MALMÖ (SWEDEN), May 11. (from EUROPA PRESS envoy, Luis Fuster) –
The day of the Eurovision final dawns with doubt about the possible disqualification of the Dutch candidate, Joost Klein, about whom an investigation is pending for an incident, and about the televote that Israel will finally receive, which is at the same time one of the betting favorites and the only country that has been loudly booed at every pass.
The idea of an Israeli victory in the Eurovision Song Contest gained momentum from Thursday’s semi-final after Italian television mistakenly published “incomplete” results from her country’s televoting in which Eden Golan — the Israeli candidate — obtained almost 40% of the votes. The organization and Italian television will investigate the event after the festival.
With these two pillars of attention, this May 11th begins, when the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is celebrated. Spain, with Nebulossa and her ‘Zorra’, promises to lift up the entire Malmö Arena audience as she has been doing all week. A resounding ‘I’m even more of a slut’ is expected from the audience when España sings, which comes in eighth place, just like Blanca Paloma last year.
Among the great favorites of the gala, the Croatian Baby Lasagna continues to skyrocket in the bets to win, with more than a 40% chance of lifting the Crystal Microphone according to the betting houses. ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim’ comes out in one of the considered best positions in the final, 23rd.
In fact, three big betting favorites to win appear near the end of the gala: France (with Slimane and ‘Mon Amour’), to whom the bets give a 6% chance comes from 25th place and Switzerland (Nemo and ‘The Code’), with 11%, from 21.
With close to a 20% chance of winning according to bettors is Israel, which rose like wildfire among bets after the second semifinal. Eden Golan will start from position six, one of those with the worst luck historically in the contest, since only one song has managed to win since there (Net Als Toen, from the Netherlands in 1957, when ten countries participated).
The same thing happens with another of the big favorites, Ukraine, which starts from the “damned” position 2, from which no one has ever won. Jerry Heil and alyona alyona will try to end that streak in this edition thanks to their ‘Teresa
How the performance position affects this year’s result, however, is unknown, since in Malmö 2024 the voting period will begin at the beginning of the performances. This voting method has only been put into practice twice, in 2010 and 2011, and in both cases, the winning countries (Germany and Azerbaijan) came from the last positions, as is the general trend in the rest of the years.
In the last 20 years, only one artist has won from a position lower than 10: Loreen, last year, who came in ninth place. The positions at the end of the gala are usually considered the most flattering, but also those that appear before the break.
From 10th place where the Swede Mans Zelmerlöw and his stick figure with ‘Heroes’ won in 2015 or from where Chanel won third place for Spain in 2022, the revelation of the festival: Ireland. Bambie Thug and the dark staging of her signed by Sergio Jaén from Elche seek to break the tie of victories between Ireland and Sweden and bring her eighth trophy to the Emerald Isle.