Quotes of the Day

Sunday, May. 07, 2006

Open quoteWhen spring arrives in Europe, campy pop and sultry ballads can't be far behind. This year, Athens will host the 51st annual Eurovision, the Continent-wide song contest that we say we hate but watch anyway. Here's a sneak peak at some acts hoping to make the May 20 finale, with odds calculated by the gambling site Sky Bet.

Finland: Lordi
Hard Rock Hallelujah.

Prepare for the day of rockening. Some Finns aren't convinced this heavy-metal band, decked out like a group of J.R.R. Tolkien refugees, should represent their placid Nordic nation. But chainsaw-wielding Lordi insists it's not a Satanic group, offering a song called Devil Is a Loser as proof.
Final odds: 25-1

Lithuania: LT United
We Are the Winners.

The Baltic state came in dead last in the 2005 semifinals. Could LT United's entry, which repeats the line, "We are the winners of Eurovision" over and over, be a not-so-subtle attempt at swaying the voting public? There's a fine line between tongue-in-cheek
and just plain pathetic.
Final odds: 100-1

Switzerland: six4one
If We All Give a Little.

Céline Dion won the 1988 Eurovision for the Alpine nation, even though she's French-Canadian, starting a trend of Swiss outsourcing. Last year's Swiss representatives Vanilla Ninja were all from Estonia, and the country's 2006 multinational entry six4one has just one native performer. Luckily, the pop group won't be required to sing Switzerland's
national anthem.
Final odds: 28-1

Serbia and Montenegro
No entry

Even the soothing sounds of boy-band crooning can't calm tensions in Serbia and Montenegro. Although a Montenegrin pop group called No Name won a national selection heat, accusations of vote fixing and Montenegrin favoritism turned the Belgrade competition into a riot. Serbians called for a new vote, but the Montenegrins refused, leaving the Balkan federation not only without No Name but also with no entry.Close quote

  • JENN HOLMES
  • Hold on to your seats. Here comes the 51st annual EuroSong contest. TIME's guide to some of the runners and riders
Photo: REUTERS | Source: Hold on to your seats. Here comes the 51st annual EuroSong contest. TIME's guide to some of the runners and riders