Ireland: Cruachan submitted an entry for Eurovision 2024!

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RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, has confirmed its participation in Eurovision 2024 and will hold a national final selection process once again.

The submissions’ deadline is Friday 29th of September 2023. Artists and songwriters are invited to submit their songs on RTE‘s website with the Irish broadcaster emphasizing that is searching for experienced artists.

In fact, we may have the first contender for the Irish representation in Eurovision 2024. Cruachan, a well known Irish metal-folk band, has expressed its interest for Eurovision. They also tried their luck in 2023 but were not selected in the final lineup. Cruachan informed us via its social media that it has already submitted an entry into consideration for Eurovision 2024. Specifically:

We’ve submitted our entry for consideration to represent Ireland in Eurovision 2024. When we made the submission last year we said its time for Ireland to stop sending pop music and take a chance on something different. Another pop song was sent and again did not make the final. We believe Ireland’s greatest strength is our traditional music, and traditional music has always been Cruachan’s greatest strength.
Our submission, Talamh, is as true a Cruachan song as there could ever be. This was in the early stages to appear on the next album but we decided we would take it, shorten it, and use it for Eurovision. We love Eurovision and would be honoured to represent our country there. Hopefully we at least get to the televised final and the public can then make the ultimate decision.
#cruachanforeurovision

In an newer post, they also mentioned that “Talamh“, their submitted entry, will be dilingual. The verses are in English and the chorus in Gaelic.

Who are Cruachan?

Dublin-based Cruachan is an Irish folk metal band that has been performing since the 1990s. They are acknowledged as one of the folk metal genre’s pioneers. Cruachan’s brand of folk metal is known as Celtic metal because of its emphasis on Celtic music and the incorporation of Celtic mythology in its lyrics. The Irish archaeological site of Rathcroghan, sometimes known as Cruachan, inspired the band’s name.

Cruachan’s proposal seems like a return to the roots of Irish music tradition, something that Ireland has long left in the past. Will Irish and Celtic music prove to be game-changing for the so-called “Queen of Eurovision“?

Stay tuned on EurovisionFun for all news!

Ireland: RTÉ unveils the cost of participating in Eurovision 2023!

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RTÉ, Ireland’s public broadcaster, has revealed the cost of the country’s participation in Eurovision for the last four contests, namely from 2019 to 2023.

Through the website Irish Mirror, the public broadcaster revealed that they paid €340,000 for the participation of Wild Youth in Liverpool, which includes €58,129 for the staging and €105,099 for the participation fee to EBU. This was the country’s highest cost in four years.

Below you can see Ireland’s cost of participating, from 2019 to 2023:

  • 2023 – €340,000 including participation fee 105.099€
  • 2022 – €315,161 – including participation fee 92,588€
  • 2021 – €330,000 – including participation fee 88,100€
  • 2019 – €336,000

As we can see from the figures, after the exclusion of Russia and Belarus from the EBU, the cost of participation has increased for all other participating broadcasters. Ireland’s participation fee has increased by €16,999 from 2021, an increase of 19.3%.

RTÉ has already announced that it will be competing in Eurovision 2024. Submissions are open for anyone wishing to represent Ireland at Eurovision 2024, as in early 2024, a shortlist of artists will perform their songs on television, from which the winner will be the representative of the country in the contest.

Wild Youth represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.  Sadly, they did not qualify to the Grand Final.  Ireland has not qualified to the Grand Final since 2018

Source: Irish Mirror

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Ireland: RTÉ prepares National Final for Eurovision 2024!

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RTÉ has started its preparations to select their representative for the Eurovision Song Contest.  The public broadcaster has published the rules for their selection.

According to the first preparations, RTÉ will have a national final.  It is still unclear however, if the televised final will use the “Late Late Show” format as it has been the rule for the most recent selections.

