Eurovision song contest 2018: Bulgaria through to final
Bulgaria’s entry in the 2018 Eurovision song contest, Bones by the Equinox ensemble, was among 10 voted on May 8 to compete in the finals four days later.
The other nine entries voted to take part in the finals, at the close of the first semi-finals, were those from Austria, Estonia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Israel, the Czech Republic, Albania, Finland and Ireland. In the voting, nine of the competitors in the first semi-final fell away.
In the second semi-final, on the night of May 10, a further 10 competitors will be selected for the final.
An aggregation of the bookmakers currently has Cyprus to win at the May 12 final in Portugal’s capital Lisbon. The finals will be shown live on Bulgarian National Television at 10pm.
Given that Eurovision generally cannot escape at least some politicking, the Israeli entry was targeted by the BDS campaign which called for supporters to confer on its song “nul points”. With a counter-campaign that swiftly followed, and quite possibly because many voters liked the act, the BDS bid failed.
(Photo: Andres Putting)
