Eurovision Season 2018: Who Needs the Win the Most? (Part 2)
We have SO many reflections on this year which I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into on the other side of Saturday night. For now, I'll just say that the betting odds have been moving around like a group of five year olds playing musical chairs whilst high on orange juice. As part of that, when I wrote the initial 'Who Needs the Win the Most?' article (http://internationalisteurovisionblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/eurovision-season-2018-who-needs-win.html) the top five favourites to win. In order to recognise the fact that these favourites have changed, we're going to take a look at the top five countries who are favourite to win (not including any countries mentioned in the other article).
Norway
We wake up on Sunday and realise that once again Alexander Rybak has won Eurovision and suddenly, it's like it's 2009 all over again. Having done some research on Norway's second city (Bergen and yes, I do know how sad my internet search history is beginning to look), I expect we will probably end up back in Oslo for this and probably back in the 23,000 capacity Telenor Arena. To be fair, 2010 was a marvelous show and the Norwegian broadcaster will be appreciating that it's not the year of a major football tournament (they had to sell their rights to screen World Cup games in order to afford to host Eurovision in 2010). Alexander Rybak will have cemented his status a Eurovision legend and will surely be performing regularly on the Oslo stage. Belarus will be watching the scene unfold again and will be wondering how on earth Norway have ended up with the successful side of the coin of a man who has dual nationality and was born in Minsk. Norwegian Eurovision fans will begin wondering if they need Rybak in order to win Eurovision.
Cyprus
I am licking my lips with a massive grin on my face as the country I will probably vote for at this year's contest has risen remarkably from 20th to 4th in the betting odds. I have never seen anything like it, but let's face it, I knew this would go down an absolute storm on the Eurovision stage, the fault was with everybody who doubted it. Eleni is definitely set to deliver the best Cypriot result of all time and amazingly, it's now not insane to imagine that we could be off to Nicosia. In one of my first articles on this blog about who deserves a win, I said that a Eurovision finals in Malta would turn Malta into Eurovision island (http://internationalisteurovisionblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/2018-whos-due-win.html), well ditto Cyprus! The Cypriots have no lack of hotel rooms but their issue will be an arena. The Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center in Limassol is the best arena they have (it was also the venue that hosted Junior Eurovision in 2008). The venue only has a capacity of 6,255 so I can see them either expanding this arena or attempting to do an Azerbaijan and throw up a venue within the year (probably the former). In any case, Eurovision on this Mediterranean island will bring some needed publicity to the political situation there whilst continuing the trend of giving Eurovision powerhouses who have never won, the opportunity to finally host the contest. Watching the Cypriot broadcaster pulls everything together would be a crazy adventure, but such is life and I know that at the end of the day, the show will be wonderful and the fan experience one of the best yet!
France
Not going to lie, I am just tempted to take the text from the article I wrote on this subject (http://internationalisteurovisionblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/eurovision-season-2018-une-victoire.html) and copy-paste it into this block. However, as somebody who has wanted a French victory for many years, I am going to speak positively about this. The bidding process for French cities to host the contest (which is normally a formality) will be fascinating. The French broadcaster might be tempted to choose a smaller French city such as Marseille, Lyon or Toulouse to drum up tourism to different parts of the country. Ultimately however, I think they will go for Paris. The French broadcasters have waited since 1978 for the chance to host Eurovision and you know they are going to make it as French as they possibly can. The styling will be sweet, childish but beautifully French. The hosts will be quirky and will get the right balance of playing into stereotypes and making jokes whilst being professional and moving things along. Bercy Arena will be booked out which from personal experience, I can say is a fantastic venue. This will be a great show and I really, really look forward to when it happens. However, as I said in the aforementioned article, I really hope that it isn't with this particular song.
