Odds Review- Week Ending 14/02
We're another week closer to the final and another song in with the selection of ‘Tick Tock’ for Croatia. My review of that can be found over in song reviews. Croatia had been attracting some limited interest in the market due to Nina Kraljic's ‘Rijeka’ which did probably have more potential with Croatia now back well into triple figures. ‘Tick Tock’ will be one for the qualification market.
Melfest continues in Sweden with Dotter's ‘Little Tot’ briefly narrowing the gap at the top of the odds. A reasonable Melfest favourite for now and would fetch a decent result for Sweden although some of the fan reaction is crazy. There must be some sort of competition going on for who can be the most obsessive and over the top with Dotter.
Bulgaria have released the second of their entries under consideration and its already clear ‘Ugly Cry’ did not need to be thrown back into the mix. It's more of the same shtick from last year as expected, but for my money stronger than ‘Tears Getting Sober’- the favourite in the odds at the time of cancellation. Oddly, ‘Imaginary Friend’ is somehow about 10 seconds over the 3 minute limit, (0.08-3.19) even with the final humming cut out so some intricate surgery may be required.
Spain earlier in the week also released their two potential entries, neither of which will escape the bottom 5. There's not even any Spanish fan money as Blas Canto begins its fall even further in the odds.
Denmark's MGP songs are also out and every single one of them could finish last in semi 2. I can't remember a National Final as poor but at least there'll be a betting market. I'll get a preview up if I can pluck up the courage to go through them again.
That's the main news for this week, but there's a few other moves to mention. Iceland and Moldova both begin filming their videos and are both a touch shorter in the market. Not saying its the case at all as the sums are small but that is the sort of time any insider money could go on.
Azerbaijan are back down slightly too, with 4 uptempo songs and 2 ballads on their shortlist. It doesn't take a genius to guess ‘Mata Hari’ is the one from last year's writers and is probably going to be the one.
Armenia briefly came down to 40s with someone falling for Sirusho's self promotion. They're now back at 80+, which looks a bit high unless we get a late withdrawal or an Athena Manoukian album track. They remain silent, along with Poland, Russia and The UK, who are just waking up.
Whilst Lithuainia have lost favouritism overall, it’s worth noting they are considerably shorter with bookies who are starting to price up. Potentially attracting more casual or fan money.
In the coming week, we get to find out how full of ship Jan Bors is with the release of Benny Cristo’s ‘Omaga’ for The Czech Republic. Current odds suggest very. Finland and Norway will also have selected by the next update too as we enter a busy period.
