WHEN?: 16/5/2020 (now cancelled, although the EBU is planning a Eurovision Shine A Light show)

WHERE?: Rotterdam Ahoy, Rotterdam

Coronavirus has caused the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in its 65-year history but we’re not letting it spoil our fun and, because we know the 41 songs which would have participated, we’re predicting how the finalists would have done.

• Read on for our final predictions. We’ll update them ahead of the show as we include our predicted semi 1 and 2 finalists  

The BBC has promised ‘a Eurovision moment’ for final night on 16/5/20 and let’s hope it features some of the contestants featured below who have had their hopes of representing their country dashed.

Last year the UK chose Michael Rice who sang John Lundvik co-write Bigger Than Us which finished last in Tel Aviv. We thought he’d do considerably better as we watched from Barcelona and loved that Norway won the popular vote ahead of the mediocre Dutch winner.

This year the UK made an internal selection and, although we’ll never know for sure, we feel My Last Breath was a potential contest winner. Read more below.

We’ll be updating this article as we draw running order positions for each of these pre-qualified finalists. Host country the Netherlands has been drawn to perform 13th.

FRANCE Tom Leeb Mon alliée (The Best In Me) (John Lundvik, Amir Haddad, Tom Leeb, Léa Ivanne) PREDICTION: 11th to 15th

Co-writer Lundvik had two songs in last year’s final, performing Sweden’s entry which finished 5th and seeing Bigger Than Us undeservedly trailing in last for the UK. The Best In Me is in keeping with those entries and builds pleasingly to something catchy if safe. Leeb also co-wrote it and we would have loved to have heard it performed live because it feels like he should be able to do it justice.

GERMANY Ben Dolic Violent Thing (Borislav Milanov, Peter St James, Dag Lundberg, Jimmy Thorén, Connor Martin) PREDICTION: 6th to 10th

Co-writer Milanov had two other entries in this year’s contest and we were predicting both Malta and Bulgaria would make the final. Dolic is a Slovenian singer with an unusually high voice who was runner up in The Voice of Germany in 2018. The song has horn stabs which remind of last year’s fancied but withdrawn Ukranian entry and showed promise for the country’s best Eurovision result since Michael Schultz finished 4th in 2018.

ITALY Diodato Fai Rumore (You make noise) (Antonio Diodato, Edwyn Roberts) PREDICTION: 11th to 15th

The English translation of the lyrics are perhaps the best recommendation for this desolate ballad verging on on the dreaded p-opera. ‘But you make noise, yes, and I can’t stand, this unnatural silence. And now I don’t want to do without, that beautiful noise you make.’ A little over earnest, it’s exactly the sort of song sung in its original language which professional juries would doubtless appreciate.

NETHERLANDS Jeangu Macrooy Grow (Jeangu Macrooy) PREDICTION: 21st to 26th

Marmite former UK commentator and 1998 contest host Terry Wogan occasionally used to joke about host countries making gentle attempts not to repeat the experience and so we have the Netherlands’ choice. Macrooy is a Surinamese singer-songwriter who has contributed something gentle and inward-looking that is rather laidback gospel.

SPAIN Blas Cantó Universo (Blas Cantó, Dan Hammond, Ashley Hicklin, Dangelo Ortega, Nikolaj Trybulec) PREDICTION: 16th to 20th

Cantó is bisexual like last year’s winner and has chosen to dress down in the live clip above. monstagigz spends as much time in Spain as possible  and we would have loved to have been more excited about this. The former boy band singer topped the Spanish charts in 2018 with his debut album and this is grown-up, middle-of-the-road fare.

UK James Newman My Last Breath (James Newman, Ed Drewett, Adam Argyll, Iain James) PREDICTION: 1st to 5th

Co-writer James had a credit on one of our least favourite Eurovision winners (Running Scared for Azerbaijan in 2011) but we had high hopes for this internal selection. Brother of pop star John Newman, James has won a Brit Award in 2014 as a co-writer of Rudimental’s Waiting All Night. This is immediately catchy with a folk pop quality of someone like KT Tunstall and we like the rather unusual lyric which has unfortunate coronavirus connotations. We’re imagining his background means he could perform the socks off it too.

• Picture via Facebook courtesy James Newman. Link to latest Eurovision information. Semi 1 predictions.  Semi 2 predictions. Full final predictions. Are our predictions way off? Let us know why in the comments below.
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