Eurovision Odds - Finland and France

In two week’s time, we’ll know who won the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. But right now we don’t, and that’s why hecklerspray and Betfair.com are teaming up to give you a rundown on the contenders.

In this country the event is commentated by Terry Wogan, but it’s a little known fact that in Latvia they employ a bear and an angry goose to fight each other with machine guns between songs, and people in Malta decide who to vote for by firing babies out of cannons when everyone has finished singing. No they don’t.

We’re looking at Finland and France today.

Finland (pop. 5,211,311; a Nordic country in northern Europe)
The entry for Finland comes from Geir Ronning - a man with a powerful voice, that probably comes from his big fat face. He sings Why, an anti-war song. The lyrics plead "Tell me how much we’ll lose before we’ve won". We’ll do that after you’ve finished singing, lunchbox. Current odds - 209/1

France (pop. 63,044,000; a country whose metropolitan territory is in western Europe)
The singer for France is a woman named Ortal, a gypsy R&B performer. Her song is Cacun Pense A Soi (Everyone Thinks About Themselves), a lament about how nowadays nobody cares about anyone else, and probably about how policemen are all getting much younger, too, "Loneliness is our unique attitude", she tells us. We’ll take her word for it. Current odds - 159/1.

We’re not even halfway through the list yet, so come back tomorrow and we’ll tell you about some more entries. In the meantime, look at the ‘Special Bets’ section of Betfair.com for the full list. It changes in real-time, so keep an eye on your favourites, and then slap a heap of cash down.

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[story by Stuart Heritage]