Bulgaria
We were so ridiculously close to going to Sofia last year that it is definitely interesting to start realistically considering a Bulgarian win. They've had a great history at the contest since returning in 2015 and they have a delegation who are onto a successful formula that they have no intention of trying to shake. Sofia has the Arena Armeec, the venue that hosted Junior Eurovision where the capacity can reach as high as 17,000 for concerts. The contest would represent an opportunity to showcase Bulgaria as a country of culture and a fantastic tourist destination. You can already see the postcards of the Icelandic artist getting sent to some waterfall to go climb it. I have a couple of friends who have been to Bulgaria and it is a country that is infectiously exciting and makes you want to keep coming back! The win would be well deserved for all the amazing Eurovision moments that Bulgaria have given European audiences and would be completely in the spirit of Eurovision (not to mention the first Eurovision to be hosted in the Balkans since Belgrade in 2008).
Sweden
*sigh* Ah, Sweden! You've given us two great shows this decade alone not to mention it's already well-recognised that Melodifestivalen is the biggest of the National Finals within the Eurovision community. You know how to play the Eurovision game and the lovely Mr. Christer Bjorkman has already stated that he wants to see one more Swedish win before he moves away from the Eurovision sphere. Is Benjamin Ingrosso the Swedish win that will see him added to a club including the likes of ABBA, Loreen and Mans Zelmerlow? Knowing how smug the Swedes are about their hosting of Eurovision, I have a sneaky feeling that they will choose to host the contest in Gothenburg just so they can complete the set of having hosted in Malmo, Stockholm and Gothenburg. The Scandinavium has already hosted one of the greatest Eurovisions of all time in 1985 and let's face it, the Swedes always do Eurovision extremely well whatever the budget or context. I am not sure if they will go back to Petra Mede to ask her to host again (after two stellar performances, she should be left to leave the Eurovision world on a high) but it could give the chance to Sarah Dawn Finer to finally be given the full hosting job (though perhaps her performances as Lynda Woodruff has meant that ship has already sailed). I could talk about this for ages so I'll just say this. The world of Sweden hosting Eurovision is a wonderful one, the Swedes deserve to have an automatic spot in the Grand Final and say what you want about the Swedish attitude to the contest, you can rely on them to put on a fantastic show.
And that's your lot! Let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below. Please also don't forget to subscribe to read more content. I have a lot of views and opinions on the Big 5's running order position draws but I will be saving those for when we have the full picture of the running order. It's all systems go now people, we're just under 36 hours from knowing the first set of Semi Final qualifiers and I don't know about you but my levels of excitement and sky-rocketing! Du, du, du, du, du, du, DUUUUUUUUUU, du, DU, DU, du, DU, du, DU, DU, DUUUUUUUUU!
Norway
We wake up on Sunday and realise that once again Alexander Rybak has won Eurovision and suddenly, it's like it's 2009 all over again. Having done some research on Norway's second city (Bergen and yes, I do know how sad my internet search history is beginning to look), I expect we will probably end up back in Oslo for this and probably back in the 23,000 capacity Telenor Arena. To be fair, 2010 was a marvelous show and the Norwegian broadcaster will be appreciating that it's not the year of a major football tournament (they had to sell their rights to screen World Cup games in order to afford to host Eurovision in 2010). Alexander Rybak will have cemented his status a Eurovision legend and will surely be performing regularly on the Oslo stage. Belarus will be watching the scene unfold again and will be wondering how on earth Norway have ended up with the successful side of the coin of a man who has dual nationality and was born in Minsk. Norwegian Eurovision fans will begin wondering if they need Rybak in order to win Eurovision.
Cyprus
I am licking my lips with a massive grin on my face as the country I will probably vote for at this year's contest has risen remarkably from 20th to 4th in the betting odds. I have never seen anything like it, but let's face it, I knew this would go down an absolute storm on the Eurovision stage, the fault was with everybody who doubted it. Eleni is definitely set to deliver the best Cypriot result of all time and amazingly, it's now not insane to imagine that we could be off to Nicosia. In one of my first articles on this blog about who deserves a win, I said that a Eurovision finals in Malta would turn Malta into Eurovision island (http://internationalisteurovisionblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/2018-whos-due-win.html), well ditto Cyprus! The Cypriots have no lack of hotel rooms but their issue will be an arena. The Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center in Limassol is the best arena they have (it was also the venue that hosted Junior Eurovision in 2008). The venue only has a capacity of 6,255 so I can see them either expanding this arena or attempting to do an Azerbaijan and throw up a venue within the year (probably the former). In any case, Eurovision on this Mediterranean island will bring some needed publicity to the political situation there whilst continuing the trend of giving Eurovision powerhouses who have never won, the opportunity to finally host the contest. Watching the Cypriot broadcaster pulls everything together would be a crazy adventure, but such is life and I know that at the end of the day, the show will be wonderful and the fan experience one of the best yet!
