Eurovision 2017 – With only a few weeks to go before rehearsals start, Italy still easily leads in the betting odds with Francesco Gabbani‘s ‘Occidentali’s Karma‘ on 11/8 or evens. In second place is Bulgaria’s Kristian Kostov on 5/1 and Sweden’s Robin Bengtsson on 7/1.
In a respectable 4th is Portugal’s Salvador Sobral although if he is unable to sing in the initial rehearsals due to ill health that may affect his odds at that stage, and then Blanche from Belgium despite some questionable live performances in the preview parties.
Here’s the current top 10…
The rank outsiders this year are the following bottom 10…
Do you think the bookies have got it right so far? We’ll have to see who rises and falls as soon as the first live performances are seen in Kyiv.
The Eurovision Times 
Austria being underrated and Lithuania could still surprise.
Snow. In April. LOL
We had that in Thessaloniki on April 7th, 2003 :P :D
Weather is always crazy in April here. Now we have sunshine and 15 degrees. If you are lucky, you might get all 4 seasons within 12 hours.
I remember in Greece my mum was saying me ”it is cold outside, wear something thick when it was around 14-15 degrees” :) This year Greece must win the contest to show people hotness of weather and people, it is one of the best places in Europe to enjoy the awesome weather on may :)
I spent one of my annual summer holidays in Greece for the past 3 years. :)
Great! You make the best choice !
Before, I was extensively travelling in Portugal, Spain, Croatia, BiH, Montenegro, France, Andorra, San Marino, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. They are all fantastic destinations. :)
Off topic: The UK is probably going to the polls again. PM May has just called for a general election. Parliament needs to vote for it, but probably will. What a bloody mess.
Corbyn said Labour will vote in favor.
They will, hulluna. One can only hope now that some kind of pro-european platform will make itself heard: the Liberal-Democrats may steal many votes and, hopefully, seats from both the Conservatives and Labour. I do not know who leads them atm, but I hope he or she is up to the task. Messy times lie ahead regardless of the result nonetheless; the UK will cease to exist as we know it in the next 10 years or so, I suspect.
I see there is much talk regarding Salvador’s health condition. Is there any, even slight, chance that he won’t be live on stage in Kiev? :o
His heart condition was more or less oficially acknowledged last Sunday. If a heart becomes available before ESC, my guess is that he won’t be present in Kiev. He wants to go, but that’s up to chance and his doctors.
P.S. – the rumours say he suffers from Marfan Syndrom, but nothing has been confirmed.
This sounds quite grave, Shevek. More than I thought. What can one say. I hope for the best.
We all do. :( :)
To me it seems like esc history repeats itself.
Italy this year reminds me of Russia 2016. The runaway betting winner and obviously televoting winner but we all know how a 6th place with juries could cost them the trophy.
Bulgaria this year screams Dami Im = Runaway jury winner, could just miss televoting top 3?
Belgium is the “j’ai cherché” kind of song. Great appeal from fans but as with Amir last year, a lukewarm stage performance could result in a just missing top 5 result in May (Still top 3 with juries)
So who’s gonna do a Jamala this year?
Azerbaijan? Sweden? Portugal?
Personally I’ve only placed a bet on BGR, PRT and AZE this year :)
how much money do you put?what will you get incase one of them wins?
I usually place very small amounts (1 to 2 euros). Just for the fun of it. I’m against strong passions/addictions.
In case Azerbaijan wins I will get back 21 e.
In case Portugal wins, 15 e
and in case Bulgaria wins it, 9 e
Gotta go! FdlC 19 IS ON !!!!
I do think it will be Baku. Sweden feels more like a televote darling that wont do that big in juries and Portugal a ByeAlex sorta vote. But yeah I agree with all of your comments on the above: Italy won’t be that high with juries, Bulgaria COULD get higher than Australia 2016 in televote since it’s a young boy cutie (and not an Asian female cutie) and an actual European country (with many neighbors) and therefore win it. Belgium will do an Anouk.
I predict a 4th place for PRT (ala ALB 12)
and a 6th for Belgium
Nah..Azerbaijanhas not done any promotion for their best entry ever..I doubt they are willing to host the contest this year tbh.Bulgaria is more likely…They want it baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad…so baaaaaad!I wouldn’t mind their win though…It is my #2 at the moment :)
Frankly,i don’t think that Dihaj can attract such big televoting support.Besides the vocal issues which can be ironed out,she comes off as rather rough and she’s not camera friendly.Portugal will do better than ByeAlex.
Well She has always had an unusual style/look but just because of Eurovision cliches She can’t stop being herself…if being camera friendly had been an issue,a lot of ppl from previous years wouldn’t have won..
