Odds Review- Week Ending 18/04

After a few weeks of quiet, the action has slowly started to pick back up in the last week with the beginning of OGAE voting- The current top 10 after 6 countries is as follows:

Switzerland 58

France 41

Malta 40

Lithuania 37

Cyprus 33

San Marino 31

Italy 24

Sweden 17

Croatia 13

Azerbaijan 10

Of course, the best way of getting much use out of Ogae voting is to compare to expectations and on that front there's nothing too surprising at the top. In fact swapping Lithuania for San Marino gives my exact top 5 prediction for Ogae. Switzerland look set for a convincing win and they have regained some ground in the odds.

It's more a case of who isn't doing well this year so far and there are more red flags mounting for Bulgaria who are yet to pick up a point whilst Iceland have also made a slow start with just 5. There are levels to this of course, but both should really be doing better so far.

Romania made a very brief push in the odds with Roxen doing the rounds in interviews. News that the staging may be 90% similar to the video is a positive for them .

A few acoustic versions of entries are also popping up, most notably Malta's highly stage managed 'Je Me Casse'- impressive but without answering any real questions. Destiny's strong scoring in the first preview show of the year (Norway's Addresse Rotterdam) was more encouraging.

Azerbaijan and Israel fared somewhat stronger than expected there too, resigning France to a fourth place. Over in Iceland’s similar preview, Russia claimed a somewhat surprising first place from the first half of semi 1, ahead of the more typically Scandi palatable Lithuania and Sweden. Huge grains of salt are required with these shows and something has got to give in that semi in particular.

More of the same is on the menu for next week with the Spanish online pre party next Saturday the highlight. Although it’s unlikely we’re going to learn much of any note there, I’m sure the market will find something to react to.