As we look towards events in a few hours (20:00hrs GMT) I have been in touch with my euro-chums in Baku, and having deliberated I can now reveal what we think will make it to the Grand Final at the weekend. I must point out that they are four hours ahead of UK time and so a drink had already been taken, as they warmed-up for the evening ahead (lucky them!). Longtime readers of the blog will join me in welcoming back regular contributors Karen and Brian, joined as they are by Milija and Dave.
As a group of fans and academics, ergo supposed “experts”, here’s what we think…
| PHIL | BRIAN | KAREN | MILIJA | DAVE | |
| 01 Montenegro | |||||
| 02 Iceland | YES | YES | YES | ||
| 03 Greece | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| 04 Latvia | YES | ||||
| 05 Albania | YES | YES | YES | YES | |
| 06 Romania | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| 07 Switzerland | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| 08 Belgium | YES | YES | |||
| 09 Finland | |||||
| 10 Israel | |||||
| 11 San Marino | |||||
| 12 Cyprus | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| 13 Denmark | YES | YES | |||
| 14 Russia | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| 15 Hungary | |||||
| 16 Austria | YES | YES | |||
| 17 Moldova | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| 18 Ireland | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
So as you can see we all agree on seven countries: Greece, Romania, Switzerland, Cyprus, Russia, Moldova and Ireland. It will be interesting to see if the guys in Baku have the hometown advantage of having seen all the rehearsals and the dress rehearsals – they might know better than you are I what is working on stage. We’ll all see tonight when we see it on television how they all come across to the viewers at home.
So as you can see we all agree on seven countries: Greece, Romania, Switzerland, Cyprus, Russia, Moldova and Ireland. It will be interesting to see if they guys in Baku have the hometown advantage of having seen all the rehearsals and the dress rehearsals – they might know better than you are I what is working on stage. We’ll all see tonight when we see it on television how they all come across to the viewers at home. I’ll go on to say that my reserve list is Finland and Israel (if that doesn’t sound like I’m edging my bets!).
So, see you on the other side – enjoy the show and play along. How successful will your napkin of death be…
And Brian Singleton – enjoy the show from your OGAE fan seats. I hope the view is good, and don’t miss me too much this year – I’m with you in spirit! Hopefully I’ll be back as your wing-man next year!
🙂