Israel's Kobi Marimi currently ranked in 25th place by betting predictors.
By AMY SPIROIsraeli flags and flags bearing the logo of the 2019 Eurovision song contest flutter outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, during the Eurovision Semi-Final allocation draw, in Tel Aviv.(photo credit: CORINNA KERN/REUTERS)
With a month until the Eurovision kicks off in Tel Aviv, everyone is wondering who will take home the win – and host the prestigious international contest next year.The two main metrics to predict this year’s champion, betting sites and YouTube views, both predicted a resounding win for Israel’s Netta Barzilai last year in Lisbon.According to EurovisionWorld.com, the Netherlands is favored to win this year’s contest in Tel Aviv. The country is being represented by Duncan Laurence with his song “Arcade.” OddsChecker.com and NicerOdds.co.uk also pick the Netherlands.When it comes to YouTube views, Laurence comes out on top once again, with more than 5.2 million views for his music video – the most of the 41 entries on the official Eurovision channel. Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that it features him fully nude and floating around under-water.Who else is in top contention? All three betting websites rank Russia in second place, and Italy, Switzerland and Sweden round out the top five – though NicerOdds places Sweden in higher contention than the other sites.Israel’s Kobi Marimi is currently ranked in 25th to 26th place on the sites. Since Israel won last year and is hosting the contest this year, it automatically advances to the final, and cannot fin-ish lower than 26th place.Over on YouTube, the remaining view count rankings don’t necessarily match up to the betting sites.The second-most viewed video is Malta’s entry, the song “Chameleon” by Michela, which has more than 4.9 million views. The betting rankings, however, have Malta in eight or ninth place.In third place on YouTube is Armenia, with its entry “Walking Out” by Srbuk garnering more than 4.2 million views on the streaming platform. On the betting sites, Armenia is ranked in 14th or 15th place.Russia, which is ranked in second place by all the betting predictors, has 1.9 million views for “Scream” by Sergey Lazarev, who also represented Russia in 2016 at the Eurovision and came in third place.
Israel’s Kobi Marimi has received more than 900,000 views on YouTube for his song, “Home.”All indicators point to a victory for the Netherlands at the 2019 Eurovision in Tel Aviv. It would be the fifth win for the country but its first since 1975 - a whopping 44 years ago. The Nether-lands, however, hosted the contest in 1980 after Israel declined to do so two years in a row. With a month to go until the competition, anything could still happen - and any of the 41 com-peting countries could be the winner. But some people in the Netherlands are already count-ing on a win. According to Dutch reports, city council officials in both The Hague and Amster-dam have begun discussing submitting bids to host the contest in 2020.Of course, they are getting way ahead of themselves. Perhaps a month from now, Israelis will once again be saying “Next year in Jerusalem”?
