Odds Review #8: Week Ending 23/02
As pointed to last week, everything so far this season had been building to the release of Måns Zelmerlow's entry which would make or break the early narrative on the year. As is, we now have Sweden as a pretty heavy favourite for the event. There was actually a blink and you'll miss it point this past week where Finland briefly surpassed them as the markets favourite following the typical: high expectations - dissapointment - oh actually this is still pretty strong - cycle.
Speaking of that, Portugal also crept down to 12s briefly before heading back to 30s in anticipation of Josh. Factoring in the hurdle of FdC, Portugal really should have remained stable around the 20s mark: there's a lot of potential there but this is a dangerous National Final.
Estonia has begun to pick up some traction in the last week with them a steady 4th favourite now. I'll say now I won't invest much time in analysing or predicting Tommy's trolling or antics but should this make it to the grand final there are growing televote indicators.
Elsewhere Stefan Raab should be expecting a knock at his door from the accountability police with Germany so far flattering to deceive in what is a really poorly thought out National Final. I've found it hard to engage much with the goings on there but they are not looking particularly dangerous. Chefsache concludes on Saturday.
There was a rush of enthusiasm for Italy with Lucio Corsi stepping in for Olly - being seen as having a higher ceiling boosted by jury support but they sit still in the 40s today, Italy's lowest position at this stage since at least 2018.
Our two other songs came from Azerbaijan and Iceland, both of whom can be backed at 300s+ so not much to comment on them yet.
Finally, earlier in the week some greedy soulless pigs attempted to make financial gain through Ukraine's ongoing suffering, backing them in the hope that continues into May. It did not go down well when yours truly neutrally voiced some doubts over the theory.
Next week sees quantity over quality with lots of action from San Marino, Croatia and Serbia. Realistically, the only real focus from these is if any actually "big" artist has been lured to UVPSM. Denmark are kindly not dragging things out, hosting their one and done DMGP next Saturday whilst Internal selections are due from Australia and The Netherlands, who are the shortest price from all of these.
