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Ireland: Deadline for submissions extended until 20 October!

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RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, has extended the deadline for submissions for Eurovision 2024 to 20 October.

Originally the deadline for submissions was to close this Friday 29 September. However, the submission window for those interested in representing Ireland at Eurovision 2024 has been extended to 20 October.

All other rules that apply to the selection remain the same:

  • Entries must not exceed three minutes.
  • Entries must not have been performed live or released before 1 September 2023.
  • Songwriters may only submit one song each.
  • Artists may not participate in the selection of another country.

All entries will be reviewed by a panel of music professionals and Eurovision fans selected by RTÉ. At a later date, performers may be invited to participate in a live audition at RTÉ’s studios in Dublin.

A shortlist of performers will be selected to appear in a televised national selection in early 2024. The exact format of the selection is yet to be confirmed. Submissions are only accepted via the RTÉ website here

Wild Youth represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool with the song “We Are One”. However, they failed to qualify for the grand final, finishing 12th out of 15 semi-finalists with a total of 10 points.

Source: eurovoix.com

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the updates on our favourite contest!

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

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for all the latest news about Ireland and the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!

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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

Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss a moment of what is going on in Liverpool:

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for all the latest news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest!

Ireland: Wild Youth cut ties with their creative director over ‘transphobic’ tweets!

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With just two weeks to go until Eurovision Ireland’s act Wild Youth have decided to stop working with their creative director.

The termination of the relationship between Wild Youth and Ian Banham came after screen grabs, said to have been taken from his account, began circulating on Twitter with what could be considered offensive messaging. The tweets allegedly referred to transgender women as men.

In a statement posted on Twitter the band wrote: ‘Wild Youth is a band that stands for unity and kindness. Our song represents our beliefs as a band. We have cut all ties with Ian Banham and will not have him on or near our team or Eurovision journey. We are so sorry for anyone offended by his comments.

Ian Banham

This comes after Eurovision Discord, who usually remain anonymous and share news from the music competition, publicly condemned the appointment.

According to Ian’s website he has worked with Lily Allen, Kylie Minogue, Katya Jones, Cheryl and Westlife. He also works as a choreographer and creative on Dancing With The Stars in Ireland.

Ireland will perform at the first semi-final on May 9.

Source: Metro

Ireland: The entries of Eurosong 2023 have been revealed!

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Ireland’s public broadcaster, RTÉ, has announced the six artists who will take part in Eurosong 2023, the country’s national final, that will determine the representative of Ireland in Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool.

Six artists in Eurosong 2023

This morning through RTÉ Radio 1’s morning show, presenter Ryan Tubridy announced the six shortlisted acts who will compete for the Eurovision 2023 ticket, and their six songs were also revealed.

The six artists and their songs that will compete in Eurosong 2023 are:

  1. ADGY – “Too Good For Your Love“
  2. CONNOLLY – “Midnight Summer Night“
  3. K Muni x ND – “Down in the Rain“
  4. Leila Jane – “Wild“
  5. Public Image Limited – “Hawaii“
  6. Wild Youth – “We Are One“

You can listen to all the songs here.

Format

Eurosong 2023 is due to take place on 3 February. Unlike last year, there will be no Irish jury. Instead, an international jury and the vote of the TV audience will be used to decide the winning song. Six songs will take part in the selection, which will be presented through the Late Late Show.

In 2022, Brooke represented the country with the song “That’s Rich” but failed to qualify for the Grand Final finishing at the 15th place in the second Semi-Final with 47 points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq2AJrWm04s

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the developments regarding Ireland’s participation in Eurovision 2023, in Liverpool!

Source: RTÉ

Ireland: More information about Eurosong 2023!

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The songs that are going to compete in the Irish national final for Eurovision 2023, are now in the process of being selected.

The Irish Eurosong 2023, the country’s new national final, is now being organized by RTÉ, the  Irish public broadcaster. A jury panel has now listened to all the songs submitted and is going to pick the songs that will compete in the national final, the next days. Many artists have announced themselves that they have submitted their songs for the national final and they have gotten further information on whether they have been selected or not.

Cruachan, for example, are a metal folk band from Dublin that has been in the music scene since the beginning of the 1990s and they were among the favourites to take part in Eurosong 2023. In an Instagram post, they announced that they had a word with Michael Kealy, the Head of Music and Entertainment of RTÉ, who informed them that the juries liked their songs but unfortunatelly was not one of the six songs that qualified for the final. Their song, however, is going to be published around the time of the next contest.

We remind you that Eurosong 2023, the national final of Ireland for Eurovision Song Contest 2023, is most likely going to take place in February 3.

The previous winner of the Irish Eurosong and Ireland’s representative in Eurovision 2022 was Brooke with the song “That’s Rich“, who didn’t manage to qualify for the final, ending up in 15th place of the second semi-final:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Irish participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, in Liverpool!RTÉ

Louis Walsh speaks on Eurovision and RTE plans for next year!

