Ireland - Oh Ireland

Smart followers of this blog may have noticed have noticed that things have been quiet lately. Unfortunately I've been extremely busy lately. Anyhow tomorrow night Ireland decides on their Eurovision entry. Being Irish I've always been very strongly interested to see who my fellow Irishmen and women choose.

Unlike general practice on this blog I've decided not to put up reviews. In all honesty each song has it's merits and these should be acknowledged, together with their faults.

Inchequin probably are the weakest contenders and I'd say have the least chance of going to Eurovision. Even if the public were to vote for this song I'd think the juries will not rank it very highly. I do note though that it did win the poll over on Wiwiblogs. Though not quite the favourite I'd say Amiee Fitzpatrick has the best chance of going to ESC, largely because she only has the only ballad in the contest. Then we come to the three club songs. I sincerely hope that one of these will be sent. They offer Ireland the best chance at Eurovision, largely because they are very different. I hope that the best vocalist will come through and we will judge them based on that.

May the best song win. I'll talk to you on Twitter.

Bookies Pay Day In Ireland

Today, as some of you may have seen RTÉ released the names of the five acts that will be trying to represent  Ireland in this year's Eurovision song contest. Suffice to say that I am somewhat disappointed by the list of names that they have released. It's a good day for the bookies as none of the names released were on Paddy Powers lists before the announcement.

The five acts are: Zoe Alexis Bohorquez; Ryan Dolan; Aimee Fitzpatrick; Incheqin and Kasey.

Nope! I haven't heard of any of the either. All I can say is that Zoe and Aimee are the favourites in early betting. While it is nice to see that it will not be Jedward this year I think I shall hold back my most grating comments until after the Mooney Show, where the songs will be presented tomorrow. Though I have classes during these times, I will be updating the blog and Twitter page later in the evening.

Mandatory Ireland Post

Though I am otherwise engaged tonight following other world events [Four More Years!], I did notice that RTÉ has quietly announced the mentors for Eurosong 2013. They are:

• Mairéad Farrell
• Shay Healy
• Mark McCabe
• Niall Mooney
• Stuart O'Connor

I'll be honest and say that these are hardly the biggest names of the Irish music scene over the last number of years. This also means that RTÉ are sticking with the same strategy that they have employed over the last couple of years. The question is whether this will actually yield anything other than Jedward.

This mentor format has not really brought forward anyone other than Jedward over the last two years. It will be interesting to see if any real talent that may have been suppressed by the treat of Jedward. Only time will tell.....

I'm Back!

I'm back from my brief holiday, so I did not write a blog. However if you were in Ireland yesterday, you should not have been busy online but out in the sunshine. 


Anyway Eurovision goes on (with very little news). RTÉ has announced that they made a profit, albeit a small one, from Eurovision. To be honest I am delighted for them. I have long argued that it makes financial sense for Ireland to be in Eurovision. RTÉ are at the moment trying to save costs everywhere. When Eurovision makes profit or breaks even then RTÉ should be delighted. However as always, I firmly recommend that a larger national final is needed of at least 10 songs to attract big name artists with reasonably good songs. Shoving it in with The Late Late Show makes it to low key. Promotion should have started from before the national final. But it is unlikely that the Big wigs at RTÉ will be willing to change anyway.