On this page
you can see my predictions for the final 2016, a year that is the most
confusing since 2008.
The bookies are very clear on the way the contest is
going to pan out. Across Europe from Wilhelm Hill to Lödbrokes, all
are in agreement that Russia's Sergey is bound to prevail . I'm not sure
if they've heard the song, but you have to take their opinion on merit
as they tend to get it right. This reminds me of the ice skating travesty
of Bilan who muscled their historical influence to triumph in 2008. It
certainly wasn't the best that year, and Sergey certainly isn't the best
this one either. The question is whether the Great Russian Bear tm
will be seen in the same light 8 years on.
Putting Mr Lazarev to one side (which is preferable),
the rest of the bunch is a funny lot. It's actually a highly competitive
year without any stand-outs. The next obvious choice to me is undoubtedly
the pop Superpower and holders Sweden, who have swopped Måns for
Frans. It's definitely catchy, if nothing else and could sneak through
on the blindside. In the all-round category Ukraine & Croatia look
like decent bets & France has the best song if not the best performance.
It's a relatively strong year for the Big Five nations all round actually.
As ever there could be an act that slips through from further down 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,but of course there's always
an act that can appear from the pack at rehearsal stage. 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.
As it panned out, Ukraine came out on top, but not without
the new Eastern European diaspora making a strong statement. The top two
televoting from the UK, Ireland, and Norway all went the same way, namely
POLAND 10 & LITHUANIA 12. Now I find that intriguing. It says to me
Northern European builders like Eurosong more than I could have anticipated.
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