The ninth esctoday.com TOP TEN list continues today with the place no. 1 being announced. As revealed on Saturday, this week's topic are the TOP TEN fallen favourites.

The list features acts and songs that have been considered favourites to win the Eurovision Song Contest according to bookmakers, media and predictions. Fan favourites (e.g. as detemined in OGAE votings) will not be onsidered. The ranking is based on the placing an entry achieved in the contest compared to the number of contestants competing. (In the years since 2004, if an entry reached the final, the number of contestants in the final is considered but if an entry was elminated in the semi final, the total number of contestants is considered. This is due to the fact that betting odds and predictions are usually updated after the semi final results are in.)

So we continue…

No. 1 – Marlain with Tha 'ne erotas (Cyprus 1999)

In 1999, after five times finishing in the first half of the scoreboard in a row, some bookmakers and media predictions thought it would be very likely that Cyprus takes home the victory in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. National final winner Marlain went to Jerusalem with her song Tha 'ne erotas. The Cypriot entry was considered a top favourite along with the entries from Iceland and Sweden and it did happen to be drawn right between those two rivals, which would eventually finish second and first in the contest.

Cyprus' participation that year ended in a disaster: Marlain finished second last getting only two points in total, both from her home country, the United Kingdom. It remains the country's second worst result ever behind the last place in 1986. In 2008 and 2009, Marlain returned to the Cypriot national final. With her own compositions Rejection and Mr. do it right one night stand she finished third and seventh respectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMFs103Y9C4

Tomorrow, we will introduce some fallen favourites that did not make the list as well as some fallen fan favourites that had not been considered. Furthermore, we will introduce not only the topic of next weeks, but the topics of the next two weeks, which will be complementary this time.