Friday, April 21, 2017

Back Belarus and (maybe) Buy a Bentley in May

I referred to 'rehearsals' in my last post. Actually I think these must just have been some performances that some of the acts have been giving at home or abroad or, maybe, at some parties that have been going on in Kiev. Suffice it to say, though, that whatever the acts did do affected the odds anyway. Maybe some will take notice and make some efforts to improve.

We won't really know until the actual rehearsals get under way. Below is the schedule for them, courtesy of Eurovision World . I think the big movements of opinion and potential stars of the show or dumb acts will be revealed during those first four days and, by 4 May, we'll have a good idea of whether the current Top 10 are reasonably safe or whether one or two acts that had been written off to date manage to grab people's attention and change things.

The host and Big 5 are always the last to reveal their live hands and that will be late on 4 May.

So far Italy, Bulgaria, Sweden and Portugal have held their positions and are the clear leaders. Belgium has drifted with some reports that the singer is quite disappointing but she can't be that bad as she's still rated 5th.

This is also a good time to look at who should qualify as most acts do actually have to get through the Semi Finals first!

In Group 1, this is how it looks now:

Pretty certain to qualify:

Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Australia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Greece

With only 3 places remaining Finland, Poland, Georgia and Iceland will be the ones to watch. Moldova is the amusing outsider who might scrape in at the expense of one of them. Theirs is the cheeky number with the sexy video but the video will not help on the night! Their 500-1 odds would tumble massively but I can't imagine them getting far after that.

In Group 2 the only pretty definite qualifiers would be:

Bulgaria and Ireland

After that, no-one really stands out between, Romania, Denmark, Hungary and The Netherlands, these being the ones that have shown some recent improvement so may be likely to perform well

With 4 spaces left it could be almost anyone but I'd guess FYR Macedonia, Israel, Austria and Belarus. Belarus could be the surprise act this year. They're totally out of the running at nearly 600-1 at this time but, if they do get through, expect those to tumble. I reckon they could even make Top 10 now that Russia is not competing and they may be the nation to collect those votes.

Incidentally, the bookies don't even have Ireland as expected to qualify again this year, being 11th in the Semi Final 2 odds but at the time of writing they are at 8th place in the Final! I can only assume that there is some perception of how the voting system must be likely to favour others. I still reckon Ireland will make it this time.

San Marino really don't have a bad song or act either but they're out at 1000-1 overall and even at 11-1 just to qualify. They're certainly a lot better than many of the others in the pretty uninspiring Group 2

Semi-final 1 (1st half), 1st Rehearsal

Sunday 30 April 2017
1st Rehearsal
Sweden09:00 - 09:30
Georgia09:40 - 10:10
Australia10:20 - 10:50
Albania11:00 - 11:30
Belgium12:40 - 13:10
Montenegro13:20 - 13:50
Finland14:00 - 14:30
Azerbaijan15:00 - 15:30
Portugal15:40 - 16:10

Semi-final 1 (2nd half) 1st Rehearsal

Monday 1 May 2017
1st Rehearsal
Greece09:00 - 09:30
Poland09:40 - 10:10
Moldova10:20 - 10:50
Iceland11:00 - 11:30
Czech Republic12:40 - 13:10
Cyprus13:20 - 13:50
Armenia14:00 - 14:30
Slovenia15:00 - 15:30
Latvia15:40 - 16:10

Semi-final 2 (1st half), 1st Rehearsal

Tuesday 2 May 2017
1st Rehearsal
Serbia09:00 - 09:30
Austria09:40 - 10:10
FYR Macedonia10:20 - 10:50
Malta11:00 - 11:30
Romania12:40 - 13:10
Netherlands13:20 - 13:50
Hungary14:00 - 14:30
Denmark15:00 - 15:30
Ireland15:40 - 16:10

Semi-final 2 (2nd half), 1st Rehearsal

Wednesday 3 May 2017
1st Rehearsal
San Marino09:00 - 09:30
Croatia09:40 - 10:10
Norway10:20 - 10:50
Switzerland11:00 - 11:30
Belarus12:40 - 13:10
Bulgaria13:20 - 13:50
Lithuania14:00 - 14:30
Estonia15:00 - 15:30
Israel15:40 - 16:10