I think Azerbaijan is pretty good at staging and how to show certain things good but like I said earlier they are not after another victory
It’s not her alternative style but the fact she lacks stage charisma at least from what i’ve seen till now.We’ll see how they’ll stage it.Frankly,Azerbaijan as a song reminds me of entries like Norway 2013 or Belgium 2015 entries that had good performers and very effective stagings and yet they came only 4th so i don’t know why “Skeletons” would be such a big favorite.As for Azerbaijan,i’m sure they wouldn’t mind winning again.It’s not like it’s only in their hands.
“The slicked back hair Dihaj from the video would be great, but the austere, Star Trek extra look would see western Europe setting phasers to stun. Skeletons is a cracking Sia-inspired ballad which could have easily won back when Azerbaijan were serious contenders before allegedly going clean in 2014. Since then, they’ve been happy to qualify and aim for top-10. And if Azerbaijan were serious, Fokas would be on their staging team.”
I have read similiar stuff…noone thinks they are very willing…Anyways we will see soon…
Makes sense.
If i would get to put money on an entry to win that would come down to only two: either Sweden or Azerbaijan. And a third one that I won’t reveal for now; I’ll wait till it qualifies to the final first ;)
Portugal WILL qualify :P
I’m not talking about Portugal ;)
Which then? :P
I’ll wait till it qualifies first. Let’s say it’s currently in my top10 :P
Well if we are talking about a ”Jamala” I would place my bet on Portugal tbh. Althaugh Portugal 2017 doesn’t really have the appeal of the ”justice” vote like Ukraine had, its difference towards the other entries and as an underdog can make it win tbh.
Another factor can be that each year we always get almost a completely different sound and song from the winners. Last year we had a serious ballad entry with simple yet effective lighting. So to me it feels like Europe might want something completely different and then I think of Italy. Something fun and catchy to lighten last years mood.
In conclusion I think its gonna be a battle between Portugal and Italy in the end, favouring the latter. Italy might do better with the jury this year as the song itself, qualitywise is better then ”Grande Amore” imo. Portugal on the other hand has such an unique sound that even I as a non fan of their song this year would vote for it. It could then create an al Sweden 2015 and finnish high with the televotes and a win with the jury. fun fact: Portugal was one of the few songs that catched my friends attention even if they didn’t fancy it.
Portugal caught our attention because we all know what quality is LOL To be honest I am not giving Portugal any chance when it comes to winning…No matter how much we love the song,we have to be rational..,most hardcore fans find it boring and I don’t think it will get a lot of televoting support in that sense..
Of course I am wishing and hoping for the best for Portugal…it is one of the best songs of this year and deserves a good place <3
The hardcore fans opinion doesn’t matter at all imo (ours do though as we have the best taste, shhhh dont tell), but the fact that people who doesn’t even like Eurovision thinks Portugals entry is at least interesting and stops and listens to it may indicate something big.
However its hard to predict before the first rehearsels and I predicted France last year, so what do I know ehe *-* However I have never predicted a song to win thats outside my personal top 20 :P
I agree that Portugal could be this year’s Jamala although.i expect an even bigger jury support for Amar pelos dois.I can see Italy and Portugal being the last 2 standing and i’d be really happy,tbh.
Portugal doesnt conquer much: its performance style is dividing more than Jamala’s who had the big bombastic performance to go along. I can’t see Portugal higher than 4th (the score my personal winners got in 2013, 2014 and 2015)
I am way more pessimistic.
Jamala won because of what you say and because she came from a country that belongs to an ESC bloc. Portugal is way out to the West with only one neighbour. We’ll be lucky if we qualify.
one neighbor and one VERY GOOD French friend :)
:)
It’s maybe not rational, but when we lost last summer i was devastated of course (for Griezmann or Lloris, both whom I love), but kept thinking “at least we lost to Portugal!” <3
In that case we depended on ourselves, but when it comes to ESC, it’s a completely different story.
And Switzerland …
One neighbour is better than a lot of useless neighbors LOL
Do not worry,Portugal will qualify and get a good result…
The only thing we should worry is his health!!!Hopefully he will conclude his esc journey safe and sound
:)
But look how Austria won, and Bulgaria last year was so high, it depends of the song ppl will vote for, if Portugal sends like Kristian Kostov – “Beautiful mess” it will do very well..I still think Portugal 2017 will do well enough, maybe not top 5, but top 10 possible..it will do like Patricia Kaas imo.. jury will save it..
