We catch up with the first five favorites

The Eurovision Song Contest reached its big final on Saturday night in Basel, with 26 countries fighting for the coveted microphone for a microphone.

The competition has been feeling less predictable than recent years, when actions such as Lorine (Sweden, 2023) and the Kalush Orchestra (Ukraine, 2022) were ordained to win before they even sing a note.

Currently, bookmakers have installed Sweden at the top of the table for the 69th edition of the competition, with their delightful Bonkers Sauna Sonnet, Bara Bada Bastu.

But here: Novel number has never won. Usually voters prefer songs for triumph over adversity and captivating great pop hymns.

Ideally, they want a stunning awesome pop anthem around The triumph over the disadvantage and there are many of those sprinkled this evening working.

We talked to the six athletes with the best chances to find out what their Eurovision records stand out.

• A chance to win: 39%
• Language: Swedish
• Genre: ePadunk
• Spotify Streams: 43.9m

Kaj is the first Finnish act to represent Sweden in Eurovision, a native of the coastal city of Vöro, where the Swedish is still the main language.

A comedy troupe, which met at school, have been performing together for more than 15 years – and were the surprising winners of Sweden’s Melodifestivale, where the public selects Eurovision record in the country earlier this year.

Their song, Bad Bada Bat, is a tribute, led by Accordian to the sauna culture (Finland has more than three million saunas, one for every two people).

“I felt like a natural thing to sing about,” says Kevin Holmstrom. “We really like the sauna. It’s universal.”

The first record of Swedish in 2012 has praised the virtues of the practice of stress. Is that why Finland consistently qualified as the most keen nation in the world, I wonder?

“It’s a chicken and an egg situation,” laughs Jacob Norgord. “I don’t know who is the first, happiness or sauna, but the sauna definitely takes off your pulse.”

The trio brought a model sauna to the Eurovision stage this year, complete with birch branches, hot coal and dancers in clipping towels. In the texts, they ask “How long can you last?”

“Oh, we can do it all night,” Jakov confirms. “A sauna party that lasts for hours.”

“I like to do it at many intervals,” says Axel Emann. “Two to three hours, entering and out, having something to drink, maybe even a sausage breakfast and then go back – just to make it a peaceful and long session.”

And how does Finland feel about the fact that the trio represents its neighbor and Eurovision?

“The Finns love a deal, so it’s great,” laughs Jacob.

“Sweden gets to pay for everything, but it’s also a Finnish victory.”

• A chance to win: 22%
• Language: English
• Genre: Pop-Opera
• Spotify Streams: 6M

Austria has the best opening coward of the year: “I am an ocean of love / and you are afraid of water.“

“It’s about my personal experience with unresolved love,” says singer Johannes Pietsh, who performs under the name JJ. “I felt like I was going to a one -way street.”

The 24-year-old is involved in the moonlight in Eurovision from his daily work at the Vienna State Opera, where he has roles in the magic flute and von der Leib Todd.

“A selling show in the Opera contains 1600 people, so this is nothing compared to the Eurovision audience,” he says (last year’s television broadcast is seen by 163 million people).

The song of Pietsh, “wasted love,” is a stormy ballad that effectively uses his counter-staff, with an EDM twist.

On the stage, he performs herself in a sailing boat that clung to the mast while the ocean threatens to consume it. This is one of the most arresting performances at night and requires a lot of preparation.

“This is the opera singer in me, I practice every day.” He says. “I have to do vocal warm -ups to keep the voice active and before I go on stage, I always make ten push -ups and one -minute boards.”

Reaching the Eurovision final has been a dream since he watched Conchita Wurst’s victory for Austria in 2014. Can he repeat this success in Switzerland?

“That would be great for Austria. I would be glad to do it. I would call my mother’s conch, so I would be glad to make her proud.”

• A chance to win: 8%
• Language: French
• Genre: A song of a torch
• Spotify Streams: 6.9m

“I’m surrounded by a sandstorm, a sand tornado and I will wear a Raban dress to order.”

The French singer Luan describes the simple but stunning placed for his ballad Maman.

The sand is real (how she avoids inhaling it, I will never understand), but it serves as a goal: a song that is inspired by her mother’s death is all about time.

“This is a song that says that even through sadness and deep pain, you can finally feel good,” she says.

Maman is technically a continuation of the 2015 song of the same name, written in the depths of Luan’s despair. “I lost my taste for fun / I can’t find meaning– She sang.

The 2025 version includes several reverse calls to the first song. For example, the original opened with the lyrics: “Lovers move from bed on the bed“But the update finds her singing.”No more lovers, no more bedsS “

The presence of his own child helped Luan to lift the curtain of grief.

