Eurovision Betting Odds 2007: Israel & Latvia

We're continuing to rattle on with these 2007 Eurovision betting odds, and for all you who've been hollering "Latvia! Where's Latvia? If I don't get to read about Latvia right now I'm going to shit!" every morning - calm down, it's coming.

But first - what will happen to you if you decide to go to Helsinki for the Eurovision Song Contest? Finland is useless, right? No way! Any visitors going to Finland for Eurovision will be subjected to all sorts of events like karaoke contests, street fashion shows, ice cream tasting and some people walking around a statue. Cancel that month in Fiji we've booked - we're going to Helsinki!

Here are the Eurovision betting odds for Israel and - you guessed it, you lucky dogs - Latvia, with help from Paddy Power…

Israel (pop. 6,876,883; a country in the Middle East on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean sea) Teapacks, Push The Button

Israel have long been seen as the bad boys for Eurovision; partly because it's not actually in Europe, partly because when it wins Eurovision it tends to do so with transsexuals and partly because this year's Israeli Eurovision entry is a horrible polka-style rap about blowing up the planet with nuclear bombs. Push The Button by Teapacks - a group of Israeli pop veterans - is part oompah oompah song, part Prodigy-style thrash and part gangsta rap. Plus it almost got kicked out of Eurovision for apparently promoting international conflict, with lyrics like "The world is full of terror/ If someone makes an error/ He's gonna blow us up to biddy biddy kingdom come." Never mind any of that, if Teapacks manage to take this shapeless dollop of a song to Eurovision victory, we're going to blow them up to kingdom come. Not biddy biddy kingdom come, though, naturally. We don't even know what that means. Current Eurovision betting odds - 25/1

Latvia (pop. 2,331,500; a country in northern Europe) Bonaparti.Lv, Questa Notte

2007 looks set to be the Eurovision of gimmicks. So far we've already seen the Georgian giant dancing frock gimmick, the Danish transvestite gimmick and the Israeli pro-nuclear gimmick. Latvia is just a little country, so it'll need a huge gimmick to stand out on Eurovision night. And what has it gone with? Six shouting men in top hats. Questa Notte is a sort of show-stopping pseudo-Operatic song with vaguely rapey translated lyrics like "The perfume of your skin/ Invites me/ To discovery what I don't know" that inevitably sound better sung in Italian. But it's the performance of Questa Notte that weirds us out - that happens one Bonaparti.Lv singer quickly becomes two - then three, then four, then five and then six. It's as if someone has got one of them wet, or fed them after midnight. Or something. Maybe that's how Latvians reproduce. Current Eurovision betting odds - 25/1

Tomorrow - Lithuania and Malta. But if that's too long to wait - or you feel like making more money than you know what to do with - head right over to the Paddy Power Eurovision betting odds page to see the latest, and best, betting odds.