It’s true. Austria is a great example showing how non-static European televoters can be after all. Going from 311 televoting points and victory in 2014, to 0 televoting points and last place in 2015, to 120 televoting points and an 8th place televoting-wise in 2016. That shows that anyone really can win, as long as they have the right package. Of course, flag voting exists and it influences the final results, but in my opinion, it’s highly overestimated by a lot of people.
I agree that some countries have a head start whereas others start with 0 points, and therefore some countries will never come last and will qualify with songs that would not be enough to push other countries above the line. However, every country can win imo if they show up with the right act at the right time. :)
We’ll soon see. :)
Good point. For the moment, I still think that Sweden will do well enough in both sets of jury and win.
I like how you think, you could be right, which would make things a lot more interesting. There’s no Jamala this year though, so it’s quite tricky.
except for DK I would live with this top :o
Never before have five of my own personal favorites been among the top 10 in the betting odds! It looks like I’m due for previously unseen levels of Eurovision gratification lol
The acoustic version of Croatia 2017:
Off-Topic: The grand final interval act was just announced! She might be familiar to some of us…
it was my first choice, second was drunk-ruslana though
Hopefully she turns up under some pretext.
Ruslana will sing in one of the semis,if i’m not mistaken.
lol
ahahahahahahahahahahahaha :D
<3 <3 <3
I wish they had the HardKiss…but Onuka is really cool too
Good choice.
Great news. :)
Awesome!!
OGAE SPAIN:
01 pt—-FINLAND
02 pts—IRELAND
03 pts—FYROM
04 pts—BULGARIA
05 pts—ESTONIA
06 pts—FRANCE
07 pts—PORTUGAL
08 pts—SWEDEN
10 pts—BELGIUM
12 pts—ITALY
At last! Thank you Spain :)
Love your song Martin!
You mean FDLC 19?
Sure…do you have other songs?😀
Have found a backing track and am working on bringing it into my own repertoire though I don’t kid myself on being near as good lol.
This is a new style for Imelda, moving on from her rockabilly style. She has changed her image too. Personally I love it.
She has just released a new album with quite a number of tracks videoed (is that a word?) onto YT already. ‘Life Love Flesh Blood’ released a couple of weeks ago.
I shall be posting more details once I get myself sorted on FDLC, am having a few issues with my laptop atm so am struggling but hope to be back on track by the weekend.
Am so delighted you likey dear Mermaid but gutted you are not taking part (points lol) :)
Maybe next time😉
Here’s hoping (mind you I’m due to send some your way to….. ;) )
If I were a singer, I would want to sing a song like that and like her 😊
Have you checked this interview by Brendan?In the end,he answers whether he’d like to perform without his shoes or shirt.Notice his look:
Bless his cotton socks. Lol
:D
7 pys from an OGAE going to a song like ‘Amaer pelos dois’ is not very common. Thaanks. :)
*amar and thanks…
The revised schedule of the rehearsals:
Salvador’s improvisation skills (this was filmed in a toilet in Madrid):
Blanche live at The Voice Of Belgique:
It’s nice!I just think Blanche should work on her facial expressions.She looks like a scared duckling.
Tonight was NDR’s first songcheck (1st half of semi-final 1 + UKD, ESP and DEU). You can’t tell much from the scores because some people vote based on personal taste and others on how they expect the songs to fare come May. We had it on while my guests were still at my house. All in all, they liked Belgium and Portugal best.
I have finished my pre-contest ranking (based on the official videos)! :D
Here it is:
1. Azerbaijan
2. Belgium
3. Bulgaria
4. Finland
5. Portugal
6. Italy
7. Australia
8. FYR Macedonia
9. Serbia
10. Sweden
11. Belarus
12. Iceland
13. Latvia
14. Armenia
15. Hungary
16. Norway
17. Albania
18. Ireland
19. France
20. Czech Republic
21. Ukraine
22. UK
23. Poland
24. Greece
25. Estonia
26. Lithuania
27. Austria
28. Israel
29. Switzerland
30. Germany
31. Netherlands
32. Denmark
33. Cyprus
34. Moldova
35. Malta
36. Spain
37. Montenegro
38. Romania
39. Slovenia
40. Georgia
41. San Marino
42. Croatia
we have 9/10 in common :o :o :o
:o Great!! :D
Which one is different, Serbia ?
yes, that’s very balkan of you (but Serbia is nice but anonymous): for now I have Iceland instead ;)
Hehe. Serbia was a grower for me, while Iceland started in my top 5 and just missed my top 10 in the end.
Btw, remember how I wasn’t impressed by Belgium in the beginning ? It turns out it needed more listenings, now I like it a lot. :P
that’s not good news for eurovision though :/
We’ll see, it will depend on the whole package I guess.