Firstly I must apologise for the sad neglect of this blog during such a momentous time. As fate would have it, this week I have been distracted not only by Wednesday's 3-hour Swedish exam (!) but also by yesterday's deadline for my Master thesis (!!), leaving me with little brain space for Eurovision shenanigans.
However, today I'm finally free from my study bubble and am here with some last minute thoughts about tomorrow night's Grand Final in Tel Aviv.
Obviously the question on everyone's lips is, can Kate Miller-Heidke take it home for Australia? My answer is...maybe!
Let's look at the pros and cons. Obviously Kate has an incredible voice and Zero Gravity is a really unusual and interesting song: Popbitch described it as Sydney opera/house, which is perfect. The biggest advantage it has though is its incredible staging: I mean, seriously, Eurovision has never seen anything like it and even people who hate the song will be marvelling at how she's managing to fly around on that huge pole without falling off. That's why Australia's been racing up the odds ever since the first rehearsals began (we're currently in second place). Also, we've drawn the second-last place in the final, which is often seen as a huge plus because we'll be fresh in people's minds when voting opens.
But Australia has really struggled with the public vote over the past couple of years without neighbours in Europe, so it's hard to know whether we'll actually get the points we need from the public (we should be pretty solid with the juries, as usual). However, I would say that Zero Gravity is perhaps more likely to attract votes from spectacle-loving Eastern Europe than the other top two contenders, who will probably appeal more to Western Europe.
Speaking of those contenders, one who can't ever be ruled out is my adopted homeland of Sweden. As I've outlined before, Eurovision is practically a national religion here and Swedes take the selection process extremely seriously with a weeks-long competition process. I watched all of Melodifestivalen this year and John Lundvik was an absolute stand out the whole way through. Too Late for Love is a great song, slickly staged with excellent support from his back-up gospel singers. Even though I'm a little sick of it now thanks to hearing it in every shop since February, it really could challenge Kate for the win.
And of course, we must mention the long-term favourite from The Netherlands. Duncan Laurence's Arcade is a really excellent song that wouldn't sound out of place on any contemporary radio station. It's simply staged compared to Kate, but that doesn't necessarily count it out because, as my sister reminded me, Portugal won in a landslide just a couple of years ago with a young man singing a heartfelt ballad. While all the Twitter reaction from Australia and the UK was like 'This is the favourite? Really?' during Semi Final 2, it'll probably have wider appeal amongst those across Europe who prefer song quality to spectacle. Don't count it out - in recent years the act at the top of the odds the day before the final has always won.
In terms of other things to watch out for, sadly a lot of the excellent wackiness was eliminated during the semi final process (adios Portugal), however there are still some extremely Eurovision entries appearing on Saturday night. The act likely to provide the most talking points is Iceland's BDSM-inspired Hatari, who will take to the stage in gimp outfits and fetish gear while screaming anti-capitalist messages in Icelandic and assuring us that "hatred will prevail".
Who knows what will happen tomorrow night. Maybe next year we'll be hosting Eurovision from Berlin (not a joke, that's one of the conditions of Australia competing: if we win we have to host Eurovision somewhere in Europe, and there's some kind of agreement in place between SBS and German TV). However, I don't want to get too excited so my gut says it will probably be Amsterdam calling in 2020 - and that also wouldn't be too shabby a result.
