IRELAND’S BID TO return to its former days of glory might be in unusual hands in Dusseldorf tonight, but the omens are good for Jedward making it through to Saturday night’s final of the Eurovision song contest.
The Lucan teens will be the last act to perform in tonight’s eliminator – and could be handicapped by tonight’s voting system, which will allow viewers in participating countries to begin voting from the second the first song begins.
The arrangements mean that the first act, Bosnia and Herzegovina – the most hotly-tipped act from tonight’s heat – will have almost two hours to attract votes from the other participating countries, while viewers will not see Jedward perform until around 9:30pm.
But despite the handicap of the running order, all signs point to Jedward making it through – because since 2007, all but one of the acts singing last in the semi-finals have safely qualified for the final.
Only this dire effort from The Toppers in 2009 failed to make it through from the final spot – but even in their semi-final, all seven of the acts that sang immediately before them made it through.
Indeed, of the ten countries who qualified from Tuesday’s first semi, five of the final six songs qualified for the final – including the three last songs to perform.
The bookmakers, too, are confident of success for Jedward this evening – Paddy Power’s market ranks the lads at fourth in the list of ten countries to qualify, behind Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark and Estonia.
Indeed, when backing the outright winner of the semi-final – which won’t be revealed until after Saturday’s finale – the lads are tied at 7/2, behind only the Bosnian act of Dino Merlin:
Google’s Eurovision tracker also points to success for the boys: awarding each country’s points based on that country’s search patterns, Jedward are easily the best-performing act, ahead of reigning German champion Lena.
But of course, the best indication of how well a sing will do is its toe-tapping factor – the way a tune can bury itself into your head and refuse to be dislodged.
In that case, Miriam O’Callaghan’s tweet from earlier this morning is a good indication of how well the song is likely to perform.
The second semi-final begins at 8pm tonight, and will be live on RTÉ One and on the RTÉ and Eurovision websites.
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