The deadline to submit a song for the Irish national final is Friday 29th of September 2023 at 6 pm local time (7pm CET).  Artists and songwriters are invited to submit their songs on RTE‘s website.  In any case, the Irish broadcaster is looking for artists who already have experience:

If you are an accomplished songwriter with a proven track record of success in the music industry, we would like you to submit an original song (…) Submissions should have a performer or performers already attached, performer(s) must have the ambition, vocal ability, stagecraft and confidence to compete at the highest level before a global audience of nearly 200 million people. Performer(s) must have intrinsic and obvious appeal to the core youth audiences who make up a significant amount of Eurovision viewers and fans.

A jury will evaluate the songs submitted and they will select the songs that will make a list of potential candidates.  After this, RTÉ may invite some of the candidates to audition before making a final decision.  We will inform about the future dates for the national final as we get more updates!

Wild Youth represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.  Sadly, they did not qualify to the Grand Final.  Ireland has not qualified to the Grand Final since 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-4_rjW10U&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: RTÉ

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Eurovision 2023: See the results of Press Poll just before the grand final!

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As we informed you, Press Poll 2023 has begun. After all countries have had all technical rehearsals, it is now time for the accredited to vote for the country that believes she will be the winner of the 67th Eurovision Song Contest.

Below are the results of the final of today’s 13/5 at 21:45:

In the vote for the winner, Finland leads, Sweden is second, and Spain is third!

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Source: Ogae International

Eurovision 2023: Grand Final takes place tonight!

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The moment that every Eurofan waited for is finally here! The 67th Eurovision Song Contest officially comes to an end tonight, as the Grand Final takes place tonight, live from Liverpool!

The twentysix remaining countries will take part in tonight’s show, but only one will be the winner of Eurovision 2023.

The hosts of this evening will be Julia Sanina from The Hardkiss, Hannah Waddingham, Alesha Dixon and Graham Norton.

The 26 finalists of this year’s Grand Final are:

1. 🇦🇹 Austria | Teya & Salena – Who The Hell Is Edgar?

2. 🇵🇹 Portugal | Mimicat – Ai Coração

3. 🇨🇭 Switzerland | Remo Forrer – Watergun

4. 🇵🇱 Poland | Blanka – Solo

5. 🇷🇸 Serbia | Luke Black – Samo Mi Se Spava

6. 🇫🇷 France: La Zarra – Évidemment

7. 🇨🇾 Cyprus | Andrew Lambrou – Break A Broken Heart

8. 🇪🇸 Spain: Blanca Paloma – Eaea

9. 🇸🇪 Sweden | Loreen – Tattoo

10. 🇦🇱 Albania | Albina & Familja Kelmendi – Duje

11. 🇮🇹 Italy | Marco Mengoni – Due Vite

12. 🇪🇪 Estonia | Alika – Bridges

13. 🇫🇮 Finland | Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha

14. 🇨🇿 Czechia | Vesna – My Sister’s Crown

15. 🇦🇺 Australia | Voyager – Promise

16. 🇧🇪 Belgium | Gustaph – Because Of You

17.  🇦🇲 Armenia | Brunette – Future Lover

18. 🇲🇩 Moldova | Pasha Parfeni – Soarele şi Luna

19. 🇺🇦 Ukraine | TVORCHI – Heart of Steel

20. 🇳🇴 Norway | Alessandra – Queen of Kings

21. 🇩🇪 Germany | Lord of the Lost – Blood & Glitter

22. 🇱🇹 Lithuania | Monika Linkytė – Stay

23. 🇮🇱 Israel | Noa Kirel – Unicorn

24. 🇸🇮 Slovenia | Joker Out – Carpe Diem

25. 🇭🇷 Croatia | Let 3 – Mama ŠČ!

26. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Mae Muller – I Wrote A Song

Apart from the 26 countries taking part, some non-participating countries around the world can vote, as there is a new category that can vote, in the Rest Of The World.

The Grand Final will be broadcasted on 21:00 CET and you can watch it live from your country’s public broadcaster, or from the livestream on the official Eurovision YouTube channel:

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Ireland: Niamh Kavanagh will be the Irish spokesperson for Eurovision 2023!

