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.