Eurovision predictor sees Michael Rice rising up the charts ahead of live TV final on Saturday night

Hartlepool singer Michael Rice hopes to make it big in Eurovision this weekend singing his single Bigger Than Us

Hartlepool's Michael Rice is hoping to continue to climb the charts and be 'bigger than' all the entries in the Eurovision final

The Hartlepool singer is representing the UK in the Eurovision song contest with his song Bigger Than Us in Tel Aviv in Israel at the weekend.

Dance Direct has revealed the key factors that appear in winning Eurovision songs, to understand what makes the perfect song contest combination.

The predicted order after the semi-finals sees Michael Rice climb to 12th place.

Bigger Than Us: Hartlepool's Michael Rice speaks of Eurovision preparations as h...

Analysing data from 2012 onwards, the research includes factors such as; language, gender, act size, dance-ability and politics, to predict who will be this year’s Eurovision winner.

Winning indicators include:

The initial prediction had Michael Rice at 17th place.

* Singing in an imaginary language – other than English and English-Native mix singing in a faux language holds the highest score;

* Singing in Serbian - which has historically scored higher than Italian;

* Being male - men place higher than women;

* Going solo - solo acts get a better position, compared to groups;

* Receiving points from Spain, The Netherlands, and Belgium – these countries are most likely to award their points to the eventual winner each year.

The predictor results created before the semi-finals this week placed Michael in 17th place, but post semi-finals, after his performance after the second of the two semis, he has moved up to a predicted 12th place.

Michael made his first appearance in front of a packed Tel Aviv Expo Centre audience on yesterday as part of the Jury Show for the competition’s second semi-final.

He wasn't be competing as such, but at the end of semi-final two tonight the hosts will introduce the UK, Germany and Italy and they will do their first run through in front of a large audience.