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Niamh Kavanagh will be the spokesperson of Ireland during the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

The spokesperson of Ireland for this year will be the one and only winner of Eurovision Song Contest 1993, with her song “In Your Eyes”. Niamh Kavanagh, was one of the contest’s winners, during the golden ages of Ireland, and then represented the country again in 2010. Tomorrow night, Niamh will return once again, in order to announce the Twelve Points of the Irish jury.

As of now, the foloowing spokespersons have been confirmed for Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool:
  • Albania– Andri Xhahu
  • Austria– Philipp Hansa
  • Azerbaijan– Narmin Salmanova
  • Cyprus– Loukas Hamatsos
  • Estonia – Ragnar Klavan
  • Finland– Bess
  • Greece – Fotis Sergoulopoulos
  • Ireland – Niamh Kavanagh
  • Israel – Ilanit
  • Italy – Kaze
  • Latvia– Jānis Pētersons
  • Netherlands– S10
  • Poland– Ida Nowakowska
  • Portugal – Maro
  • Romania– Eda Marcus
  • San Marino – John Kennedy O’Connor
  • Spain – Ruth Lorenzo
  • Sweden– Farah Abadi
  • Switzerland– Chiara Dubey
  • Ukraine– Zlata Ognevich
  • United Kingdom– Catherine Tate

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Ireland: Ryan O’Shaughnessy explains how the country can get better results in the contest!

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The Irish representative from Eurovision 2028, went on to make a prolonged analysis, on the recent negative results of his country and how they can be fixed, on his personal Twitter page.

Since 2014, Ireland, managed to qualify for the Grand Final, only once, in 2018 with Ryan O’Shaughnessy and his song “Together”.

So it was only natural for the singer to make his statement:

He went on to say that he had to take many things on himself, as he didn’t want to go with the plan he was given by the public television:

«In 2018 when I qualified with the song “Together” I stepped in as creative director after refusing to emerge from an exploding cake and pushed hard to have 2 male dancers on stage with me, which was a hard sell at the time… I was responsible for signing off on final production of the track itself, I hired an independent stylist, and made sure the project as a whole had some content to it and it wasn’t just a song, but a message. All these factors helped get Ireland into the final.»

At the end of his post, Ryan named a couple of ways, that can help in order to change the negative image of Ireland in recent years:

«In my opinion, we need to have Irish songwriting camps with the intention of getting a brilliant song. We also need to allocate a large part of the budget to international marketing and should have the song out at least 4 or 5 months in advance of the competition. We have a language, a culture and a sound to offer the world, if we put forward a real Irish song it will resonate.»

Ryan O’Shaughnessy represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song “Together”, finishing in 16th place in the Grand Final, which is the country’s best result in the last eleven years:

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Ireland: RTÉ to evaluate Eurovision options for the future

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Wild Youth represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.  Unfortunately for the country that holds the record of most number of victories in the contest, they failed to qualify to the Grand Final once again.  Ireland has not gone through the finals since 2018.

Head of Delegation Michael Kealy has shared his first throught about the negative results for Ireland.  According to Mr. Kealy, it is important for Ireland to change its format to select their representative.  In the most recent years Ireland has chosen their representative using The Late Late Show as their national selection:

“I think The Late Late has served it well in a way – it’s been the only vehicle of a sufficient scale that we can do, to be honest. It’s very limited, but it’s the best thing we can do in that studio.”

However, he also blames a lack of funding from the public broadcaster as one of the reasons for the bad results:

“I’m not going to win any popularity contests for saying this, but RTÉ has been chronically underfunded I think, in my opinion, for decades, and it shows particularly when it comes to us putting on entertainment shows (…) When it comes to entertainment, you need scale to make it look as impressive as a show that you would see in other European countries, and the truth is our facilities in RTÉ are not sufficient to mount shows like that.”

