Iceland and Australia win a lot of votes in Semi Final 1

Here are the top ten as predicted by Betfair's odds after the first Semi Final.

Australia did a super job, both visually and vocally, bringing their odds down substantially and now they must be regarded as a potential winner in what is proving to be a very open competition.

Iceland did themselves no disservice either and their unique entry in a year of generally tedious and non-memorable tunes may give them an opportunity to win by simply being the only one that's in the style a certain type of voter likes.

I gave 3rd place to Slovenia. The pair did seem a little too twee and quiet but there was a certain charm and that clearly also appealed to voters as they sailed through to the final. Their presentation does smack of Spain's effort last year - which didn't find a great deal of support on the night - so I doubt it will get far. Spain made it just one place above UK in 23rd in 2018.

4th place went to Czech Republic with a professionally delivered cheery number which I think people will love. One to watch which could surprise us all.

5th Cyprus. The girl is nowhere near as good live as she is on the video but i do like the boots and it does, at least, sound like a modern pop song.

6th Greece. Strong vocals and this will also be fairly popular. Not a winner, though, but certainly deserves to be in the Final.

7th Serbia. A serious blonde this time. No thigh length boots. It's a slow anthemic song and there aren't too many of these for her to compete with so she'll pick up a good few points for this. Someone for the Balkans to vote for too.

8th Hungary. I thought the guy deserved to get through with his traditional-sounding track. Not many of those in the Final this year so far. But he gets dropped.

9th Belarus. The other sexy girl in this Semi Final and she gets through despite all the criticism that Belarus have nothing other than sex on their mind at Eurovision. I can't tell whether she hopes he'll like it but I'm sure plenty of blokes out there in voting land will. Win? No chance.

10th Belgium's reasonably modern pop number was one I thought might scrape through but the young lad's performance was not really up to much and he gets dropped.

11th Finland. Only Because Darude should be in the Final as he's Darude. The other bloke let him down badly, though.

12th Estonia. A casual bloke just turns up and sings! His high notes are rubbish and I've heard something like this before. Remarkably, he gets to the Final.

13th Georgia have a strong national-sounding song - all classic stuff from the region but that bloke's eyes will have scared most voters away.

14th Montenegro. A pretty dreadful number. The guys and girls try but fail miserably.

15th Poland. My ears hurt. Weird teen singing. Good co-ordination but I have absolutely no idea what that was all about.

16th Portugal. Horrible. I prefer the Polish teens to this mess.

17th San Marino. Oh dear. This is almost laughable as it is so bad but, wait, it gets through!! Ha ha! Oh boy, this is Eurovision for sure.

So there is still a lot to happen with the second semi set to wheedle out another 8 contestants. That shouldn't be too difficult at all as there are some clear acts which are almost guaranteed to be there and some which will most definitely not be.

Whilst the Netherlands are still out front my own feeling is that it will be either Iceland or Australia for the top slot. Russia, Czech Republic and Italy making up the top 5.
The Netherlands will certainly be Top 10, with Sweden, Norway, North Macedonia and Azerbaijan making up the rest of the 10. Cyprus and Greece will be lurking and could swap places with one of these.