My predictions for Eurovision Song Contest 2022 (pre-show).

We finally have all the competing entries for this year's Eurovision Song Contest, and, while listening to them, all of us probably ended up thinking about who our winner is, who is going to qualify and who isn't, and so on.

I am no exception: I, too, have made some predictions about the show, considering both the entries and the most common Eurovision dynamics.

Some ballads/sad/slow songs are not qualifying.

Compared to last year, this year's entries are much gloomier, overall. Melancholic and emotional atmospheres are dominating in a lot of songs.

With so many songs falling into this category (I counted at least 12), inevitably, some are not going to make it to the Grand Final.

The alternative, best-case scenario, would mean completely ignoring many catchy entries from other genres, which is not realistic. At most, the jury might try to tank them, but the public votes will keep them afloat.

A song I don't like is going to win.

I wish I was wrong about this, but I fear that it's going to end up like 2019.

What I disliked the most about the 2019 edition was not just the winning song in itself - it was just not my cup of tea - but also how people hyped some entries that I, personally, found bland, such as Sweden, Malta, and San Marino, while Iceland was criminally underrated (but still iconic), Norway was tanked by the jury, and Georgia didn't qualify.

Now, I think that Sweden 2022 is definitely better than Sweden 2019, but it's still not winner material for me. Sure, it feels rawer than their usual safe pop song but, to me, it doesn't stand out, when compared to other entries.

However, the Internet seemingly disagrees with me, with multiple Eurovision fan accounts putting Sweden first in their temporary rankings. Considering that Sweden rarely gets tanked by the jury, the chances of this entry winning are high. Much to my disappointment, clearly.

Other Eurovision fans also listed Greece and Poland as their personal winners, which are not my cup of tea as well, so I'm afraid that the winner will somehow disappoint me.

Georgia will go up in the rankings after the live performance.

This year, the artist representing Georgia is Circus Mircus, a band whose members are fairly unknown. The official video of their song Lock Me In only consists of an "error" Youtube screen featuring an anti-Putin message.

There is not much information about them on the Internet, either. According to my, obviously limited, research, they base their brand entirely on anonymity.

As we all know, Eurovision is a competition that strongly relies on visuals, besides music. A quirky look, a camp staging, a weird music video are all elements that can help an artist stand out. By doing the exact opposite, however, Circus Mircus are building a mysterious aura, and setting our expectations to zero: how am I supposed to have expectations around a group that I have barely seen?

Consequently, their live stage is probably going to surprise many of us for the better, because, as I said before, we don't know what to expect.

Sure, it may not be enough to win, but it could be enough to make them qualify.

Chanel (Spain) is going to have an Eleni Foureira-ish moment.

Spain is my winner this year, and, although many Eurovision fans disagree with me on this, they all admitted that Chanel is a great performer.

Her performances speak for themselves: all her stages in the national selection went well in terms of vocals as well as dance and overall presence.

Moreover, since she also has a background in musical theatre and she's somewhat used to singing and dancing simultaneously, it's highly unlikely that the live stage will flop. With the right staging and costumes, she could actually go even more viral, similarly to Eleni Foureira, who represented Cyprus in 2018, and managed to place #2 thanks to a mix of good music and great stage presence.

Although she didn't win, Eleni Foureira managed to win televote and set a new standard for female performers at Eurovision, and I think Chanel could follow the same path.

Semi-final 2 is going to be more competitive than semi-final 1.

This is probably not an unpopular opinion. If you have listened to all the entries, and if you have seen the results of the draws for the semi-finals, you probably noticed that most of the non-emotional, upbeat, and quirky entries are competing in semi-final 2.

With such a variety of genres and unique concepts, it's not hard to think that this semi-final is going to be more competitive than the first semi-final.

Speaking of my personal opinion, most of my favorite entries are also competing in the second semi-final, so I second this opinion for now.

None of the big 5 is going to get zero points, but Germany is going to rank the lowest among them.

The big 5 are countries that automatically access the Grand Final (Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and the UK).

Over time, some of them maintained a steady quality with their entries, but others kept sending mediocre songs and getting last place for years. This situation peaked last year when three of them (the UK, Germany, and Spain) got zero points from the public vote, and the UK even ended up without any point at all, not even from the jury.

This year, it seems like all these countries put a huge effort into their selection, so much so that many people put Spain and the UK on top of their rankings.

With France and Italy appearing often in the top 10 and top 15 of fans, Germany will likely rank the lowest among them. The song is not terrible, but it still doesn't rank super high both in temporary rankings and in my personal ranking as well.

Regardless, I believe that none of them will get zero points this time, so their overall situation has improved tremendously compared to last year.

There is going to be at least one surprise qualifier.

As I mentioned before, the second semi-final seems far more competitive than the first due to its higher musical diversity.

The first semi-final, on the other hand, features most of the ballads and emotional songs that I mentioned in my first prediction. With so many similar songs crammed together, I would not be surprised to see an unexpected qualifier here, honestly.

However, this doesn't mean that there can't be one in the second semi-final as well. The conditions are just the polar opposite: there are so many different entries that some might actually climb the ranking with a good performance, and end up qualifying. Or, alternatively, a jury qualifier might beat a televote qualifier, who knows!

These were my predictions for Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Since we haven't seen the ESC live performances, yet, these might turn out to be completely wrong, so it's going to be fun comparing them after the show!