In the song, she talks about how the hold of her daughter’s hand returned memories from the time when her mother did the same – this time only the pain of remembering was gone.

In Maman’s closing bars, we briefly hear her daughter’s voice.

“She won’t be here in Basel,” Luan says. “She will watch on television because she is only five.”

“But she’s super proud. She keeps telling me, ‘Maman, you have to return the trophy home.

“She’s just charming.”

• A chance to win: 6%
• Language: French and English
• Genre: a song
• Spotify Streams: 17.2m

Initially, the Netherlands asked last year’s participant Joust Klein – who was banned from the final after an alleged sport with camera operator – the ability to return for 2025.

Although he has already written a song about the competition, he declined, saying that his disqualification is still “sting”.

Instead, the honor went to 21-year-old Claude Kiambe, who moved to the Netherlands from the Democratic Republic of Congo when he was nine years old.

“It wasn’t always safe in Congo,” he says. “I couldn’t afford to go to school … and I love school.”

His mother eventually succeeded in smuggling the family outside the country and it was for her that his song was dedicated.

Entitled C’EST La Vie, this is a joyful combination of Afropop and French Hanson, who repeats the tips he used to give Claude and his siblings at the Alkmaar Asylum Center.

“She told me,” C’EST la vie. Life is beautiful, even if it is difficult sometimes. “

“So when I heard about Eurovision, I was like,” Wait, if I go there, I want to bring this message to the world. “

“I am very respectful of her. She is struggling throughout life and we are still here.”

Claude enters the competition with a little advantage, as he is known throughout Europe for his large -scale hit from 2022 Ladada. But he had to take a new Eurovision skill: choreography.

“I would only make one dance move before, but when I wrote the song, I was like,” It’s time to get out of my comfort zone and to dance around. “

Learning the choreography took three days, he said. “We started at 11 and ended at nine. I wanted to know it so well that I would do it in my dreams.”

• A chance to win: 4%
• Language: Finnish, German
• Genre: Eurodance
• Spotify Streams: 11.8m

Ask Erika Vikman to describe her song and she doesn’t pull.

“It’s about orgasm.”

Full of technical bumps and what looks like a Welsh male voice choir, it’s one of those songs that are guaranteed to become part of Eurovision folklore, no matter where it comes to the final.

Once Vicman was welcomed as the Queen on the Tango stage of Finland, but he gave up pop, “because I can’t be very wild with this type of music.”

Referring to artists like Madonna, Cher and Lady Gaga as an inspiration, she is one of the few performers who will take the stage without dancers.

“Why? Because I’m selfish!” She laughs. “I want attention.”

“No, this is because when I go on stage, I feel like a rock star and when I feel like a rock star, I really don’t need dancers, because it has my power and myself.”

She certainly owns the scene – she ends her song on a giant gold microphone that promotes fire as she rises into the sky.

However, eagle viewers may notice that her suit is a little less revealing the one she wore for Finland’s selection show, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu.

“They said it would not pass if we didn’t tone something,” she says, “and one of the suggestions was my clothing.”

“So I was like,” Well, if that’s the price to pay, we cover my ass. “

That doesn’t mean she’s happy.

“The song is about owning your sexuality, and then someone comes and controls me, saying,” You will ruin every child who is watching this show. “It’s a double standard.”

Censorship or not, Vicman’s chances of winning drastically after Barnstorming’s performance of the semifinals.

“I have the feeling of that,” she smiles. “I can be the dark horse.”

• A chance to win: 1%
• Language: English
• Genre: Musical Theater
• Spotify Streams: 3.1m

After the semifinals on Thursday, the United Kingdom remember that Monday fired the chances … Well, kind.

They were predicted early on the 17th, now they shoot at 11th place.

But the trio – who is the first girl to represent the United Kingdom after 1999 – are determined to have fun, regardless of the result.

“All this is so surreal, beyond everything we can imagine,” says singer Lauren Berne.

“Sounds so much cheese, but it’s really all we wanted,” says her roommate Charlotte Steele. “Who can stand up and perform their music, with their two best friends, to millions of people? It’s mental.”

“And listen,” Lauren adds. “If we do really bad, we will just continue to come back until we win.”

In their favor, remember that the performance of Monday is lavish and fun, based on their origin in the Musical Theater. Former winners in the United Kingdom have a nod in dresses, and their live harmonies are exquisite.

“They have a crazy amount of experience,” says Ace Bourman, a creative director of Dua Lipa and Blackpink, who designed their production.

“Their implementation is constantly moving and bringing the audience. After all, the energy we want to create is that people will want to be part of this group.”

Fans may have underestimated, remember the chances of Monday, as the West End Show tunes are an unverified amount of Eurovision – but the United Kingdom records are not good.

We’ll have to wait and see what the hell is (just).