I think tonight is by far the better semi, which does make me worry that some of the better songs may miss the final.
I think Ukraine and Greece are probably shoe ins. The Netherlands has a very good chance as has Norway.
Latvia and Moldova are proper Eurovision but also a bit of a wildcard in terms of whether they make it through or not. I hope they both do. Both are real fun. The betting predicts puts both through so fingers crossed.
Thats 6 out of the 10 straight up without thinking, though.
Talking of Tiktok, I hadn't realised that our entry is from a tiktok star. I was just 'who?'. By all accounts he has been hitting the European publicity tour hard, and the betting is currently putting us top 3 (!!!). Personally, I'm not buying that. I would be satisfied with a top half finish (purely cos we need one to shut up the haters) and would be delighted with a top 8 finish. We shall see...
As it stands Ukraine are by far and away the fav. I think they are saying its got a 50% chance of winning before we've even started. I think its a decent Eurovision song and obviously there's the current politics - but I think a win would be fair on merit without that.
With the war in mind I would like to share the following. I believe its a member of the Azov in the Mariupol bunker. Its haunting:
https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1523278889119854592
Its a violin version of Duncan Lawrence's winner 'Arcade'. 'All I know, is loving you is a losing game'...