Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Lithuania has never won this contest unlike their Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia, and 2012 Finalist Donny Montell won't win it for them this year either. http://oikotimes.com/2016/03/12/lithuania-2016-donny-montell-to-stockholm-again/

I don't think the English version of Albania's song has done them any favours.

A polished song from Azerbaijan which should qualify, though not a winner.

We are still waiting for a couple of laggards, including Ira Losco's Malta, who will sing Walk on Water now and not Chameleon. Bulgaria's Poli Genova will sing If Love Was A Crime, but both videos have yet to be released.

It might be worth taking a trip down memory lane to the pre-plastic surgery days of Ira Losco, when she was deprived of victory by the Eastern European and Balkan block vote.

Not forgetting Italy, whose entry won San Remo, but maybe a little too understated for Eurovision.

Another plagiarism row fomented and fortunately disspiated as the Eurovision authorities formally cleared the Swedish entry today.

Europhiles will approve of the latest video of the Austrian entry, Loin d'ici-Far from here, where a Dorothy Gale-like figure at harmony with nature follows her Yellow Brick Road in a quest to emulate and be reunited with her inamorato, who never materializes on screen. In an almost psychedelic quality our protagonist remains optimistic however, and will follow him to the end of the earth. Any neophytes in the French language may become confused with the translation of "je suis", which of course can mean "I follow" instead of the more common "I am".

I think it would be apposite to offer some support to Joe and Jake after Piers Morgan labelled this year's UK entry as trashy. Of course Piers would never be trashy himself, always being above the fray. The boys have nothing to lose and if they can keep their harmonies tight they should get credit for their singing and Jake's guitar-playing. Apparently they may have a trick up their sleeve and I might advise some kind of hologrammed parachute to fit the lyric, though I wouldn't blame them for remaining silent as at this stage people don't need to know, they don't need to know-oh-oh-oh-oh. http://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin...-trashy-on-good-morning-britain-a3202741.html

Malta's entry is finally here, though rather a disappointment after a month- long wait. Funnily enough it's the Big Five with automatic qualification who have their best entries for years, whilst this song will struggle to qualify. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=malta_ira_losco_presents_walk_on_water

We may as well take a look at the first Semi-final, scheduled for Tuesday 10 May. There are eighteen participating countries and ten places available for the Final, so eight countries to dispose of.

Armenia English Iveta Mukuchyan "LoveWave" —
Croatia English Nina Kraljić "Lighthouse" —
Finland English Sandhja "Sing It Away" —
Greece English, Greek2 Argo "Utopian Land" —
Hungary English Freddie "Pioneer" —
Moldova English Lidia Isac "Falling Stars" —
Netherlands English Douwe Bob "Slow Down" —
Russia English Sergey Lazarev "You Are the Only One" —
San Marino English Serhat "I Didn't Know" —
Second half
Austria French Zoë "Loin d'ici" Far from here
Azerbaijan English Samra "Miracle" —
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnian Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner and Jala "Ljubav je" Love is
Cyprus English Minus One "Alter Ego" —
Czech Republic English Gabriela Gunčíková "I Stand" —
Estonia English Jüri Pootsmann "Play" —
Iceland English Greta Salóme "Hear Them Calling" —
Malta English Ira Losco "Walk on Water" —
Montenegro English Highway "The Real Thing" —

If we take the strongest entries first. I have Russia, Croatia, Armenia and Hungary as my definites. This leaves six more places, and I have chosen Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Netherlands, Austria, Estonia and Czech Republic. Relegated therefore in my reckoning are San Marino, Greece, Moldova, Malta, Finland, Iceland, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I'm working on the second Semi-final, and whilst waiting for Bulgaria to declare on Monday am looking at some live performances which might just tip the artists into qualification. The first one amongst these is Lithuania, and hats off to Donatas Montvydas, or Donny Montell as his professed stage name, for making the most of a poor song.

Also looking at this group of death we have Dami Im for Australia, and even though I had reservations about whether the song was right for her she should have the stage presence to carry off qualification, going off this clip:

Nine countries are for the chop in this group, and Denmark is not safe.

Australia English Dami Im "Sound of Silence" —
Belarus English Ivan "Help You Fly" —
Ireland English Nicky Byrne "Sunlight" —
Israel English Hovi Star "Made of Stars" —
Latvia English Justs "Heartbeat" —
Lithuania English Donny Montell "I've Been Waiting for This Night" —
Macedonia Macedonian Kaliopi "Dona" (Дона) —
Poland English Michał Szpak "Color of Your Life" —
Serbia English Sanja Vučić ZAA "Goodbye (Shelter)" —
Switzerland English Rykka "The Last of Our Kind" —
Second half
Albania English Eneda Tarifa "Fairytale" —
Belgium English Laura Tesoro "What's the Pressure" —
Bulgaria English, Bulgarian Poli Genova "If Love Was a Crime" —
Denmark English Lighthouse X "Soldiers of Love" —
Georgia English Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz "Midnight Gold" —
Norway English Agnete "Icebreaker" —
Romania English Ovidiu Anton "Moment of Silence" —
Slovenia English ManuElla "Blue and Red" —
Ukraine English, Crimean Tatar Jamala "1944" —

Here is the Bulgarian entry as promised. I am not overly impressed. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=bulgaria_premiere_of_if_love_was_a_crime

It might be better to wait for the rehearsals before betting, but here are my tips for non-qualification: Belarus, Israel, Georgia, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland.

I would recommend Belarus's Ivan to help Moldova's Lidia to learn how to fly to the stars..

Francesca Michielin may be the first woman to sit at a piano at Eurovision since Daniela Simons in 1986. http://www.eurovisionary.com/italy-...-acoustic-bilingual-version-eurovision-entry/

It's looking more like a two-horse race between Croatia and Russia, though we will have to reserve judgement on Nina Krajlić until London's Eurovision Party on April 17. There is a live performance of her singing abilities here, though:

and here's Sergey:

Well Nina is here before time: http://oikotimes.com/2016/04/01/croatia-2016-watch-nina-kraljic-performing-lighthouse-live/

I like the new version of Ireland's entry "Sunlight" with subtitles and would be tempted to keep this version for the contest proper. http://oikotimes.com/2016/04/01/ire...ons-boycott-eurovision-entry-from-play-lists/

Looking at the betting today I see the following: Russia 17/10 France 10/1 Australia 12/1 Sweden 12/1 Ukraine 17/1. You can view the latest odds here: http://www.oddschecker.com/tv/eurovision/winner

I don't think anyone would argue with Russia as the likely winner. I still have Croatia as top 5 and the odds will shorten after the London Eurovision Party next week. You can see the putative French revamp which has them currently second favourite, but with those Easter chicks flouncing aimlessly around the stage I wonder what the critics are raving about:

Australia is more difficult to judge as we are still waiting for a live performance of a song which doesn't suit this Shirley Bassey-type artist. Here's Sweden though:

I still have Latvia ahead of Sweden:

Armenia could get top 5.

At last we have a live performance of the Australian entry, and it's such a shame that natural extrovert Dami Im was not around in the Eurovision days of the full orchestra and is left to sing what is in effect an introspective song.