Serbia and Slovenia were the surprises of the second show, coming from long pre-show odds to end in the top ten. Poland and Romania, predicted qualifiers, lost out. Poland, admittedly, had more to lose, having looked like a comfortable finalist all week in the odds. Romania looked more unsure, creeping into the top ten favourites today, although former tenth place Latvia also failed to take the spot.

The lucky finalists are:

For sure, there seems to be a larger margin of error with bookmakers’ odds so far this year. The outcome of Tuesday night was even harder to call for bookmakers, whose combined odds placed only seven out of ten qualifiers correctly.

This could be indicative of an edition of the contest that many say is one of the most wide-open in many years. And, for some fans, it is undoubtedly a welcome change from previous ‘odds on’ winners. Could we be facing the most exciting final voting in some time?

Meanwhile, the odds to win have shuffled, and Netta is back in second behind favourite Cyprus. “TOY” regains ground as Alexander Rybak loses it for Norway; he slides into fifth favourite at the end of his first show. France (3rd) and Lithuania (4th) bubble up above him, France back on odds of around 7/1 following valuable exposure for Madame Monsieur in this evening’s broadcast.

Sweden also looks to have won support after Benjamin Ingrosso’s first live outing; the country rises to sixth favourite. Just below him, rising even more dramatically from outside the top ten, is Germany’s Michael Schultze. Just like France, with “You Let Me Walk Alone” featuring after the live performances earlier, betters have rallied around to thoughts of a possible German win.

Estonia, Bulgaria and Czech Republic round off the top ten immediately after the final. Italy, on the other hand, slips out of it, battling for the final tenth place with Mikolas’ “Lie To Me”.

Here is the full standing immediately after the end of broadcast this evening: