03 May 2009

Vote in the prediction poll for the overall winner

With the prediction poll for the top 10 in the final now closed, there is time for one last poll before next week's semi-finals and final. From the countries predicted to make the top 10 in the final in Moscow you are now asked to select the one country you feel is most likely to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

If the country you think is going to win is not on the list, click on the country you think is next most likely to walk off with victory, or alternatively don't vote ;-) In less than a fortnight we'll see how right we all were!

Finalists: poll results

The prediction polls for the most successful automatic finalists and ten countries you think will make up the final top 10 are now closed and reveal that people are fairly convinced about which songs will be doing well this year.

While seven of the countries predicted to make the top ten in the final were all nominated by at least 2 in 5 voters, only three were forecast by 1 in 2: perennial top tenners Greece, fan and bookie favourite Norway and diaspora darling Turkey. The bottom of the top 10 saw some close also-rans, with France and Malta only just missing out, but all of those predicted to make it were selected by pretty much every third voter. Here then are the ten countries predicted to be making up the top 10 in the final in Moscow, in alphabetical order:

- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Estonia
- Greece
- Norway
- Sweden
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom

I have my doubts about some of them, especially with juries involved, but there you are. Interestingly (or not), the results for the top 10 poll didn't quite seem to tally with those for the automatic finalist most likely to do well: although the UK came out top in both, France was thought more likely than Spain to make the top 10, but Spain was thought likelier overall to be the more successful of the two. I'm not sure how that works; it probably does on some level. Germany and Russia are both seen as unlikely to do very well, although Russia outscoring any of the Big 4 is a bet worth taking any time!

With rehearsals due to get underway in Moscow later today, reports will start trickling in that will change our perspectives somewhat before next week's semi-finals and final. In the meantime, one last poll will be opening in which you will be asked to predict the country you feel is most likely to win this year's contest.