Saturday 12th National Finals Preview
The Baltic trio of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia all select their acts tonight as well as Ukraine who have gathered some steam on the outright.
So, in order of how interesting each final is:
Lithuania (Pabandom Is Naujo)
Monika Liu should have this one and I don’t think there’s any real debate about it. Lithuania's national selection is always overly long for the entertainment on offer so there's plenty of time for momentum swings but it's also a selection where the results so far are as transparent as possible. I can't imagine how Monika suddenly sees her much more impressive stats overtaken and Lithuania seem to feel that ‘Sentimentai’ fits in with the esc trends of recent years with native language and more ‘authentic’ songs powering through.
Estonia (Eesti Laul)
Don't have much to say on this one with Stefan getting the nod. I can find a million bets at 1.33 which would provide less of a sweat however so it's a bit of a no go for betting on. Former winners Ott Lepland and Elina Nechayeva may complete the super final if I had to pick with both filling the demographic gap a bit better than the rest.
Latvia (Supernova)
This is a bit of a tricky one. Aminata stands out as having the only real quality but isn’t particularly strong and been harmed by her covid situation. LTV are trying to get her over the line- perhaps they feel they owe her one for propping up their results or is again their best hope at making the final. She's on last and should be winning on a half competent jury regardless. The televote is more suspect as we saw from her semi final placing of 6. The issue is that behind her we have a pile of novelty queuing up, still posting some good televote scores but also getting in each others way somewhat. I’d imagine Citi Zeni get punished the least by juries so may push her closest. I just side with Aminata here but she will be hoping to perform from the studio, something I haven’t seen confirmation of either way yet.
Ukraine (Vidbir)
The most interesting national final is in Ukraine and things could get quite political. We have Alina Pash with a hauntingly memorable yet cringe worthy effort who's well connected on the jury (you'd imagine Jamala would love this too) . The more unknown Roxolana provides a maruv-lite number and safe option whilst Wellboy brings popularity and a catchy song set to go viral in Ukraine. Kalush Orhcestra are a bit of a jack of all trades here. All also tap into the current mood in Ukraine to an extent so there’s no real deciding factor there.
I would have said this may come down to if the powers that be (on record as not wanting to win) get a little scared of their rise up the odds again but Alina has already been placed in the pimp slot. I’m assuming this is played with a straight bat in which case the jury ensures Alina makes it through, unless dislike of her is more deep rooted than a few folk outside PBC’s headquarters. Wellboy might be the best placed to cause the upset if the juries don’t hammer him.
So sorry to be boring, but yeah, 4 finals and four favourites tipped, 2 fairly confidently and 2 less so. Apart from Monika being a safe place to invest even at long odds on, there’s not much to really tip and this article is more for fun but it promises to be an interesting night nonetheless.