Surprising results seem to be the order of the day here at the Eurovision Song Contest. Against all odds, last Thursday’s semi-final result sent home strong entries from Poland, Estonia and the highly quoted Belgium, while gave access to the final to unfavoured Lithuania.

Lithuania are represented by LT United performing their entry “We are the winners”, which includes phrases such as “We are the winners of Eurovision... vote... vote... vote for the winners!”

Many are putting their bets that the Gothic-rock band LORDI from Finland or the Country-Pop group from Germany might offer a tough competition to the highly-quoted Sweden or Greece tonight.

Yesterday, Fabrizio Faniello was on stage twice for the final dress rehearsals and run-throughs. The first rehearsal took place at around 2pm, while the second run-through took place at around 9pm.

There were several mixed reactions about the Maltese performance, which didn’t go down well among the fans and journalists present in the audience. Some commented that this costume makes Fabrizio look older than he really is, while others commented that Fabrizio’s performance on stage during the Maltese final last February was much more powerful than this one in Athens.

Greek Eurovision website, Oikotimes.com, spared some nice words about the Maltese entry describing it as follows: “The Maltese one was nice. He’s presented as an old fashioned ‘casanova’ with a yellow flower at the heart side of his suit. While the song was approaching it’s peak, fireworks came up. Also the cubes were raised up to different levels.”

Esctoday.com had the following comments about Fabrizio Faniello: “His vocal lacks power at the moment, although he may be keeping some in reserve for when it counts. On screen, his choice of costume seems to age him – in a brown waistcoat with a yellow rose in his lapel, he looks more like he is dressed for a wedding disco than a Eurovision performance. Otherwise, the routine was performed well and he was popular in the hall.”

What about the bettings?

After last Thursday’s results, the bettings were all updated so that the attention is now focused on the 24 finalists. According to the Bestbetting.com chart (made up of the average odds of 16 leading Betting agencies) Greece is still the leader, followed by Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Finland.

To our disappointment, Malta is rated in the 19th place out of 24 entries. Swiss entry (with Keith Camilleri’s participation) is rated at 14th place.

Things look brighter for Germany and UK. Being part of the Big-4, Germany, UK, Spain and France are directly qualified for next year’s finals. So, if any of the Big-4 countries make it to the top-10 list tonight, more countries will be given access for next year’s final. This will add more chances for the countries whose chances to qualify are slim.

Here is the running order for tonight’s final of the 51st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006:

Switzerland; Moldova; Israel; Latvia; Norway; Spain; Malta; Germany; Denmark; Russia; FYR Macedonia; Romania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Lithuania; United Kingdom; Greece; Finland; Ukraine; France; Croatia; Ireland; Sweden; Turkey; Armenia.