Editorials & Opinion

My Eurovision 2018 Experience (Part 3)

As the 2019 season approaches, I am taking a look back at my experience during my time in Lisbon this year. This time I’m looking at my final days in Lisbon and what I got up to.

Day 7 – Rehearsals for the Grand Final

My seventh day in Lisbon consisted of watching the first Dress Rehearsal in the afternoon and the Jury Rehearsal later in the evening. The running order was decided after the Grand Final and was confirmed early that day.

Day 8 – The Big Finale!!!!!

My Final Day in Lisbon 🙁

Here it is!, the day that everyone is waiting for. It is the Christmas of Eurovision Fans, the Grand Final. 

Whenever it is the Grand Final day, I always get mixed emotions about it. One, I’m very excited to find out who will be the successor and where we might potentially be heading to the next year.

On the other hand, I’m sad because it will only take three more hours for it to be finished, then it will all be over for another year. Then I will be wondering what am I going to do with my life for the next seven-eight months.

On to the night itself, I knew that it was always going to be close between Israel and Cyprus. Both songs have great performers and both tracks have appeal to the masses.

I had the opportunity to watch the shows from the Press and Fan area, just next to the Altice Arena. There was a lot of excitement in the air and in some cases you can hear the vibrations being made by the performances in the arena (this was very obvious with AWS).

To sum it all off, it was a great finale. Despite the hiccup with SuRie (which I am still annoyed about to this day!), I am proud of her performance and her resilience to finish it. Netta deserved her win by a mile and I am looking forward to clucking my way over to Israel next year!

Day 9 – Leaving Lisbon 🙁

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiuU_U9nKwT/?taken-by=eurovisiontj
I was listening to O Jardim on repeat on my way home

After partying my way through the night, it was time to say goodbye to everyone for the final time.

Goodbyes are not easy, especially if you’ve spent the past week with some awesome people (but good things must come to an end, for now at least!). After I said goodbye, I packed my bags and head back to London.

If I am being honest, I had ‘O Jardim’ on constant repeat on the way home and was in a very melancholic mood and maybe a few bursts of tears. Just like that my Lisbon experience was over.

When I landed at London Heathrow, I managed to find out that Saara Aalto was on the same flight as me. We chatted briefly on the way out as I push my three suitcases out to the Arrivals area. I then said Goodbye one last time to my Finnish queen.

A Personal Note

To finish things, that was the end of my Eurovision 2018 experience. I just wanted to say Thank You to everyone who has read our articles, watched our videos and of course the live stream. Here’s to 2019!!, I cannot wait to find out whether we are going to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem!

That’s all for now. Thank You very much for your continuous support to ESCXTRA and I cannot wait to show you what we have in store for the next year. Don’t forget to subscribe on our Youtube channel ‘ESCXTRA‘ and ‘ESCXTRA LIVE’ and on social media @ESCXTRA

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