The Finnish trio representing neighbouring Sweden is the bookmakers' advance favourite to win this spring's Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).
KAJ's sauna anthem "Bara bada bastu" is rated as having a 25 percent chance of winning. The group sings it mostly in a dialect of Swedish from Finland's west coast, with a few words of Finnish.
The last of this year's entries was released over the weekend, as France unveiled its entry. French singer and actress Louane performed her power ballad "Maman" before a crowd of 80,000 during halftime of a rugby match near Paris.
According to a ranking published on Monday, showing the averages of odds offered by 16 betting agencies, France’s entry is the fourth-likeliest to win, with an eight-percent chance.
In second place is Austria with an 18-percent chance of winning, followed by Israel in third place, with a 10-percent chance.
Finland's ESC entry, Erika Vikman, is ranked in sixth place, just behind the Netherlands. According to betting agencies, she has a four-percent probability of winning with her song "Ich komme," sung mostly in Finnish with those two words in German.
Placing in the top half-dozen is respectable, as there are 37 countries competing in total, including non-Europeans Australia and Israel — whose participation has been a flashpoint of controversy in recent years.
A week after KAJ's surprise win at Sweden's Eurovision qualifying final, the trio treated a hometown crowd of thousands to a free outdoor show this past weekend.
Close contest between Finland and Sweden in 2023
Sweden was the early favourite in 2023 too, when its song "Tattoo," performed by previous ESC winner Loreen, held a significant lead throughout the spring. Bettors rated the tune’s chance of winning at about 40 percent.
Finnish rapper Käärijä’s entry, "Cha Cha Cha" rose to a 25 percent chance of winning during the contest week. He won the popular vote but ended up placing second behind Loreen, thanks to votes from the professional jury.
Last year's Finnish entry by Windows95man placed 19th out of 25 hopefuls at the final in Sweden.
Sweden has won ESC a record seven times, while Finland has won once, in 2006 with Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah."
This year's ESC will be held in Basel, Switzerland in May. Sweden is to perform in the first semi-final on Tuesday, 13 May, and Finland on Thursday, 15 May. The final is scheduled for Saturday, 17 May.