Eurovision Betting Odds: Dima Bilan, Russia

A new week means a new flurry of Eurovision betting odds. And nothing else. It just means the Eurovision thing.

And with Eurovision now less than a fortnight away, it’s time to kick off some official Eurovision festivities, like today’s Serbian Royal Eurovision welcome party held in Belgrade’s White Palace, where one Eurovision contestant will be chosen at random and fed to the dogs as an example of the family’s all-consuming power. Fingers crossed it’s the Estonians.

Here are the Eurovision betting odds for Russia, with help from Paddy Power…

Russia (pop. 144,526,378: the largest country in the world) Dima Bilan, Believe

Although the common image of Russia is all furry hats and espionage and terminal grimness, we’re starting to get the impression that it’s actually more like a Backstreet Boys video. Every single year the Russian Eurovision entry sounds exactly like the Backstreet Boys and that’s still the case this year. But maybe the Russian Eurovision songs always sound identical because Russia always enters the same bloke. Dima Bilan represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2006, and here he is again with Believe, a mid-tempo ballad that’s only made interesting because Dima makes intermittent guinea pig noises throughout it. Buoyed up by the arrogance that comes from being in Eurovision twice in three years, at one point Dima starts yelling “Stop me! Stop me!” like it’s a dare to his competitors. Well, it’s either the arrogance of being in Eurovision twice in three years or the arrogance of knowing his government can get handy with the old Polonium-210 if anyone does actually try to stop him. Current Eurovision betting odds - 6/1

Tomorrow: San Marino! 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.