Tonight is the Eurovision final live from Turin this Saturday, May 14, 2022. Candidates, favorites, bookmakers' predictions, songs, here is everything you need to know about the event.

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[Updated May 14, 2022 at 9:21 p.m.] After a year of waiting and two semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday, flat at the Eurovision 2022 final! The twenty-five countries selected compete on the stage of the PalaOlimpico in Turin, Italy. Indeed, the Italian rockers of Maneskin having won last year, the competition takes place on transalpine soil. France, which finished second thanks to Barbara Pravi last, is represented by a Breton group named Alvan

Before the Eurovision final, countries are already the favorites in the minds of bookmakers and the hearts of fans of the program. The bettors predicted a victory for Ukraine due to the invasion of the country by Russia, ahead of Italy and the United Kingdom on the podium. For the OGAE fan associations, Sweden should win, ahead of Italy and Spain. The chances therefore seem slim for the French group Alvan

If the final of Eurovision 2022 takes place this Saturday, May 14, candidates already stand out as favorites. According to the predictions of the bookmakers, Ukraine, and the group Kalush Orchestra, should win the competition. He is credited with a 48% chance of winning. In second position, we find Italy, which would have a 14% chance of winning, ahead of the United Kingdom, with a 10% chance of winning. Conversely, France is in 12th place in bookmakers' predictions, with only a 1% chance of winning Eurovision this year. The bookmakers' forecasts can however be denied on D-Day, and will continue to become clearer as the final approaches.

Before Eurovision, the bookmakers are not the only ones to express themselves on their favorites. Fans of the competition, under the organization OGAE (General Organization of Eurovision Amateurs) regularly share their predictions before the final. For this 2022 edition, Sweden, Italy and Spain are in the top 3 of fans, while France is sixth. Ukraine, predicted to win by the bookmakers, ranks 11th in the international OGAE ranking.

Kalush Orchestra, a Ukrainian rap group (three members) formed in 2019 and will perform the song "Stefania" on the Eurovision 2022 stage. In parallel, the group released two albums during the year 2021: Hotin and Yo-yo. For the record, Kalush Orchestra was initially not to participate in Eurovision since they had arrived in second place in the national selection: the initial candidate, Alina Pash, had to withdraw after a controversy. She was indeed accused of having traveled to Crimea via Russia in 2015.

What is "Stefania", the title that the Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra will perform in Turin during the Eurovision final on Saturday? With NME, Oleh Psiuk specifies that this title is a tribute to his mother. But because of the colorful lyrics, it took on a whole new meaning as Ukrainian audiences associate the mother in question with their country at war. After the singing competition, the members of the group will return to their countries to join the forces fighting against Russia. One of them stayed in Kyiv to defend the Ukrainian capital.

Ukraine's victory at Eurovision 2022 would be highly symbolic. The country has been at war with Russia since February 2022, with the country led by Vladimir Putin beginning to invade Ukraine ever since. At the microphone of BFM TV, the singer of Kalush Orchestra did not hide his hope for the future of his song: "I hope this song will be the anthem of our victory", announced Oleh Psiuk to the media. "This song was written for my mother long before the war, but it can also symbolize mother Ukraine."

The singer of Kalush Orchestra also announced to BFM TV that he would like the song that represents Ukraine at Eurovision "not to be the anthem of war, but the anthem of victory." If Ukraine wins, will the country really be able to organize the 2023 international singing competition, as is usually the case? For the time being, the question does not seem to arise. Oleh Psiuk clarified to BFM TV that "if [they win], the next contest will be in the new sovereign Ukraine in its territorial entirety."

Every year, bookmakers make their predictions to try to guess who will be crowned winner of Eurovision. This year, all eyes are on Ukraine. Due to its invasion by Russia (disqualified from the contest for this same reason), the country can be expected to get many votes from the participating countries. The eurovisionworld.com site allows you to follow bookmakers' predictions in real time. As of this writing, Ukraine and Kalush Orchestra are leading with a 48% chance of winning. They are ahead of Italy and the Mahmood group

Can we trust the predictions of the bookmakers? Each year, the forecasts provide an initial trend of votes for the Eurovision final. In 2019, they announced the Netherlands as the winners, a prediction which was confirmed in the final. Ditto in 2021, where the first two places (Italy, France) had been perfectly guessed by the bookmakers. But sometimes, the forecasts of the bettors do not allow to know the winner of the contest. In 2018, Israel won the title, while the predictions announced a victory for Cyprus. The country finally came second in the final.

On March 5, 2022, it was in the tele-hook "Eurovision France: it's you who decide" on France 2 that the French candidate was appointed ahead of Eurovision 2022. It's the Alvan group

Russia is not participating in Eurovision in 2022. The organizers have decided to sanction the country for the invasion of Ukraine by dismissing the Russian candidate from the international singing competition, but also preventing the country led by Vladimir Putin from vote. "In the context of the unprecedented crisis unfolding today in Ukraine, there were fears that a Russian participation this year would bring discredit to the Competition. Before taking its decision, the EBU took the time to carry out a broad consultation with its members", specified a press release from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), organizer of the event, on February 25, 2022.

We do not yet know the winner of Eurovision 2022, since the final takes place on May 14, 2022 from 9:00 p.m. During the last edition of Eurovision, broadcast on May 22, 2021, Maneskin, who represented Italy, was crowned the big winner. The Italian group won the international singing competition thanks to its title, "Zitti e buoni". It ranked ahead of France and Switzerland, in second and third place respectively. Before the big night, the rock band was already the favorite of the bookmakers, who imagined them winning the competition. This Italian quartet comes from Rome. They began by performing in the streets of the Italian capital, before appearing at X Factor in Italy, in 2017. It was by winning the San Remo festival that they won their qualification for Eurovision 2021.

Since its creation in 1956, France has won the Eurovision Song Contest five times: in 1958, 1960, 1962, 1969 and 1977. Our country is therefore just behind Ireland, which holds the record with seven victories. In 1958, singer André Claveau won France's first victory with the title Dors, mon amour. Two years later, in 1960, the artist Jacqueline Boyer was unanimous with the song Tom Pillibi. In 1962, Isabelle Aubret won Eurovision with the song Un premier amour. Then in 1969, it was Frida Boccara who won the Eurovision Song Contest with the title Un jour, un enfant. Finally, in 1977, the singer Marie Myriam was the last to win by performing The Bird and the Child, a title that has become cult over time for the public.