Eurovision will take place in the UK on Saturday but the omens are not good for home entry Mae Muller.
Ukraine won the 2022 competition and, as per tradition, it would be the host for this year. However, the ongoing conflict with Russia means that Britain - the runner-up last year - will stage the event in Liverpool.
Muller’s entry I Wrote a Song is, according to bet365, the eighth most likely to win at 40/1 with Sweden’s Loreen deemed as the favourite. Loreen’s song Tattoo was given odds of 8/13.
The winner in 2021 was Italy, and Britain has not won the song contest since 1997 - which means the country last hosted in 1998.
But, if the UK defies the bookies’ odds and comes top in the Eurovision final on Saturday, it will be the first time in nearly 30 years that the same nation has both hosted and won.
The last occasion was in 1994, when Ireland staged the event in Dublin and also claimed first place with the song Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids, performed by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan.
It meant Ireland had actually won three times in a row, having also hosted and won in 1993, following on from their 1992 win.
The UK has not yet managed to win Eurovision while also staging the event, though it has come close several times, finishing in second place on five of the eight times it has hosted the contest.
This happened most recently in 1998, when the contest took place in Birmingham and the UK’s entry Imaani came a close second behind Israel’s Dana International.
The first occasion was back in 1960, when the UK again came a close second, this time behind France.
Aside from Ireland, only four other countries have won Eurovision while also hosting the event.
They are Switzerland, in the very first contest in 1956; Spain in 1969 (joint winners with the UK, Netherlands and France); Luxembourg in 1973; and Israel in 1979.
Victory for the UK this year would be the sixth time the country has won the contest and the joint second-highest number of wins of any competing nation, level with Sweden and one behind Ireland.
