will The UK perform at during Eurovision 2018?

SuRie will be the ninth act to perform on the night so she should take to the stage within the first hour of the competition.

It's likely that we'll see her perform before 9pm BST.

Who is representing the UK at Eurovision 2018?

The United Kingdom will be represented by Eurovision: You Decide winner SuRie. She'll sing Storm at the Grand Final in Lisbon.

Who is the UK's Eurovision 2018 entry SuRie? Here's everything you need to know about the singer

Who is competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018?

You can meet all of the confirmed acts for Eurovision 2018 here.

Who is the favourite to win Eurovision 2018?

The current favourite to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 is Cyprus' Eleni Foureira. Her song is called Fuego, which means fire.

The second favourite to win the contest is Israel's Netta Barzilai. Her song is called TOY and was originally tipped to take top honours.

Ireland's Ryan O'Shaughnessy is currently third favourite to win in Lisbon.

Former Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak is constantly rising up and down in the odds. He's performing Norway's entry, That's How You Write A Song.

How does the Eurovision Song Contest voting work?

Eurovision was originally judged by juries before being opened to the public for a tele vote but when people started getting worked up about political Bloc Voting (the idea that countries in Eastern Europe were all just voting for their friends and neighbours) they introduced a new dual system.

The juries from each country (made up of five music industry professionals) award 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs, and reveal those jury scores through their national spokesperson in the usual time-consuming yet exciting way.

Viewers from each country also vote via phone or SMS, awarding 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs. Then, all the results from each country’s public votes are combined to give one overall Eurovision viewer score per song.

Spokespersons from each country read out the jury results – those all important douze points – during the live show.

Then the Eurovision presenters read out the results of the European televote – or public vote – in ascending order, beginning with the country that received the lowest number of televotes – public votes – and finishing with the country that received the highest.

Viewers in all the competing countries – including those who were knocked out in the semi-finals – can vote up to 20 times for the songs of their choice, but they can’t vote for their own country.

The country with the highest number of votes wins the competition and gets to host it the next year.

How do you vote in the Eurovision Song Contest?

You can vote by telephone. Here are the official BBC guidelines for UK voters:

"After all countries have performed, viewers will be invited to vote for their favourite act/s.

Voting is by telephone only. Voters in the UK can choose either to call from their landline using the long (11-digit) number for the country of their choice or from their mobile phones using the shortcode (7-digit) number for the country of their choice.

Please note that callers from the Channel Islands and Isle of Man should call from their landlines using the long (11-digit) number to avoid higher mobile charges, as the short (7-digit) numbers are not available in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for reasons outside of the BBC’s control."

The numbers to be used will be given during the programmes.

Who has been eliminated from Eurovision 2018?

The countries who failed to qualify during the semi-final stages are:

Who qualified from the first Eurovision 2018 semi-final?

The ten countries who qualified in the first Eurovision 2018 semi-final are:

Who qualified from the second Eurovision 2018 semi-final?

The acts who qualified from the second semi-final are:

Who won Eurovision 2017?

Portugal's Salvador Sobral secured victory with his song Amar Pelos Dois in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2017. His win marked the first ever Portugese Eurovision victory.

Where is the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 being held?

As is traditional, last year's winner will host the event, with the Portuguese capital of Lisbon chosen for the country's first ever Grand Final, which will take place at the Altice Arena.

Who are the Eurovision 2018 presenters?

Portugal has chosen four female hosts for this year's Song Contest – TV presenter and 2017 Portuguese Jury spokesperson Filomena Cautela, the country's Strictly Come Dancing, Masterchef, Top Chef and Portugal’s Got Talent host Sílvia Alberto, NCIS: Los Angeles star Daniela Ruah (who grew up in Portugal) and TV presenter and actress Catarina Furtado.

Will Russia compete at Eurovision 2018?

In 2017 Russia withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest following a dispute wth Ukraine over their singer's eligibility to take part. The country returned to Eurovision in 2018, with Yulia Samoylova (last year's entrant) selected again to perform for her country – but she failed to make it through the semi-finals, meaning Russia will be absent from the live final for the second year in a row.

Be sure to keep watching this space for all the latest on the Eurovision Song Contest 2018...