The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

Yesterday (6/5/18) the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest opened in Lisbon, Portugal with the traditional Opening Gala.

The first Semi-Final will be held tomorrow (8/5/18). The second Semi-Final will be held on Thursday (10/5/18). The Grand Final will take place on Saturday (12/5/18).

As far as I am concerned there was no 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. Due to serious and persistent rule breaking I conducted a soft boycott. I only watched the voting of the Grand Final and limited myself to providing minimal coverage after the event.

The embarrassing thing is that this approach seemed to improve proceedings. Normally I get far to excited far too early and end up ruining it for everyone.

So this year I am going to try and limit my coverage until after the Grand Final. I will though be watching both the Semi-Finals and the Grand Final. I'm just going to try and do it quietly.

One thing of note is that this year's contest will be hosted by Daniela Ruah. She is probably most famous for playing Agent Kensi Blye in the US TV Show; "NCIS: Los Angeles."

So in short this year's Eurovision Song Contest is going to be hosted by an American. An American who pretends to be spy on television.

It turns out though Daniela Ruah was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Russian-Ukrainian-Portuguese parents. Aged five the family returned to Portugal where Daniela Ruah made her acting debut aged 16 in "Jardins Proibidos" ("Forbidden Gardens").

In 2001 she moved to the UK to study at London Metropolitan University. It was only in 2007 she returned to the US taking on the role in NCIS: Los Angeles.

So Daniela Ruah can certainly claim some link with Europe and Portugal in particular.

I don't care though;

It's still an American presenting the Eurovision Song Contest.

19:30 on 7/5/18 (UK date).