The final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest will take place this Saturday in Malmo, Sweden, with 26 countries taking part, including Portugal, with Croatia, Israel and Switzerland the favorites to win the competition, which will focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
There are 26 countries participating in the competition, which can be followed live in Portugal starting at 20:00 on RTP1, in order of competition: Sweden, Ukraine, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Greece. , Great Britain, Norway, Italy, Serbia, Finland, Portugal, Armenia, Cyprus, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Georgia, France and Austria.
Croatia, Israel and Switzerland are the three favorites to win this year’s competition, according to an average of multiple bookmakers calculated by eurovisionworld.com, which specializes in the competition, at 8.30pm on Friday.
In recent weeks, Croatia, which competes with Baby Lasagna’s “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” theme, has found itself between first and second place in players’ preferences.
Israel, represented by Eden Golan and the song “Hurricane”, moved up to second place after weeks of oscillation between seventh and ninth place on Thursday, after the second semi-final in which they reached the final.
Switzerland, represented by Nemo with “The Code”, had been battling Croatia for the top spot until Thursday and for the past few weeks.
Portugal is far from the podium. On Friday at 20:30 Yolanda’s Portuguese song “Grito” was ranked 23rd. Since Portugal’s representative was chosen, Portugal has ranked between 25th and 30th in player preference at the Festival da Cançan in March.
Portugal first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964, having missed five editions since then (1970, 2000, 2002, 2013 and 2016).
Last year, Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest with Lauryn’s song “Tattoo”.
In 2023, Portugal entered the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Ai Coração” by Mimicat, which finished 23rd in the competition. In 2017, Portugal won the competition for the first and only time with Luisa Sobral’s song “Amar dos dos” performed by Salvador Sobral.
The 68th Eurovision Song Contest is marked by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has lasted for decades but intensified following the October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people. Led by Benjamin, Netanyahu responded with an offensive that killed more than 34,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to reports from both sides.
Since it became known that Israel, represented by Eden Golan, will be participating in the competition, political representatives and European artists have made several requests to the EBU to veto the country’s participation in the competition.
For example, on Friday, the Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Diaz, in a publication on the social network X, cited by the EFE agency, recalled that the Eurovision Song Contest is about joy, peace and diversity. , not window dressing designed to whitewash Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, which is death, destruction and hatred.”
According to the Spanish ruler, Israel is “incompatible with the values promoted by the competition and should not participate” in the event.