The BigPoll has now received more than 77,000 predictions from more than 4,200 esctoday.com readers. Some interesting changes have developed since the start of rehearsals this week, as some countries have impressed more than others.

The BigPoll groups predictions according to the country readers are in, and then predicts how each country will vote using the traditional Eurovision Song Contest scoring mechanism. The poll is the most popular and accurate internet prediction tool for the Eurovision Song Contest and has this year created some interesting points.

Firstly, to qualify automatically to the final, the poll predictions suggest countries will need 50 points to reach ninth place in the second semi final, but only 40 to qualify from the first semi final.

The biggest changes in points have appeared in the second semi final predictions, with four countries increasing their total points by ten or more. In the first semi final, the largest points change for a country was 8 points since rehearsals began.

esctoday.com will announce the results of each poll at 17:00 CET on the day of each show, but in the mean time, according to the BigPoll trends, the countries with the biggest changes in each semi final are (without any reference to their position in the poll):

The four countries that have gained the most points since the rehearsals (in alphabetical order):

Semi Final One

• Belgium
• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• FYR Macedonia
• Malta

Semi Final Two

• Croatia
• Denmark
• Greece
• Norway

Of these eight songs, three are currently NOT predicted to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest final according to the standings in the BigPoll.

The four countries that have lost the most points since the rehearsals (in alphabetical order):

Semi Final One

• Andorra
• Finland
• Portugal
• Turkey

Semi Final Two

• Hungary
• Lithuania
• Moldova
• Ukraine

Of these eight songs, five of them ARE currently predicted to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday 16th May.

We can also add that the two highest climbing countries in each semi final are not listed above and are both Nordic countries.

The 'break away pack' in the first semi final (those that judging by the points totals should definitely qualify) contains four countries, one of which has not yet won the Eurovision Song Contest. In the second semi final, the 'break away pack' contains five countries, and only one of them has not yet won the competition in the past. Of those nine countries, the seven previous winners have all held the prize during the last 14 years when no country has won more than once.