This being eighth in the odds is way too low. The Israeli song last year was a bad song elevated by a talented performer and professional staging. This is an okay song, and from the video we can assume that they are going to throw plenty of money at this. This is a year without any clear front-runners, and apart from Belgium this is the only "safe" English language ballad.
Doesn't exactly take much to win the televote in a lot of countries, Kirkorov managed to make Gordienko score high in the French televote with that awful song as an example. Serbia is not exactly the closest ally to Ukraine, yet Kalush still managed to finish high in the Serbian televote.
People who feel strongly about Israel are going to vote for them no matter what, we just don't know how many of those are watching. People who don't care about the war might vote because of what we can assume to be a professionaly staged ballad in a sea of uptempo noise. People who are very pro-Palestinian are either not watching at all or voting for someone else, you can't vote against a song.
It's up to the juries to decide how high this is allowed to finish, which of course will depend on the political climate of each country. In a normal year this is exactly the bland English language ballad that juries love (Bridges, Proud, etc). With the backstory, I can't see any Swedish juror wanting to publically rank this high. Can't speak on behalf of any other country.
Polina Gagarina 2.0 incoming, managing to finish top three while the audience boos?
is in the Lead.
