Teräsbetoni ride into Eurovision final

Now that we have at least won it once, some of the excitement has gone out of the Eurovision Song Contest, but those Finns who keep faith with Eurovision will have something to stay up for on Saturday, after heavy outfit Teräsbetoni carried the nation’s colours into the final last night.
      The band’s Missä miehet ratsastaa (“Where [the] Men Ride”) was among the ten songs selected by SMS and televoting to go forward from the first semi-final.
     
Whether the men galloped home in front or limped past the post in tenth spot will not be known until after Saturday’s final, when the results of the semi-final voting will also be declared by the organisers.
      Certainly the performance stood out - complete with shiny leather, pyrotechnics, and thunderous riffs, it was very different from the Europop fare on offer elsewhere, and was probably the only topless show of the night - though some of the female acts came close.
     
At least according to the bookmakers (and when has one seen an impoverished bookmaker?) Teräsbetoni’s qualification for the final may have been a fairly close-run thing.
      Ladbrokes were quoting the band at fairly high odds to actually win the semi-final: eight other songs had lower prices.
      An advance poll of Eurovision fans had also dropped Teräsbetoni narrowly outside the top ten, and a snap poll among users of Helsingin Sanomat’s online portal also got it wrong, splitting 62%/38% that the band would not make it.
     
Though most of the ante-post favourites came good, including Russia, Armenia, and Greece, there were a few fancied runners who fell at the first fence.
      Ireland was one - the singing turkey lived up to his name, despite having been seen in some quarters as having an outside chance of victory as the competition becomes more and more of a freak-show with each passing year.
      Apparently Tuesday’s audience felt that putting a puppet in the show was a bridge too far, and the gimmick backfired on the seven-time winners.
     
Thursday’s second semi-final will produce another ten finalists, with Sweden, Ukraine, and Turkey (the country this time) all expected to progress comfortably.
      This year is the first occasion that all the entrants - with the exception of the Serbian hosts and the “Big Four” of Spain, France, Germany and the UK - have had to go through the semi-final stages, regardless of how well they performed last time around.
      A total of 25 countries will be taking part in Saturday night’s show, which will have a worldwide TV audience.in the hundreds of millions.
     
In spite of the changes made to the format and to the voting, with a view to reducing the scope for “neighbourhood voting” (the semi-finals were carefully divided up to reduce the chances of regional or political alliances playing a significant part, and countries competing in one semi-final are not allowed to vote in the other), the bookies seem unimpressed that recent geographical trends will be altered.
      Eight of the top ten countries with the best odds to win the prize and the fun/logistical nightmare of staging the 2009 event come from Eastern Europe, with Russia, Ukraine, and hosts Serbia all strongly fancied.
      Online gaming company Bet365 will pay punters 33-1 if Teräsbetoni can emulate Lordi's achievement in 2006 and win the whole thing.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland relies on votes from Europe´s heavy metal fans in this year´s Eurovision Song Contest (20.5.2008)
  Heavy band Teräsbetoni unfazed over stigma from Eurovision entry victory (4.3.2008)
  BACKGROUND: Finland´s entry will take part in the first semi-final on May 20th (4.3.2008)

Links:
  2008 Eurovision Song Contest (Wikipedia)
  Official Site