With Ewan and Lisa on broadcast business, Ellie heads out to sample the opinion of the Eurovision bubble. With a cast of dozens, guest appearances from Mike and Dave from Aussievision, the teams from ESCXtra and ESC Bubble and many, many more.
Eurovision Insight Podcast: Daily News From Lisbon, Saturday 12th May
It’s the last night before we find out who wins Eurovision 2018 and Ellie Chalkley has taken the podcast out on the town. We’re in the glamorous surroundings of Lisbon’s Euroclub asking one question – who do you think is going to win?
Now we are reporting from backstage at Eurovision, remember to stay up to date with all the Eurovision news by subscribing to the ESC Insight podcast. You’ll find the show in iTunes, and a direct RSS feed is also available. We also have a regular email newsletter which you can sign up to here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Ellie, just as well I wasn’t at the Euroclub last night. Your podcast would have been at least 30 minutes longer as I subjected you to an in-depth analysis distilled from a fortnight of song viewing, podcast listening and spreadsheet number crunching, and you would have just had to stand there holding your pineapple mic with a forced smile on your face secretly thinking ‘how can I shut this guy, up’.
But on this website, there is (hopefully) no such content control, so here goes:
As Ewan has often mentioned, Eurovision voting is ‘a game of two halves’.
The televote is relatively easy to predict as there is evidence out there. I can reasonably confidently say:
1. Cyprus
2. Israel
3. Ukraine (probably) – a good way back
4. Norway – some distance behind Cyprus and Israel and maybe even some way back from Ukraine
5. Serbia (probably)
The juries are a different matter altogether, especially this year. Will they:
(a) vote for the top televote songs:
Cyprus? – in normal years an ethno-banger such as this would struggle to make it into the jury top ten
Israel? – particularly in its live form – will juries view it as an innovative slice of modern pop with a message or Golden Boy Mark Two?
Ukraine? – a coffin and a fake eyeball – it will be lucky to make jury top 15
Norway? – as we’ve known from the very beginning, Rybak’s song is not very good, however brilliantly he performs it
Serbia? – ethno-wailing c 2005 accompanied by a club beat from the 1990s – this won’t be far off the bottom when the jury votes are announced
or (b) will they opt instead for more traditional jury catnip:
Australia? – but the dress, the dancing, the vocal!
Bulgaria? – the dark, impersonal staging, the mimed note at the end, the fact that four out of the five of them on stage are about as telegenic as Ewan and I
The Netherlands? – too aggressive, too divisive
Sweden? – modern sound, well staged and performed but clinical and soulless, and a case of we had all this last year and we’re tiring of it
Czech Republic? – too esoteric for a good many jurors
Germany? – as a big five nation, an untested and unknown quantity, which the betting market seems now to be blindly pinning its hopes on
France? – as per Germany. Also, we need to remember this only came third with juries in its national final, so it might not be a jury song at all
For all the above jury songs, Czech Republic apart, there is little or no evidence that they will receive high numbers of televotes
So where does that leave us? Probably with a winner from whichever of the big televote songs does best ( or perhaps least badly) with the jurors.
My predictions are as follows:
To win: Between Israel and Cyprus. For Israel to win it needs a reasonable jury lead over Cyprus. As I don’t have strong grounds for believing this will happen, I’m going for Cyprus
Remaining Top 5: Three from Norway, Ukraine, Sweden or Czech Republic
6th – 10th – One from Norway, Ukraine, Sweden, Czech Republic, and then Australia, Lithuania, Serbia and Bulgaria making up the top ten. France may replace one of the last three if it does better than I expect with the juries.
Last – UK
My final and most confident prediction is that, however wins, it’s going to be a cracking show tonight.
Sweden – Yes it does try to look like a video. They succeed, but because of the obvious limitations, it looks like a cheap video. I think you gave it too much credit
Cyprus – It is good, but not that good. We’ve seen men and women dancing in close formation for decades. Eleni happens to be the only one doing it this year, which is her good fortune. Please let’s not have too many more Eurovision acts copying what they see in North America
Dale & Mike – I discovered their podcasts for the first time last month. They are legends
France – It seems to be picking up momentum, but probably too late
(Actually it was only 37 in the semi-finals because six did not participate at that stage)