Lady in red tipped to advance to Eurovision final where destiny beckons

Anja Nissen, an Australian-born singer to Danish parents who won that country’s third season of ‘The Voice’, is strongly tipped to advance to Saturday’s final

Ben Hamilton

May 8, 2017

Denmark looks a pretty safe bet to end a two-year run of failure and qualify for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, according to the latest bookmaker odds for Thursday’s second semi-final.

Aussie Anja looking awesome in red
While Danish entry Anja Nissen will only have the Norwegians to count on for a few partisan votes, the field is nicely spread with no obvious Balkan or Baltic bloc looming ominously to block her progress.

Dressed in red as always, the Australian-born singer to Danish parents won the 2014 Australian version of The Voice, and she was in confident mood backstage on Sunday at rehearsals (from 1:47).

Strongly tipped to advance
Denmark is joint second favourite to win the semi at 8/1, but only 10/3 to fail to make it through to Saturday’s main event. Ten acts from each semi join the Big Five and the hosts in the final.

Denmark has been drawn to perform eighth of the 18 competing nations on Thursday.

A new addition to the top 10?
Nissen, currently 11th on bookmaker lists to win the final, will be bidding to force her way onto the top ten all-time Danish entry list – a selection recently compiled by the Eurovision Song Contest’s official YouTube page (see below) based on an act’s overall percentage of the votes.

Controversially, arguably the greatest ever Eurovision song, ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’ in 1974, only made number six on the Swedish list – five of the 16 voting countries gave it null point, including the UK, which went on to become its biggest market! – but there were no such surprises on the Danish list, which included ten entries that all made the top five out of a total of 12.

Emmelie at the top
‘Only Teardrops’, Emmelie de Forest’s 2013 winner, topped the list, with the 2000 all-conquering song ‘Fly on the Wings of Love’ by the Olsen Brothers and Denmark’s other triumph – ‘Dansevise’ by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann in 1963, which won in scandalous fashion – completing the top three.

Hot Eyes featuring Kirsten Siggaard was the only act to feature twice on the list, with entries in 1984 and 1988.

Denmark didn’t enter a song in the contest between 1967 and 1977 due to DR head of entertainment Niels Jørgen Kaiser’s snobbish disregard for the event and inclination for jazz instead.