Who will win the Eurovision? Bookies tip Croatia with Ireland a surprise contender
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Ahead of Saturday night’s Eurovision Song Contest Grand final, bookmakers are tipping Croatia’s Baby Lasagna to be crowned the winner for 2024.
Croatia’s catchy song, Rim Tim Tagi Dim, was written, and composed by singer-songwriter Marko Purišić, and he says it is “about people leaving their country in search of a better life.”
Purišić, aka Baby Lasagna, is best known for being the guitarist of popular rock band Manntra, but he has been flying solo for the past year.
To date, Croatia has never won the Eurovision. Their best placing is fourth, which they achieved in 1996 and 1999. So, a win on Saturday night would go down in history for the country.
Despite numerous calls to be excluded from the song contest due to the conflict in Gaza, Israel’s Eden Golan is currently second favourite to win the competition.
According to EurovisionWorld.com, Israel now has a 22% change of taking home the trophy on Saturday night with their song, Hurricane.
Their entry, originally entitled October Rain, had to be rewritten as it was viewed as a political message alluding to the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7, 2023.
As Eden Golan took to the stage during Thursday night’s semi-final, Palestine flags and keffiyehs were seen flying high in the host city of Malmö, as a large-scale pro-Palestine protest took place earlier in the day.
Switzerland, France and Ireland make up the top five favourites, according to the bookmakers.
Switzerland’s entry, entitled The Code is about its singer, Nemo, coming to terms with their non-binary identity.
Nemo, who is one of the song’s four writers said they “had to break a few codes” when accepting that they “didn’t feel like a man or a woman”. Switzerland has an 11% chance of winning the contest according to stats from EurovisionWorld.com.
Ireland’s entry Bambie Thug is currently fifth favourite to take home the glass microphone. Bambie broke the curse on Tuesday night when they became Ireland’s first entry to qualify for the final since 2018.
From Macroom to Malmo, Irish Eurovision fans are now hoping that Europe “crowns the witch” on Saturday night. However, even if Bambie Thug doesn’t win, Ireland could see their first top-10 finish since 2011, or their first top-five result since 1997.
But if Doomsday Blue does go all the way, Ireland, who are currently tied with Sweden for the most Eurovision wins ever, will take the lead once more.
Meanwhile, Latvia are bottom of the heap, currently ranked least favourite to win on Saturday with their song Hollow. They have a less than 1% chance of winning the competition.
The Eurovision Song Contest final will air on RTÉ One on Saturday from 8pm.