Aidan climbs up the Eurovision rankings ahead of Thursday's semi-final

Malta's Eurovision song Bella, performed by Aidan, is climbing the rankings ahead of the contest, which kicks off on Tuesday. 

According to Eurovisionworld.com, the 26-year-old singer's odds of winning have increased, placing the song seventh in the rankings. 

He still has an outside chance of just 3% of winning out of the 35 countries that will take part in Eurovision this year - the fewest since entry was expanded in 2004 - following five withdrawals from those boycotting Israel's involvement.

The rankings are based on odds provided by major betting companies, including BET365 and BETSSON.

Finland is currently the favourite to win the competition, with a 38% chance.

Aidan will take to the stage on Thursday during the second semi-final and has been given 79% chance of qualifying for Saturday's final. He will be the 14th contestant out of 15 to perform. 

2,000 rose petals and a Maltese cross

On Sunday, during the formal opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song Contest, Aidan described his outfit as "celebrating romance, theatre and national identity".

The singer graced the Eurovision turquoise carpet wearing his signature white cowboy hat, white pants and boots, and a large rose-themed blazer and flowing train. 

"Over 2,000 individually applied rose petals and 35 hand-crafted satin roses, each representing the countries participating in this year's Eurovision Song Contest," he said. 

He also wore a filigree pin of the Maltese cross.

Aidan has been heavily promoted this year, with billboards spotted in Bulgaria, Cyprus and the UK . The billboards came up following his 12-country promotional tour promoting his track.

The tour included visits to Australia, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, San Marino, Lithuania and Romania. He ended the tour in the UK, where he performed at the London Eurovision Party. 

Israel’s participation in this year’s event has led Iceland, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia to boycott the competition in protest at its killing of civilians in Gaza. 

While artists and activists have called on Malta to suspend Eurovision participation, culture minister Owen Bonnici has said Malta will not boycott the contest, instead saying he encourages a "culture of dialogue".

Eurovision director Martin Green recently fielded questions about the voting system's vulnerability to manipulation.

On Saturday, Green said a warning was sent to Israel's participating broadcaster, KAN, telling it to cease putting out videos urging viewers "to vote 10 times for Israel", saying such actions were not in line with the rules and spirit of the competition.

Noting that this year, professional juries were returning to the semi-finals as a counterbalance to the public vote, "we have one of the most safest, secure and fair voting systems," he told reporters.