Although we are at an early stage for next year’s selection, Mr. Kealy stressed that RTÉ will discuss the future path of the country at Eurovision at their entertainment department and with the Late Late Show about the song selection approach for 2024.

 

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Eurovision 2023: Family Show of the 1st Semi Final – Live Commentary! (Updated Live)

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The family show of the Eurovision 2023 First Semi Final has just started and the the Liverpool Arena is filled with eurofans! Like every year, the evening before each live show, a more financially convenient show for families, identical to the live one, takes place. EurovisionFun will be watching all the shows live both at the on-site press centre in Liverpool and at the online press centre and will be commenting on the full performances of the 15 participating countries, as well as Germany, France and Italy.

This article gets updated in real-time, all you need to do is hit the refresh button on your browser!

So stay tuned to this article as we update it with all details, preparing you for what you will see in the Semi-Final today May 9th, at 21:00 CEST.

The Show

The show opens with a video of a young Liverpudlian boy traveling across the city telling his family, friends, neighbours (and some special guests!) that Eurovision is in Liverpool. The young boy dances yogether with a young girl on the Eurovision stage.

Julia Sanina performs “Mayak” by The Hardkiss. Translating from the Ukrainian for Lighthouse, the performance: “symbolises in many ways how the UK is United by Music with Ukraine through the hosting the 2023 Contest on behalf of the 2022 winners.”

Spice Girl Mel C‘ voice introduces to the stage the hosts of the contest to viewers across the globe. The hosts of the show are the female trio of superstars Julia Sanina of The Hardkiss, Hannah Waddingham, and Alesha Dixon.

The Competing Countries – LIVE COMMENTARY

Norway: Alessandra – Queen of Kings

Alessandra Mele is the chosen one that starts the show of the First Semi-Final, with a very energetic show. It has a quite dark energy, while there are not many changes from the MGP. She was vocally good but not perfect, though she is certain to finish in the top 5 of the Semi-Final.

Malta: The Busker – Dance (Our Own Party)

The Busker, performing in the unlucky 2nd position, give us a slightly updated version of their MESC performance, with almost identical camera cuts and transitions. A fun and colorful number that will probably struggle to make it to the Final.

Serbia: Luke Black – Samo Mi Se Spava

Luke is initially laying on a white flower at the intro of the song. Definitely a dark performance, while his vocal capabilities are amazing and it shows. The dystopian-alternate reality-trapped in a video game show of Luke is definitely going to be appreciated in the Grand Final too.

Latvia: Sudden Lights – Aijā

A flawless performance from Sudden Lights once again. The staging that the Latvian delegation created, is absolutely beautiful and fitting for the song. It’s atmospheric and warm. It’s such a shame if the incredible musicianship and the sweet song of the Latvian rockers won’t be appreciated.

First Break

Alesha Dixon chats with young local children and raps a small improvised song about Eurovision.

Portugal: Mimicat – Ai Coração

Mimicat serves us a bourlesque performance with flawless vocals and undeniable charisma. She and her dancers are all clothed in red, the color of passion and love. The performance is definitely energetic, but this is not a guaranteed qualifier in the Grand Final.

Ireland: Wild Youth – We Are One

The performance is bathed in a golden light, but unfortunately it is not going to change Wild Youth’s fate reagrding qualification in the Grand Final. Vocally, the singer is really weak, avoids to sing parts of the song and looks uncomfortable at times. I can’t imagine Ireland qualifying this year.

Croatia: Let 3 – Mama ŠČ!

The wildest performance yet! It is full of weird sounds, psychedelic leds and clever “SC” on screen graphics that definetely stands out. The fact that the results of the Semi Final are 100% televote should help Let 3 make it to the Grand Final.

Switzerland: Remo Forrer – Watergun

Here we have another dark act, this time by Switzerland. Remo Forrer is a great performer with broad vocal capabilites, while he is being accompanied by some dancers. The performance is beautiful and atmospheric, “Watergun” has definitely have some chances for qualification in the final.

