On this page you can see my predictions for the final 2014 (drum roll, very exciting), so if you find yourself somewhat erroneously trusting my judgment then you can blindly wager your hard earned cash on these tips. Due to the dearth of quality this year, allied with a confusing betting market in the build up to the contest, there could be an act that slips through from the field into an each-way finish. Under normal circumstances by May the markets have sorted themselves out after the bookies have explored the crevasses of key Eurosong fans for their take on matters, Armenia and Sweden are slapping it out between each other.

I am now struggling to see past an Armenian/Sweden 1-2, which takes away quite a lot of the fun in the process. So to third place then and many of the usual suspects pop up, with the turgid Danish horror (again), the Azeri ballard, and the Ukrainian children's song all featuring in the grid. However a 28/1 shot pops up in the shape of Romania who, if they are allowed their hologramatic feature may be worth a little each way flutter. Realtively quality efforts from Italy, Norway, and indeed the UK have suffered over vocal expectations, however I feel this is harsh on Carl, so watching Norway in the markets may also be of worth.

Those eagle-eyed amongst you may just notice that I have amended my predictions following confirmation of the final 26, post semi's. I took the difficult decision to foresake my belief in perfection because to the demands of an average Saturday, and have simply substituted the countries I thought would qualify, with those that actually did. Whilst this will probably not affect the top of the leaderboard, I fully appreciate that my bone idleness is clear to see.

As ever the predictions below are based on an assumption of certain qualifiers from the two semi finals, details of which you can see here and here.