Final prediction

Okay, it's time. Time to put my money where my mouth is (well, not really, I'll be hopping over to Betfair to do that in a bit). But here goes, here's my final prediction for the results of this year's contest.

And the winner is...

1. Australia - I have to admit that I wasn't fully convinced by this on Thursday, but everyone else seems to be, it seems to selling well across Europe and it's both jury and televote-bait. So I'm putting this on top.
2. Sweden - I've had them on top for much of the season, and maybe it's the bloggers talking me out of it, but I'm knocking it down to second now.
3. Russia - I never really saw this as a winner, and Tuesday's performance only confirmed my feelings.
4. Latvia - I would love love love this to win. Pretty please?
5. Ukraine
6. Armenia
7. Serbia
8. Italy
9. Azerbaijan - Samra seems to be singing just well enough when combined with her backing vocalists, and it looked fabulous on Tuesday.
10. Bulgaria - I'd originally had them in the Top 10 before rehearsals, then took them out after reports... And now when I made my ranking now, they just slipped in.

11. Netherlands - not doing as well as I'd expected, and the early draw hits this one hard
12. France
13. Israel
14. Austria - it's been lovely seeing some commenters who were quite vitriolic about how Zoe had no chance, what with singing in French and all, totally eating their words now - surprisingly enough, only after her good result in the semi, rather than after they'd seen the same performance in rehearsals.
15. Poland - not deserved, but diaspora...
16. Malta
17. Georgia - still loved by the press, I strongly believe it'll get its share of votes from its fans, but that that won't be enough for it to climb any higher.
18. Cyprus
19. Hungary
20. Belgium - I think first is a horrible draw for this, and it's going to get forgotten.
21. Lithuania
22. Spain - I'm still convinced this is doing badly, despite reports that the crowd in the jury rehearsal loved it.
23. UK - much like Spain, they seem to be charming the cameras and the crowd in the hall alike. This is, the UK always seems to come across 'surprisingly well' in rehearsals, and then it almost never actually translates into a decent finish.
24. Croatia
25. Czech Republic - finally everyone seems to have noticed how staggeringly dull this is.
26. Germany