Norway early Favourite for Eurovision 2009

Norway is the early favourite to win the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow 2009 according to UK-based betting site (spoiler-free). Norway will be presented by Minsk-born violinist Alexander Rybok singing Fairytail. Watch

Norway's odds to win are around 2:1 followed by Greece and Turkey at around 5:1 and 10:1 respectively. Russia and United Kingdom are competing for sixth and seventh place with FYR Macedonia most unlikely to win at around 200:1 .

The position of early favourite is not necessarily a good indication of the eventual winner. Switzerland's DJ Bobo and Ireland's Dustin The Turkey were early favourites to win in 2007 and 2008 respectively, but both were knocked out at the Semi-Final stage.

Russia finally to hear wedding bells?

With Eurovision rehearsals starting tomorrow in Belgrade, there has been a dramatic change in the bookies' predictions for the 2008 winner since we last looked. Ireland has dropped to 6th place with Russia now assuming the position of favourite.

Russia is the eternal-bridesmaid-never-bride of the Eurovision, having been placed in the top three in the last two grand finals and otherwise finishing strongly but never yet actually winning. This year Russia is represented again by Dima Bilan watch who also represented Russia in Eurovision Athens in 2006 with an memorable act which involved a ballet dancer emerging from a piano mid-song.

Ireland Early Favourites

Ireland is the early bookies' favourite to win the Eurovision 2008, closely followed by Ukraine, Latvia and Romania.

Ireland has entered the glove puppet Dustin the Turkey, singing a song which satirizes the Eurovision Song Contest. His performance has not gone down well with some die-hard Eurovision fans and booing can clearly be heard before and after this live performance from RTE Irish Television watch . Early bookmaking on the Eurovision is notoriously unreliable. Last year's early favourite, DJ Bobo from Switzerland, did not even make it past the Preliminary Final.