Verona...lost

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Aww!  And another one bites the dust...  Fan fave (and one of my own personal faves) Verona, from Estonia exited the Contest last night - hot on the heels of Finland's Blackbird earlier in the week.  That's two of my Top 5 gone!!!

Other than that, most of my other predictions went as planned.  I missed Croatia and Denmark from my list, meaning that I only got 8 out of ten again - but Big Jacques gave a fabulous performance of his Michael Jackson/Pavarotti self-duet, so I was really glad he made it through.  And besides, he does have the hottest backing group here!

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Perhaps the songs that got the biggest reaction in the hall was the folksy-sing-along from Belarus.  Three minutes of pure joy, and two of the jolliest people here in the Eurovision bubble.  This might be worth a wee each-way flutter, not as a winner, but for a placing.

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In the early hours of the morning the running order for the final was announced.  We open with Israel, close with France and the two big favourites, Italy and Portugal sing 9th and 11th respectively.  We should really add Bulgaria into that mix, as many people here in the press centre are talking about Sofia 2018 as a huge possibility.  Kirstian sings second last, which may be too late in an already huge line-up, but I'm not hugely fond of it so to be honest I'd be happy if he wasn't in contention when it comes down to the final votes.


Today we saw Slavador (#salvadorable) overtake Francesco in the betting odds, making it the first time in 53 years of competing that Portugal goes into the contest as favourite, albeit that the margins are tiny in terms of difference.

One sad note today is that a friend of mine from the San Marino delegation confirmed that this was thier final entry and that they will no longer be taking part, on the basis that it is to difficult for a micro-state to compete with bigger neighbours. 

What's Ralph Siegel going to do now?

I'll be back with more views and my predictions tomorrow.

One more sleep!

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