Israel: Noa Kirel – Unicorn

Noa starts her performance inside her rectangular prop and is then joined by her dancers. She is vocally good, but not perfect of anything. Her camera angles are nice but could support the song a little better. Without a doubt, Israel is qualifying and is finishing in the top 5 or maybe in the top 3 of the Semi-Final.

Moldova: Pasha Parfeni – Soarele şi Luna

Pasha is telling his folk tale about marriage under the moon in the most tribalistic way possible. Vocally he is great and is serving an energetic performance bathed in warm red light. Moldova is easily qualifying in the Grand Final once again.

Second Break

Sweden: Loreen – Tattoo

Eurovision 2023’is big favourite proves itself once again. Loreen is a vocal powerhouse and the staging is stunning, while not better than Melodifestivalen. It’s not a question that Sweden is flying in the Grand Final, and Loreen is most probably making the second double win in the history of the contest. Do you believe that Sweden is getting it’s seventh win?

Azerbaijan: TuralTuranX – Tell Me More

The twin brothers from Azerbaijan are inspired by The Beatles and it shows. We have a sweet performance that starts in black and white, then gets back in color. Unfortunately there is no chance of qualifying for Azerbaijan this year, because this act is not strong enough to get voted compared to others.

Czechia: Vesna – My Sister’s Crown

Vesna have worked hard compared to their pre-party performances. They are dressed in pink and are vocally great, that’s why they won’t only fly in the final, but have very serious chances for finishing in the top 5 or the top 3 of the Semi-Final as well.

Break, about dancing

Netherlands: Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper – Burning Daylight

A very atmospheric and quite performance from Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper. They are a vocally great, while they stand out due to their beautiful simplicity as well as because of the fact that they are only duet. The Netherlands have some serious chances of qualifying, while it’s not guaranteed.

Finland: Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha

And here we have the craziest closure possible for the First Semi-Final! We most probably have the Televote winner of not only the First Semi-Final but of the entire contest as well. Käärijä is nowhere near a vocal powerhouse, in fact he is very weak vocally, but the performance is not intended to be vocally-dependent anyway. It’s meant to be crazy, energetic and colorful!

Song recap

Interval Act

Wordwide superstar Rita Ora performs a medley of her hits, as well as a world premiere of ‘Praising You’. Alyosha (Ukraine 2010) and Rebecca Fergusson perform together a cover of “Ordinary World”.

Certain Qualifiers

Sweden

Finland

Norway

Israel

Moldova

Serbia

Czechia

Borderline Qualifiers

Netherlands

Switzerland

Portugal

Croatia

Non Qualifiers

Malta

Latvia

Azerbaijan

Ireland

BIG 5 Performances

France: La Zarra – Évidemment

La Zarra stands on a huge platform that is covered by a sparkling dress. The dress falls and revelas that the top of the platform looks like a discoball, sending light everywhere in the arena. The performance has great camera cuts and vocals. Near the end, the French flag appears in the background lights and a huge curtain of fireworks falls from the ceiling.

Germany: Lord of The Lost – Blood & Glitter

Lord of the Lost deliver a professional show full of energy, very similar to their performance in the national final. The singer is vocally amazing and the song finishes with lots of pyro. Germany should avoid the last places in the Grand Final.

Italy: Marco Mengoni – Due Vite

Marco wears a sparkly shirt and leather pants. Two dancers are behind him on a staircase, falling on a trampoline, in front of the eclipsed moon. However throughout the performance the focus remains on him and his impreccable vocals. A very touching entry that could do better than expected.

The Results

Martin Osterdahl executive producer of Eurovision Song Contest 2022, declares that he is happy to see that we now have a valid result!

Here we have a big change, as the 15 competing acts stand on stage, without their delegations, waiting for the result. The camera shows them one by one, as the presenters announce the qualifiers. After the first 5 qualifiers are announced, Alesha interviews them backstage and then we learn the 5 remaining qualifiers.

