A second dose of euro-pop heads our way, and if anyone dared to sit through semi 1 on Tuesday (and as readers of a sports betting blog, if you did – then you need help), surviving the onslaught of semi 1 will be nothing compared to what’s coming your way tonight.
This is a dire semi-final (even given context). Betting on the semi is dominated by the Bulgarian entry who trades at odds-on. Kristian Kostov would not look out of place in One Direction, and his ballad “Beautiful Mess” looks likely to storm the show.
We can’t be backing him at that price, but he looks the mostly likely contender on song alone to give hot favourites Italy and Portugal a proper run for their money come the final on Saturday night.
We can wave goodbye to Ireland again this year as their entry was hand-picked by Louis Walsh, and looks and sounds like it too….destined for an early flight home.
Instead it is time to embrace the insane – often a route to Euro-profit. We can’t recall Romania having a rich heritage in either rap music or yodelling, it is therefore a bold move on their part to fuse the two in bizarre entry “Yodel It!”.
Ilinca (yodelling) feat. Alex Florea (rapping) ought to be car crash TV, but there is an odd infectiousness to the sheer enthusiasm that the performers deploy to this Frankenstein’s monster of a song. We can see it catching on, and the widespread Romanian diaspora has been evident before in tele-coting.
It may not be worthwhile backing them at 8/1 to topple Bulgaria in the traditionally lower polling semi-final. Instead let’s back them now for Saturday’s final before the yodel bandwagon gets rolling.
They can be backed at 50/1 win only with Stan James, but 33/1 for 4 places with Bet365 looks the more sensible option.
Recommendation: Romania, to win Eurovision Final, 33/1 each way, Bet 365
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