E9

Ninth edition of African Contest took place in Brazzaville, Congo, after Madame Monsieur and Youssoupha won back in Casablanca.

42 countries took part in this edition, marked green (qualifiers) and red (non-qualifiers) on the map. Botswana, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea made their first appearance in the contest. This is the first edition which consisted of three shows, introducing 2 semi finals instead of one and a wildcard round.



Sierra Leone won this edition, scoring 214 points. They were represented by Mabel and Not3s with their song "Fine Line". Morocco and Tunisia joined Sierra Leone in this edition's top 3.

Host city
The contest was held in Congo, after their victory in Morocco the previous edition. Their head of delegation decided to host the show in Congo's capital city, Brazzaville.

Format
In the ninth edition, the number of participants continued growing, which was followed by another format change. Two semi finals were held, instead of one. From each semi final, 10 countries qualified directly to the final, and 2 qualified to the wildcard round. The only countries prequalified to the final were the ones delegated by team members and the previous edition's winner. In each semi final, all of it's participants were obligated to vote. Two automatic qualifiers were also obligated to vote in one of the semi finals.

In the wildcard round, 2 out of 4 countries advanced to the grand final. All participants of the edition, except the 4 WC participants themselves were able to vote.

The final would then include 26 participants.

Automatic qualifiers

 * - winner of E8
 * - team member
 * - team member
 * - team member

Semi Final 1
The first semi final took place on 27 July 2018. Nineteen countries participated in this semi final. Egypt and Ghana also voted in this semi final. The results were announced on 1 August. Highlighted countries qualified for the final (orange=DTF, yellow=WC).

Semi Final 2
The second semi final took place on 2 August 2018. Nineteen countries participated in this semi final. Congo and Tunisia also voted in this semi final. Burkina Faso got disqualified for not voting on time. The results were announced on 6 August. Highlighted countries qualified for the final (orange=DTF, yellow=WC).

Wildcard Round
The wildcard round took place on 7 August 2018. All participants of this edition apart from the ones competing in WC themselves were allowed to vote. Highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Grand Final
The final took place on 8 August 2018. Twenty-six countries participated. Sierra Leone won with a total of 214 points, followed by Morocco and Tunisia that also reached the top 3. You can see full rankings in the table below.