The ten countries that (virtually) qualify to the finals for the purposes of the rehearsal were the following:

Croatia, Moldova, Portugal, Serbia, The Netherlands, Norway, Latvia, Finland, Switzerland, Czechia

Closing the televised show, we will get to watch a recap of the ten finalist songs.

You can watch our live reaction from the Family Show of the First Semi-Final at our YouTube channel:

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Eurovision 2023: The bets before the first semi-final!

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We are just a few hours away from the first Eurovision 2023 semi-final and the betting tables are on fire, with the odds constantly changing.

Your favourite column will bring you everything that has changed in the last few days, both in terms of the case-win, and in terms of qualifying from tonight’s show to Saturday’s final.

Top 10

New shuffles occurred yesterday after the first and second Dress Rehearsal on the betting tables. Nevertheless, one thing remained and will remain constant: Sweden is the heavy favourite to win the 67th Eurovision Song Contest. The Swedish victory is being played at some bookmakers at under 1.60, with the maximum available odds being 1.75.

In second place, with a slight downward trend at some companies, is Finland. Käärijä and “Cha Cha Cha” are Loreen‘s rival in this year’s contest, with Finland’s win odds ranging between 2.75 and 3.75.

Ukraine and France are in third and fourth place, with similar odds. The maximum odds on offer for both countries to win return up to 15 times the stake of anyone who believes in them. The top five is rounded off by Spain, whose odds to win range between 7 and 21.

Sixth place Norway is played at 26, seventh place Israel at 34, eighth place Italy at 56, ninth place United Kingdom at 61, and tenth place Austria at 56. It is worth noting that when one observes the betting tables, one can see that with the exception of Sweden, all the countries in the top ten are trending downwards, with their win odds going up.

1st Semifinal

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, today’s article will also deal with the chances of the countries in the first semi-final, according to the bookers.

Looking at the betting tables of the first semi-final, the bookmakers almost take the qualification of 5+1 countries for granted. Sweden, Finland, Israel, Norway and the Czech Republic are the firm favourites to qualify today, with the odds of qualification not exceeding 1.05. Moldova are also largely assured of a place in the final and are being offered slightly higher at around 1.10.

Beyond that, Serbia seem to be in a league of their own as they are seen as the seventh favourite to qualify for the grand final on May 13. Luke Black‘s qualification is offered at odds of around 1.30, with a clear distance between both the leading and trailing countries.

Four countries will battle it out for the last three ‘tickets’ to the Eurovision 2023 grand final, according to bookers. Portugal, Switzerland, Croatia and the Netherlands have their own very high chances of qualifying, with Portugal being played between 1.33 and 1.44, Switzerland between 1.29 and 1.44, Croatia between 1.4 and 1.5 and the Netherlands between 1.53 and 1.8. The Netherlands are in a more difficult position compared to the other three, but their qualification odds are anything but a betting opportunity.

Malta, Latvia, Ireland and Azerbaijan are seen as underdogs for qualification, but in any case the odds on offer could be a lure for those who believe in the qualification of any of these countries. In particular, Latvia‘s odds, which are trending downwards, might be the value for money option of the day for those who like to bet on high odds.

Regarding the winner of the first semi-final, things are clear. The absolute favourite to win the first semi-final is Finland, which is offered at odds between 1.3 and 1.53. The dynamics of Käärijä and “Cha Cha Cha“, as well as the fact that the crowd decides this year in the two semi-finals are key reasons why the Finnish victory is offered at such low odds.

Second favourite is Sweden, which is being offered at odds between 2.5 and 3.5, making it a value for money choice, especially for those backing the heavy favourite for the 67th Eurovision Song Contest. Otherwise, all other countries are offered at much higher odds. Norway, who are the third favourite, are being played at 26, Israel at 34, as is the Czech Republic.

Which countries do you think will qualify from the first semi-final to Saturday’s grand final?