Monday, April 14, 2014

Balkan Blues At Eurovision 2014




The latest movements in betting odds for this year. Armenia still way out in front but Sweden has closed considerably with a good song by probably the prettiest girl in the competition. Nice to see United Kingdom with a predicted #5 place.

My own predicted Top 10, before allowing for good neighbourly voting, is:

Denmark
Sweden
Armenia
UK
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Spain
Netherlands
Germany
Norway

You may notice an absence of Balkan nations here. Only Slovenia has a hope. Neither Serbia nor Bosnia Herzegovina have entered and they usually do pretty well and collect votes from each other. Macedonia and Montenegro have dreadful performances this year. That may well mean that Slovenia do well, collecting good votes from all their friends as the only viable entry for the region. so they may make the Top Ten.

I have also put in Spain and Netherlands, both distinct outsiders at the moment. Spain have the excellent Ruth Lorenzo performing their track and I am sure she will do much better than the bookies seem to think. Netherlands have a really cool folksy track that reminds me of Alison Krauss & Robert Plant. It is actually one of the few interesting and really well-written songs. Belgium have another - a bit old-fashioned but it's another one where if the guy performs really well then it will get loads of votes.

If I have to drop one to let Slovenia in due to neighbourly voting then it would be Germany. Their girls may not meet with everyone's approval, although it's a good entry.



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