Betting houses predict that Slovenia's representatives, Marjetka and Raay, will finish fourth.

The Oddschecker website, which brings together more than 20 betting houses, has been following the popularity of this year's Eurovision songs and performers for several weeks now. The Eurovision song contest will take place in Vienna from the 19th to the 23rd of May. Slovenia can be happy with the current odds, which put the Maraaya duo and their song “Here for you” just behind the top three. If Slovenia would end up winning, betters would get between 11 and 15 euros for every euro they put in.

Sweden, Italy, Estonia
The representatives of Sweden, Italy and Estonia are at the very top and are the big favourites to win the 60th jubilee Eurovision song contest. The odds for victory for the Swedish representative, Mans Zelmerlöw, stand between 2,4 and 2,75. The odds for victory for the Italian pop opera trio Il Volo are 1:5, while for the Estonian duo Elina Born & Stig Rästa 1:6.

Among the "hottest" ten countries – the standings were last refreshed on Wednesday - apart from Slovenia we also find the representatives of Austria, Finland, Russia, Azerbaijan, Norway and Great Britain. At the very bottom are the Czech Republic, Portugal and San Marino, which have odds of winning between 51 and 151.

The predictions for which countries will make it to Saturday's final are also interesting. From the first semi-final evening Armenia, Romania, Serbia, Albania, Belarus, Denmark, Macedonia, Georgia, Greece and Hungary have the best chance of making it to the final. In the other semi-final night those countries are Sweden, Montenegro, Slovenia, Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia and Lithuania. Another good news is that Slovenia has been climbing up the chart every week.

A website which joins together all the Eurovision fans is conducting a survey to find out who will be the successor of Conchita Wurst. The fans of one of the biggest music festivals in the world listen to all of this year's songs and then vote for their best performer. More than 18.200 votes have been submitted so far and in the lead is Italy, followed by Spain.

The music contest in Vienna will feature 40 countries.

A. P. J.; translated by K. J.