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Former UK X-Factor judge and music manager Louis Walsh spoke to Sunday World and was asked about Ireland in Eurovision. The former manager of Eurovision winners Linda Martin and Johnny Logan revealed that if there is a good song and artist, he would be involved with RTE and Eurovision while he hinted about a new approach of the broadcaster for next year.

When asked about Ireland in the contest he answered:

“I think Ireland has to forget about the past and how we did in the past and just get a great song. We need a great song and a great singer, and the performance is key. It wasn’t cool for a lot of people to do Eurovision in the past, but I think the Italian group, Måneskin, changed all that after they won. They’re now a hugely successful worldwide act thanks to Eurovision. (…) England hadn’t done well in recent years, but they sent a great song and a great singer to the Eurovision this year and they nearly won, and that’s what we have to do”

He revealed a new head of entertainment for RTE is appointed, already planning “something great”.

“So the power is there if you’ve got the right song and the right artist. We cannot be sending amateurs. RTE has a new head of entertainment and music called Alan Tyler and I know that he’s got plans for it. Both him and Michael Kealy [executive producer] are bound to come up with something great. They are already talking about it.”

Do you think Ireland can return to the Grand Final next year? Tell us in the comments!

Source: Sunday World

Ireland: Irish entry against the rules?

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Last week there was a rumor running around that the Irish entry, Brooke Scullion with the song “That’s Rich”, may not follow the rules set by the Irish public broadcaster, RTÉ, in fact they said “it breaks the rules”.
On February 5, 2022, the Irish finalist of The Voice UK, Brooke Scullion won the national final of Ireland with the song “That’s Rich“. It looks lime Scullion has performed her song on an online singing session on April 7, 2021. This is against the rules of RTÉ, while Eurovision contestants are prohibited from performing their song before the first day of September of the previous year of each contest, this time September 1st 2021, to prevent them from gaining an advantage compared to the other songs.

These days RTÉ looks into the matter, because if Scullion’s song won the contest with a commercial advantage, this could be a reason to disqualify the song, the artist, or even both. There are also some people saying that RTÉ knew about Scullion performing her song before the first of September and they had no problem with it. Besides, the winning Dutch song of 2019, Arcade by Duncan Laurance, also leaked before the allowed date and still went on to perform in the contest.

We remind you that Ireland is scheduled to perform in the second half of the second semi-final in May 12 2022.

You can listen Brooke Scullion’s song below:

 

Source: ESCplus

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Irish participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy.

Ireland: Brooke Scullion will represent the country at Eurovision 2022 with the song “That’s Rich”!

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The Irish national final of, Eurosong 2022, at tonight’s Eurovision Late Late Show Special was broadcast by RTÉ and has just been completed, with Ireland selecting Brooke Scullion and “That’s Rich” as their winning act and therefore their representative at Eurovision 2022 in Turin.

Seven years later than the last time that the Irish entry was selected by a national final, the Irish viewers got the chance to vote their favourite Irish hopeful, that they wished their country got represented by.

Ryan Tubridy was the host of  tonight’s “The Late Late Show Eurosong 2022 Special”, also Marty Whelan was the co-host covering what was going on backstage. Panti Bliss also appeared briefly at the beginning of the show.

The national juries are Caroline Corr, Paul Harrington, Bláthnaid Treacy and Lucia Evans.

A total of six finalists, which had been selected among 320 submissions, competed in the national final, in the hopes of representing the country in Turin.

The performances of the finalists

The six contestants of the national final, appeared in the following order:

  • Patrick O’Sullivan – “One Night, One Kiss, One Promise”

  • Janet Grogan – “Ashes Of Yesterday”

  • Brendan Murray – “Real Love”

  • Miles Graham – “Yeah, We’re Gonna Get Out Of It”

  • Rachel Goode – “I’m Loving Me”

  • Brooke Scullion – “That’s Rich”

The voting system

After the completion of the six performances, Ryan announced that the voting lines are open and all numbers appeared again for the viewers to vote, along with a recap of the songs.

The winner was determined by a combination of jury (international and national) and televoters. In fact, first there was a combination of both the international and the national jury votes and then the aggregate jury votes were combined to the votes of the viewers.

The voting will be Eurovision style, 12 the act getting the highest number of votes, 10 the second highest etc. In case of a tie, the act scoring higher in the public televote will be declared a winner.

At the end of the televised show, the results were announced and they are as seen below.

International Jury vote results

Aggregate Jury results (International and National Jury)

Total results

The winner

Over the last few years, things haven’t really gone their way, for Ireland. Hoping to overturn the situation, tonight they had to vote for their favourite artist and song, that they wished they’d represent Ireland at the contest.

At the end of the show, the results were announced and had determined the winner which is Brooke Scullion with the song “That’s Rich”!

You can watch the winning performance of Brooke below:

What do you think of the representative that secured a ticket to Turin, to represent Ireland at this year’s contest? Let us know in the comments section below!