Five things to watch out for ahead of the Eurovision final in Italy
Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine are the favourites to win the Eurovision this year
Eurovision Song Contest favourites Ukraine was voted through to the grand final during the week following an energetic performance of their song Stefania while dressed in elaborate outfits with traditional patterns.
As the country continues to resist Russian forces, the Ukrainian act is the favourite to win the competition. Russia was removed from this year’s contest following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the Irish Examiner this week, columnist Tom Dunne echoes the sentiment of much of Europe: “Ukraine will sweep to victory on a wave of anti-war emotion, and rightly so.”
Among the bookies’ favourites for the final are Sweden, Spain, and hosts Italy.
As well as these is a surprising favourite, given the country’s Eurovision performance results in recent years: the UK’s entrant Sam Ryder is among those tipped to prevail in Turin.
The UK has not made the top ten for more than a decade and the country has been at the very bottom of the board for the past two years. However, Ryder might just turn their fortunes around.
Ryder, 32, is a former construction worker turned TikTok sensation, with stars like Alicia Keys, Sia and Justin Bieber reposting his videos on the app. He has been touring Europe to build support for his song, Space Man, which was co-written by Amy Wadge - her other credits include Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud.
It's not the first time the UK has left it all on the stage, but this year feels different.
Brooke Scullion's That's Rich failed to get through the second semi-final and Ireland will not be among the countries performing in Saturday’s grand final.
Ireland won the song contest a record seven times, won four out of five contests in the 1990s and became the first country to win three times in a row. However, in recent years Irish acts have struggled to even reach the final, failing to qualify on seven of the last 10 attempts. Ireland last reached the final in 2018 with Ryan O’Shaughnessy and his song, Together.
It has been a talking point for years now, but there is not a clear solution.
We might not be in the final, but we can still cast a vote. Viewers from any country participating in the song contest can vote once the voting window opens. This happens after the last song has been performed and it will close just 15 minutes later.
You can cast your vote by phone, by text or via the official Eurovision app. Each person can vote up to 20 times but, as usual, voters will be unable to vote for their own country. However, there will be two separate sets of votes awarded; the points from the juries and the points from the televote. Each will determine 50% of the outcome. The results from the jury vote are given first, from each country, before the televote is added and this has the potential to change the leaderboard completely.
The televoting and jury scores from each participating country will be available shortly after the grand final ends on Eurovision.tv.
- The Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final airs live on RTÉ One, the RTÉ Player and RTÉ Radio 1 from 8pm on Saturday night.