France
Not going to lie, I am just tempted to take the text from the article I wrote on this subject (http://internationalisteurovisionblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/eurovision-season-2018-une-victoire.html) and copy-paste it into this block. However, as somebody who has wanted a French victory for many years, I am going to speak positively about this. The bidding process for French cities to host the contest (which is normally a formality) will be fascinating. The French broadcaster might be tempted to choose a smaller French city such as Marseille, Lyon or Toulouse to drum up tourism to different parts of the country. Ultimately however, I think they will go for Paris. The French broadcasters have waited since 1978 for the chance to host Eurovision and you know they are going to make it as French as they possibly can. The styling will be sweet, childish but beautifully French. The hosts will be quirky and will get the right balance of playing into stereotypes and making jokes whilst being professional and moving things along. Bercy Arena will be booked out which from personal experience, I can say is a fantastic venue. This will be a great show and I really, really look forward to when it happens. However, as I said in the aforementioned article, I really hope that it isn't with this particular song.
Bulgaria
We were so ridiculously close to going to Sofia last year that it is definitely interesting to start realistically considering a Bulgarian win. They've had a great history at the contest since returning in 2015 and they have a delegation who are onto a successful formula that they have no intention of trying to shake. Sofia has the Arena Armeec, the venue that hosted Junior Eurovision where the capacity can reach as high as 17,000 for concerts. The contest would represent an opportunity to showcase Bulgaria as a country of culture and a fantastic tourist destination. You can already see the postcards of the Icelandic artist getting sent to some waterfall to go climb it. I have a couple of friends who have been to Bulgaria and it is a country that is infectiously exciting and makes you want to keep coming back! The win would be well deserved for all the amazing Eurovision moments that Bulgaria have given European audiences and would be completely in the spirit of Eurovision (not to mention the first Eurovision to be hosted in the Balkans since Belgrade in 2008).
Sweden
*sigh* Ah, Sweden! You've given us two great shows this decade alone not to mention it's already well-recognised that Melodifestivalen is the biggest of the National Finals within the Eurovision community. You know how to play the Eurovision game and the lovely Mr. Christer Bjorkman has already stated that he wants to see one more Swedish win before he moves away from the Eurovision sphere. Is Benjamin Ingrosso the Swedish win that will see him added to a club including the likes of ABBA, Loreen and Mans Zelmerlow? Knowing how smug the Swedes are about their hosting of Eurovision, I have a sneaky feeling that they will choose to host the contest in Gothenburg just so they can complete the set of having hosted in Malmo, Stockholm and Gothenburg. The Scandinavium has already hosted one of the greatest Eurovisions of all time in 1985 and let's face it, the Swedes always do Eurovision extremely well whatever the budget or context. I am not sure if they will go back to Petra Mede to ask her to host again (after two stellar performances, she should be left to leave the Eurovision world on a high) but it could give the chance to Sarah Dawn Finer to finally be given the full hosting job (though perhaps her performances as Lynda Woodruff has meant that ship has already sailed). I could talk about this for ages so I'll just say this. The world of Sweden hosting Eurovision is a wonderful one, the Swedes deserve to have an automatic spot in the Grand Final and say what you want about the Swedish attitude to the contest, you can rely on them to put on a fantastic show.
And that's your lot! Let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below. Please also don't forget to subscribe to read more content. I have a lot of views and opinions on the Big 5's running order position draws but I will be saving those for when we have the full picture of the running order. It's all systems go now people, we're just under 36 hours from knowing the first set of Semi Final qualifiers and I don't know about you but my levels of excitement and sky-rocketing! Du, du, du, du, du, du, DUUUUUUUUUU, du, DU, DU, du, DU, du, DU, DU, DUUUUUUUUU!
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