One month after the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest crowned its winner, Portugal, the delegation of the next year’s host country has met with the EBU Reference Group at their headquarters in Geneva. During the meeting, the first plans of the 2018 host broadcaster were discussed.

Before the meeting on Swiss ground, a few conference calls were held between the Reference Group and the RTP team. The meeting took place with the presence and the advice of some members of the Ukrainian 2017 producers. The Executive Supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest Jon Ola Sand was also present, who stated:

The work of organizing an event such as the Eurovision Song Contest is “mammoth” and begins right after the country wins.

The most important thing for the producers right now is to find an appropriate venue for the 2018 edition in Portugal.

Portuguese quite happy for their first win

Until their grandiose victory in May by 758 points, Portugal was considered as one of the least successful countries in the history of the contest. Their best result was the 6th place, therefore they had never entered the Top 5 since their debut 53 years ago in 1964.

The Head of Portuguese Delegation, Carla Bugalho Trindade has talked about the excitement and the happiness of the Portuguese audience and said:

We won for the first time, it was a wonderful experience to finally hear ‘Portugal 12 points’ but we did not expect to win, the main goal was to qualify for the final. When we won, it could not have been better. Everyone stood still to watch the TV, everyone wanted to see Salvador win.

The Chief Finance Officer at RTP, Cristina Tomé stated:

We were really happy, we were expecting this for more than 50 years. It was good for our country and for us at RTP. We celebrated it of course but we got to work right away. I sent messages to my colleagues, read the documentation given to us by Jon Ola Sand at the winning press conference and we then began to set up the core team.

The next steps

The organizers of the 2018 contest will officially announce the host city, the venue and the dates of the upcoming edition after their arrival back to their country. Afterwards, it will be time for them to discuss and make a decision about the theme and the artwork of the 2018 contest.

The RTP team is very optimistic about the preparations for next May and they stated that we have to be there next year to enjoy a wonderful show.