Eurovision 2018 Final LIVE updates: Cyprus favourite to win ahead of Song Contest
EUROVISION 2018 Grand Final takes place tonight with Cyprus the current favourites to take the trophy at the end of the night. They will face tough competition from Norway’s act Alexander Rybak who previously won in 2009 and Israel’s Netta Barzilai.
Tonight, 26 countries will battle it out in Lisbon, Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, to be crowned winner.
The Grand Final comes after 36 countries competed in the semi-finals, which took place on Tuesday 8 May and Thursday 10 May, to win the chance to perform tonight.
The “big five”, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and UK all automatically qualified for the final as they made the biggest financial contribution to the contest.
The Eurovision Song Contest takes place tonight and will be broadcast on BBC One at 8pm.
The winner of this year’s competition will be announced by 11.35pm.
Competing tonight are: Austria, Estonia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Israel, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Albania, Finland, Ireland, Serbia, Moldova, Hungary, Ukraine, Sweden, Australia, Forward, Denmark, Slovenia, The Netherlands, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Cyprus act Eleni Foureira is currently favourite to top the leaderboard this year.
Bookmakers believe she will be the most popular of the night and Coral have slated her odds at winning to just 11-10.
A spokesperson for the bookmakers, John Hill, noted: “There has been a huge gamble behind Cyprus winning Eurovision for a number of weeks and support behind Eleni Foureira is showing no sign of stopping heading into the final.”
Unfortunately for the UK, it looks like this year’s hopeful SuRie will not be victorious with her odds at 100-1.
Follow our live blog below as we get ready for tonight’s Grand Final.
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1.30pm - Israel most likely to win as fans go wild for single Toy?
Israel as reported to be second favourite to win the competition this year with Netta’s single Toy.
According to Spotify it is the most streamed song on the service this year.
However, it is closely followed by Cyprus’ entry, Fuego.
They face tough competition from Sweden’s Benjamin Ingrosso and his track Dance You Off.
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1.02pm - France to snatch victory from Cyprus?
Ahead of tonight’s Grand Final, Grosvenor Casinos have predicted that France will be victorious.
They believe Madame Monsieur will nab the trophy due to their position in the running order for the night.
The French act were drawn in 13th position, which is the average winning draw position.
Meanwhile, 14 of the previous winning singles have been sung in French.
12.30pm - Cyprus hopeful Eleni Foureira sends temperatures soaring on Instagram
Cyprus hopeful Eleni set fans pulses racing on Instagram as she prepared for the Song Contest earlier this week.
She could be seen posing for a backstage shot wearing nothing but a towel dressing gown.
Her brunette locks were styled in cascading wet-look waves as she pouted at the camera.
She captioned the sizzling snap: “What a beautiful day… thank you for your love.”