Odds Review #2:Week Ending 14/01
This week began with artist and song releases from two of our Ls in Latvia and Luxembourg who as two of the smaller nations will be hoping to avoid taking an L on the scoreboard. Luxembourg’s selection and the names involved aren’t something I’m concerning myself much with but on first listening there’s some respectable, mid table standard songs to pick from. They drift to 100+. Dons’ ‘Hollow’ is the presumed selection in Latvia which is an above average effort which juries should appreciate should it make the final. Odds in the 40s range for Latvia is a free money lay.
The same applies to Ireland who have been trickling out their entries over the week. RTE to their credit have included some more out there songs but is there any real improvement in quality? Finland have presented a couple of their acts in full and are clinging on to relevancy in the outright market.
Ukraine found more favour in their Vidbir releases with ‘Teresa and Maria’ catching the eye. They are close to favourites now and likely will overtake the UK at some point before their National Final on the 3rd Feb. In with an outside chance in any year but Ukraine in particular might prove a tough ask to oppose. Many of the other gainers of the week are the quieter countries of Iceland, Switzerland and Poland.
Yesterday saw the commencement of three more national finals with Lithuania, Norway and the legendary live auditions in Moldova. Honestly, the latter provides the most talking points but none relevant to an odds review with them rightly being deemed hopeless by the market. Lithuania and Norway put on good displays but without The Roop in action or any of the main favourites in Norway featuring there these first heats likely end up as footnotes.
Elsewhere, Georgia revealed an internal selection out of the blue to everyone but wiwibloggs :/ Talent show regular Nutsa Buzaladze is the name and is one of the better acts Georgia have at their disposal. As cautioned over at X, an issue preventing great excitement is their handling of a similarly highly regarded internal selection last year and lack of a song. Odds are, the Eurovision winning song has been written by now, and assigned: digging through G:sson’s bottom draw in the middle of January for example is a dangerous route to take. Still, Georgia fairly creep up in the odds though with little matched yet.
Next week sees Austria reveal their entrant with many reviews and predictions ready to post I’m sure. Portugal and Germany also reveal their songs for their national finals whilst Eesti Laul begins next Saturday. We are also promised Raiven’s entry for Slovenia at some point on the same day.