Semi-final 1, 2nd Rehearsal

Thursday 4 May 2017
2nd Rehearsal
Sweden09:00 - 09:20
Georgia09:25 - 09:45
Australia09:50 - 10:10
Albania10:15 - 10:35
Belgium10:40 - 11:00
Montenegro12:05 - 12:25
Finland12:30 - 12:50
Azerbaijan12:55 - 13:15
Portugal13:20 - 13:40
Greece13:45 - 14:05
Poland14:30 - 14:50
Moldova14:55 - 15:15
Iceland16:20 - 16:40
Czech Republic16:45 - 17:05
Cyprus17:10 - 17:30

Semi-final 1 & 2, 2nd Rehearsal. Big-5 + Ukraine, 1st Rehearsal

Friday 5 May 2017
2nd Rehearsal
Armenia09:00 - 09:20
Slovenia09:25 - 09:45
Latvia09:50 - 10:10
Serbia10:15 - 10:35
Austria10:40 - 11:00
FYR Macedonia12:05 - 12:25
Malta12:30 - 12:50
Romania12:55 - 13:15
1st Rehearsal
Ukraine14:05 - 14:35
Italy14:40 - 15:10
Spain15:15 - 15:45
Germany15:50 - 16:20
United Kingdom17:35 - 18:05
France18:10 - 18:40

Semi-final 2, 2nd Rehearsal

Saturday 6 May 2017
2nd Rehearsal
Netherlands09:00 - 09:20
Hungary09:25 - 09:45
Denmark09:50 - 10:10
Ireland10:15 - 10:35
San Marino10:40 - 11:00
Croatia12:05 - 12:25
Norway12:30 - 12:50
Switzerland12:55 - 13:15
Belarus13:20 - 13:40
Bulgaria14:05 - 14:25
Lithuania14:30 - 14:50
Estonia14:55 - 15:15
Israel15:20 - 15:40

Big-5 + Ukraine, 2nd Rehearsal

Sunday 7 May 2017
2nd Rehearsal
Ukraine09:00 - 09:20
Italy09:25 - 09:45
Spain09:50 - 10:10
Germany10:15 - 10:35
United Kingdom10:40 - 11:00
France11:05 - 11:25
  
Opening & interval acts12:30 - 15:30
Lighting & video programming15:30 - 17:30

Semi-final 1, rehearsals

Monday 8 May 2017
Viewing Camera crew Semi 111:00 - 14:00
Semi-final 1 Dress Rehearsal 115:00 - 17:25
Pre-show20:00 - 21:00
Semi-final 1 Jury Rehearsal21:00 - 23:10

Semi-final 1

Tuesday 9 May 2017
Viewing Camera crew Jury Rehearsal12:00 - 14:00
Semi-final 1 Dress Rehearsal 315:00 - 17:10
Viewing Camera crew Dress Rehearsal 317:30 - 19:00
Pre-show20:00 - 21:00
Semi-final 1 LIVE21:00 - 23:10
Press Conference 10 qualifiers23:30 - 00:10

Semi-final 2 rehearsals

Wednesday 10 May 2017
Viewing Camera crew Semi 210:00 - 13:00
Semi-final 2 Dress Rehearsal 115:00 - 17:25
Pre-show20:00 - 21:00
Semi-final 2 Jury Rehearsal21:00 - 23:10

Semi-final 2

Thursday 11 May 2017
Viewing Camera crew Jury Rehearsal12:00 - 14:00
Semi-final 1 Dress Rehearsal 315:00 - 17:10
Viewing Camera crew Dress Rehearsal 317:30 - 19:00
Pre-show20:00 - 21:00
Semi-final 2 LIVE21:00 - 23:10
Press Conference 10 qualifiers23:30 - 00:10
Grand Final running order announcementTBA

Grand Final rehearsal

Friday 12 May 2017
Opening Grand Final - all finalists11:30 - 13:00
Grand Final Dress Rehearsal 114:00 - 17:00
Viewing Camera crew Dress Rehearsal 117:00 - 19:00
Junior Eurovision 2017 Press Conference17:20 - 17:40
Pre-show20:00 - 21:00
Grand Final Jury Rehearsal21:00 - 00:30
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