Odds Review: Week Ending 30/01

Two confirmed entries since last week brings us to 5 for the year so far and the pace will pick up further from here. Moldova jumped the gun in scrapping their national finals and I get the impression the powers that be had decided on their winner before the auditions. The debate around ‘Trenuletul’ will circle around qualification and Moldova will not be bothering the outright odds. Spain have seen their odds almost double since last week with Chanel winning through there. Full thoughts on both are coming in the reviews tomorrow.

North Macedonia have released their entries and again there’s nothing to bother the outright. A revamp on ‘Flower of Sorrow’ may be their best/only hope of making the final. ‘Superman’ would be funny to watch too I guess. Voting closes on Friday when I believe we get our winner. Israel’s X-factor, four singer 8 song system is not something I’m much of an expert on, but nothing particularly stands out there either.

The main development in the odds came earlier with a snippet of the much anticipated Ochman’s River leaking for Poland. Promising is the adjective for now with the secondary warning that victory in their NF is not guaranteed either. Still, as the repetitive nature of these updates indicates, “promising” has been rare so far this season which will soon change I feel. Those who took sub 10s were far too keen at this stage with the current mid teens more reasonable.

In the coming week the usual big guns start to reveal their hands- our hosts Italy’s San Remo kicks off on Tuesday and by this time next week we’ll have their entry. Melodifestivalen in Sweden also begins with the traditional press screening, followed by snippets, followed by rehearsal footage and finally an actual semi final. Smaller guns Ireland will choose their entry on Friday whilst there are semi finals across the Baltic trio of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. None of those or indeed Slovenia whose EMA proper begins have made much of a dent in the outright market. Iceland will kindly give us their artists and songs during San Remo finals night.

Australia have become the second country to top the pile this year in these overviews for those keeping count, taking over from Italy.