Eurovision 2018 Preselection Blog Week 7

It was a busy weekend where the number of selected songs increased by a third. In Belarus, SHUMA gave a cool and avant garde performance for "Chmarki." In Montenegro, "Dišem" by Nina Petković was the most fresh & upbeat of the whole selection.

 For your Latvian consideration, if they really are having a wildcard after last week's voting, "Running Red Lights" by Katrine Lukins. In host country Portugal, Rita Dias charmed with "Com Gosto Amigo". In Iceland, "Svaka stuð" by Stefanía, Agnes og Regína had a precious performance . In Sweden, "Cry" by Dotter was the best of the rest - and this semifinal was better than last year's but overall it's been uncharacteristically weak. In Hungary, “Életre kel” by Nikoletta Szoke, Attila Kökény and Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos was smooth and pleasant the whole time. Greta Zazza was robbed in Lithuania last year and she was this year too with "Broken Shadows." In Romania, Sergiu Bolotă gave "Every Little Thing" a cool, dark performance.

San Marino's preselection this year has been unusual, that's for sure. IROL is the only Sammarinese performer in the selection and his song with Maltese Jessica, "Stuck Without Me," is cheery. Since he's a local, I hope he goes to Eurovision even if he doesn't this year.

And for something different, my top 3 performances of the week:
3. In Ukraine, Illaria performed "Sila" like a sun goddess.
2. In Estonia, Metsakutsu gave "Koplifornia" an exceptionally glitchy stage performance, very hacker aesthetic. It's not Eurovision-friendly at all but I want to listen to it on a highway bus.
1. ManuElla was back in Slovenia with "Glas" which was the best song in the whole thing. I understand why it didn't go through. Slovenia/EMA has a chronic staging and stage presence problem. They frequently send some of the best songs to Eurovision and they fail to connect with the audience. ManuElla sounded great but visually the performance was too stiff and static. If Slovenia want to do well they can't rely on a good song and have to send a performer with charisma, so hopefully they choose BQL next week.