Is this the year? Malta one of early Eurovision betting favourites

Maltese Eurovision fans can keep their fingers crossed and hope for the best this year, as Ira Losco has emerged as one of the early favourites to take the trophy home.

Paddy Power currently ranks Malta as the third favourite to win the entire contest, with their odds slashed from 13/1 on Thursday to 8/1 on Saturday.

Ira Losco will represent Malta this year, with the powerful and catchy song Walk on Water. The song was controversially selected by a panel of international and Maltese judges, despite the singer having earned her place in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest through her song ‘Chameleon’.

However, the early signs are that Losco has made the right decision, and indeed her song climbed two places up Paddy Power’s rankings since her song was released on Thursday.

Her stiffest rivals look set to be current favourites Russia, represented by Sergey Lazarev’s You Are The Only One, and hosts Sweden, represented by Frans’ If I Were Sorry.

Close behind Malta’s tails in fourth and fifth respectively are Croatia (Nina Kraljic – Lighthouse) and Australia (Im – Sound of Silence).

Any result other than a victory will be a disappointment for Losco, given that she finished a narrow second in 2002 with her song 7th Wonder.

Losco said that Walk on Water was emblematic of her own personality, and that its message was of “achieving the impossible and never giving up on yourself”.

“Life, as we all know, can be very hard and is full of up and downs,” she told MaltaToday in an interview on Thursday. “However, I truly believe that staying positive makes it easier to achieve seemingly impossible goals.”

So stay positive, Eurovision fans, because this may just be the year…

Current favourites: 

1. Russia 

2. Sweden

3. Malta