Eurovision 2018: Grand Prix preview

[passionpop]

Hurtling down the final straight towards this finish line, it is only hours now until we know who will be the grand winner of Eurovision 2018. There are favorites in the field who are leading the race, but everything is still a little up in the air. 

The list of the songs in running order are below with the links behind the country name going to my original blog entry and the link behind the song being a clip of the performance from either the semi (where they performed in the semi) or the rehearsals (for the big 5 and Portugal who did not go through the semis). The average bookmakers odds are at the end of each country. 

01 Ukraine Mélovin "Under the Ladder" -  Quite the little show pony. This performance could only be improved by Melovin catching fire. it is a great opener though. 150/1

02 Spain Amaia & Alfred "Tu canción" the position of death, historically you cannot win from second. Interesting that the Portuguese producers decided to put Spain in second. Pretty song 150/1

03 Slovenia Lea Sirk "Hvala, ne!" interesting performance. interesting Cheresk costumes. will possibly draw votes from one of the favourites in Israel, but wont go anywhere. Interesting to sit this song between two ballads 250/1

04 Lithuania Ieva Zasimauskaitė "When We're Old" - this little snore of a song had large amounts of money thrown on it after the Jury semi. It implies it is big with the juries rationalization has hit in the last day. Rationally it is not that great. Toilet break 20/1

05 Austria Cesár Sampson "Nobody but You" - executed perfectly in the semi. Sure it looked like an alien was coming down to earth, but the vocals were excellent, better than more. 100/1

06 Estonia Elina Nechayeva "La forza" - This is glass-smashing popera. Nailed on the semi. it has a following and without anything similar it could so well. Has dropped with the bookies though 43/1

07 Norway Alexander Rybak "That's How You Write a Song" - another song that has fallen from favour. Alexander is quite the showman but this song is not Eurovision perfection like Fairytaie was 25/1 

08 Portugal Cláudia Pascoal "O jardim" - a little Massive Attack. Popular in the arena, but nowhere else 199/1

09 United Kingdom SuRie "Storm" - it looks like the light show behind SuRie was faulty in the preview performance in the semi. If they fix that it will look a lot better. could be a good result for the UK but not a winner. Too Eurythmics. 250/1

10 Serbia Sanja Ilić & Balkanika "Nova deca" (Нова деца) - Ethnopop is under-represented in the final this year so this could be a massive sleeper and do a lot better than expected, especially seeing eastern countries are also hugely under represented. Serbia is a Russian ally and will likely get a few votes from there. This song is likely to also benefit from anti-voting from the favourites, who may throw jury points this songs way to balance popular votes on the other favorites. The Jury could be this songs best friend, that and the small votes it will get from people who like this crap and the good votes if should get from Balkan countries. This will not finish last like the bookies think it will. 399/1

11 Germany Michael Schulte "You Let Me Walk Alone" - Massive tearjerker with a quiet following. a dark horse but good money 20/1 (5th)

12 Albania Eugent Bushpepa "Mall" -  a surprising qualifier but Eugent nailed it at the semi so it was kinda deserved. Still confused by what the drummer is wearing, but could do better than the bookies predict 200/1

13 France Madame Monsieur "Mercy" - in the break in the semi they sung a small amount of last years winner "Amar Pelos Dois" in French. It sounded better than the original Portuguese, it was amazing. the only clip I can find online of the complete song has the guitar too loud so you miss the vocals (The Guitar sounds a little like Rainbow Connection). All this shows that they may be able to sing so the execution of Mercy should not be too bad. 12/1 (4th)

14 Czech Republic Mikolas Josef "Lie to Me" - bad draw. Performance needs to be a lot better than the semi where one of the dancers was really off. 50/1

15 Denmark Rasmussen "Higher Ground" Sounds like it should be the theme music to a TV show. big bearded men have a following at Eurovision though 50/1

16 Australia Jessica Mauboy "We Got Love" Not 100% at the Semi, but has apparently been getting better. In Australia we are being told it is hugely popular. I bet every country says that about their entries. 50/1

17 Finland Saara Aalto "Monsters" - This performance caused a Duran Duran Flashback before burning the Eurythmics into my eyeballs. Other than being inspired by 80s English music videoclips, it is a good performance. 50/1

18 Bulgaria Equinox "Bones" - They tried to make up for their weak staging by using visual effects and failed. not the strongest song and the lyrics deserved more. 49/1

19 Moldova DoReDoS "My Lucky Day" From their national selection to the Semi final DoReDoS have refined their vocals significantly and this is a standout performance, though it does reek of a show by a childrens performer. It is also similar to their 2012 entry Lăutar. It went into favouritism before realism took over. 59/1

20 Sweden Benjamin Ingrosso "Dance You Off" another refined performance. It is surprising though with the 1000s of lights available and Sweden brings their own. They are not alone but it is a bit of an insult to the stage designers 20/1

21 Hungary AWS "Viszlát nyár" - the audience for this kind of music generally loathes Eurovision, still it made the final so who knows what these boys can do. 66/1

22 Israel Netta "Toy"  I tend to agree with Salvador Sobral, this song is horrible. It as favourite up until a few days ago. A number of people have said they have misheard swearing in this song. Looks more like satire than music. 14/5 (2nd)

23 Netherlands Waylon "Outlaw in 'Em" Country crap tends to do well at Eurovision, though this may be too country. the bookies think so 124/1

24 Ireland Ryan O'Shaughnessy "Together" - This was a borderline qualifier that made it. has had stupid amounts of money thrown ot since qualifying and has not gone back to where it belongs. Mad Irish with more money than brains Toilet break. 8/1 (3rd)

25 Cyprus Eleni Foureira "Fuego" this has been favorite for the last 4 days, highly backed since the semi. Blatant Beyonce rip off but it is a party anthem and Eurovision likes that. Excellent draw 5/4 (1st)

26 Italy Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro "Non mi avete fatto niente" - The first song I sampled this year is the last song of the event. It is a great song to end on because after all the glitter and sparkle of Eurovision, this song brings you back to reality. typical of Italy though, it is terribly presented.the clapping is annoying one of the guys vocals are weak. It will take some votes from France but other than that will do nothing 25/1

My tips

Israel will win the Barbara Dex award (for worst dressed). There is no competition in that regard 

Serbia will finish top 10. must better than last like the bookies predict. 

Czechia (Czech Republic) will do the backflip that was planned for the performance but no performed due to an injury in the first rehearsal doing it

an uptempo song will win so it could well be that the bookies are right and it will be Cyprus. This will cause a problem as there does not appear to be a big enough stadium with a roof near an airport in Cyprus and unlike Azerbaijan (who don't care about human rights much) I doubt they could build one in the few months. ... but who knows.