The highlights of a very political Eurovision final

From our special correspondent in Lisbon (Portugal)

This Saturday, the Eurovision final offered the public its share of flamboyant performances, high notes and improbable clothes.

But this Portuguese edition will go down in the history of the competition as one of the most political on stage.

Explanations.

• The victory of a feminist song

Israeli Netta Barzilai won the competition.

Her exuberance is obvious and the chicken noises she imitates drum in your ears… you almost forget the content of her song.

is a feminist anthem written in line with the #MeToo movement.

"I'm not your toy, poor fool!"

“, chants the artist in the chorus in the middle of lyrics inviting to self-confidence.

• A divisive French song?

The duo Madame Monsieur took thirteenth place, out of twenty-six for France with

, inspired by the true story of a child born last year on an SOS Méditerranée boat coming to the aid of refugees.

“It's a song in French, on a subject that is currently tense in Europe.

We finished right in the middle of the ranking, it's proof that it's divisive, ”said singer Emilie Satt.

It should be noted that if the French piece seduced the professional jurors, who ranked it eighth, it is not the same for the European public, who attributed it the seventeenth place in its votes.

“If it doesn't take off, it would show that there is real overall bad faith in not wanting to put points to a song that evokes this subject and that would show that it is effective because it disturbed”, advanced before Eurovision Christophe Willem, who commented on the final on France 2.

• Europe treasured the Italian song on terrorism

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Only seventeenth after the jury's votes (17 points), the Italian duo Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro, came third in the viewers' vote (249 points), which allowed them to finish in fifth place in the general classification (308 points).

Audiences from thirty-five countries, including the French, gave him at least two points.

The sign that the song

has federated and touched a sensitive chord.

The text, inspired by "You will not have my hatred" by Antoine Leiris, whose wife was killed in the Bataclan attack, evokes resilience in the face of terrorism.

Snippets of lyrics translated into several languages ​​appeared on the screen during the performance of the two singers.

If, aesthetically, it was not the most successful, it obviously helped to get the message across.

• Hide those gays I can't see

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Irishman Ryan O'Shaughnessy finished 16th with Together, a romantic ballad he performed on stage accompanied by two dancers.

The two boys delivered a choreography all in brushings and amorous ballet.

It seems that Russian commentators have presented this dance as that of "two good friends" - remember that Russia prohibits the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations", which is a euphemism for designating a homophobic law.

But the pompom of censorship was won by China which, during Tuesday's semi-final, purely and simply did not broadcast the performance of the Irishman (nor that of the Albanian, too tattooed).

The European Broadcasting Union, which oversees Eurovision, did not like it at all and immediately terminated its contract with Chinese television.

• Storm over the UK

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Our neighbors across the Channel have had bad results at Eurovision.

You have to go back to 2011 to find them in the first half of the ranking (the Blue group finished 11th).

This year, Britain's SuRie finished 24th out of 26 with her song Storm.

The storm, she experienced it on stage, during the final, when a spectator came on stage to take the microphone from her hands.

He would have liked to protest against the presence of the United Kingdom in Eurovision after the vote in favor of Brexit.

The singer, obviously surprised at the time, quickly recovered her senses in order to continue with a niaque which was reflected on the screen.

That wasn't enough to convince viewers to vote for her.

Anyway, SuRie,

• Australia is really not part of Europe

One of the lessons of this 2018 list is that the European public is still reluctant to award points to Australia.

The country, where Eurovision is a phenomenon, invited to participate since 2015, came last in the viewers' vote by gleaning only nine small points (six from Malta, two from Denmark and one from the United Kingdom), while it finished twelfth on the jury side (and 20th overall).

Last year, we observed the same trend: the Australian candidate had finished 4th on the jury side and 25th on the public side.

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