RTP and Lisbon are in full steam gearing up for the forthcoming 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Portugal will be playing host to Europe’s favorite television show for the very first time and is set to organize a cost efficient Eurovision edition next year.

RTP’s CEO Mr. Gonçalo Reis has shed some light on the forthcoming 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in an interview with Portuguese newspaper, O Jornal Economico. The chairman of RTP’s board of directors assures that Portugal will organize a cost efficient contest:

The cheapest Eurovision Song Contest ever will be held in Lisbon in 2018, thus having one of most interesting and creative proposals ever made, with the capacity for designing Portugal.

According to the investment made in each of the editions in the last decade, the Eurovision Song Contest has incurred a cost between 25-40 million Euros for the host country. Speaking to Jornal Económico at a recent conference, promoted by the International Club of Portugal (ICPT), Mr. Gonçalo Reis assured that the Portuguese edition (Eurovision 2018) will be much more cost efficient:

I can say today that we are going to organize the cheapest Eurovision Song Contest ever,  and I am confident that our creative teams will develop one of the most interesting Eurovision ever.

This is the first time that the the Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Portugal, thanks to Salvador Sobral‘s epic victory in Kyiv last May with his entry Amar pelos dois. The 2017 Portuguese winning entry was penned and composed by Salvador’s sister Luísa Sobral, and obtained a record 758 points (jury/televoting deliberation).

Focus on Festival da Cançao

Gonçalo Reis goes on to explain explains that the RTP Project will focus on Festival da Cançao, which will be held outside Lisbon, whilst the 2 semi-finals and the Grand Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest will be held at the MEO Arena in Parque das Nações, in Lisbon, on 8, 10 and 12 May.

Gonçalo Reis adds:

We started by betting on Festival da Cançao,  which we do not want to dissociate from the Eurovision Song Contest. We had the option to hold Festival da Cançao outside the capital, thus decentralizing the event. After technical visits, we chose Guimarães [for the next edition]. We are committed for the next four years to hold  Festival da Cançao, where we will choose our Eurovision representative, outside the capital. So let’s go through the country and give an opportunity to several Portuguese cities to stage the Festival da Cançao!

Regarding the upcoming 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, RTP is in process of developing an idea to help design the image of Portugal overseas. Mr. Reis goes on to comment:

Our creative teams are developing the concept to convey the image of a contemporary Portugal, a Portugal open to the world, a culture of inclusion, a culture of tolerance, a positive culture.

Reis adds:

This will be a mobilizing project for all the creative industries involved,  for Lisbon and for Portugal, which will design the country and help it to surf this wave of great notoriety, this positive wave that the country as a whole is going through, in terms of  an international projection.

The  Eurovision Song Contest is a unique spectacle, it is an event that goes beyond RTP. RTP has all the conditions to produce a major television event to promote our creative industries and entertainment industry.

Now the Eurovision Song Contest is something that involves the host city,  the tourism and the whole country!

The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 8, 10 and 12 May at the MEO Arena in Lisbon, Portugal.