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LAST UPDATE | 18 May 2021
IRELAND’S LESLEY ROY has failed to qualify for this Saturday’s Eurovision final.
Roy had faced stiff competition from acts from 15 other nations in a bid to make it to the final with her song Maps.
Despite a stellar performance, Roy won’t be competing at this weekend’s final.
She had also been due to represent Ireland at last year’s event, which was cancelled due to the pandemic.
The Eurovision is being held this year under strict public health guidelines in the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Of the 16 acts tonight, only 10 have made it to the final.
Qualifying at Ireland’s expense were Norway, Israel, Russia, Azerbaijan, Malta, Lithuania, Cyprus, Sweden, Belgium and Ukraine.
The second semi-final will be broadcast on RTÉ this Thursday, with the final kicking off on both RTÉ and BBC at 8pm this Saturday evening.
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What’s another year
@Jimmy Chickens: Music these days, especially Eurovision, all sounds the same and is more about lights and dancing. It’s boring. It’s about politics.
I’d rather watch cricket
@John kane: Leave cricket out of this
@John kane: I love drying paint more.
@John kane: WHOA THERE! Cricket? Its bad but not that bad. True, eurovision is cheesy and the songs are mostly naff. But its the sheer lack of fair voting every year (i do watch the final) and that the countrys who pay for it don’t ‘contest’ anyone until the final round, that makes this the most pointless event IMO.
@John kane: only heard Lithuanian “song” and it was dreadful. Guy was also a terrible singer though his movement was good.
@Jimmy Chickens: I can’t believe so many people watched the eurovision 179 thats amazing
@Jimmy Chickens: bring back the turkey
@John kane: I like cricket
Who did the stage show for her, it ruined the whole performance…
@Gigi Power:Yes totally agree,stage deffo too away from it for her big time.
She is a good singer and it was a good song.What a pity.
She was great singing it on late late.
@Ann Morris Doolan: opinions are like a$$#0les, everyone has one!
@Ann Morris Doolan: she didn’t sing it on the late late…she was miming…
@Ann Morris Doolan: yeah remember that it was the moment i switched over to Graham Norton.
@Gigi Power: That tells me you probably watched it ! OMG … I’m consoled in my covid misery to know I am not that desperate … lol … joking … only joking …
@Gigi Power: Swedens 2015 winning production team.
@Gigi Power: totally agree. There were better acts but she was in the top 3 performing
@Ann Morris Doolan: ok she came 11th
Next year we have to go with My Lovely Horse
@Pauliebhoy:
Irish entry was not great in fairness. Over produced and aged. Shame all same.
@Pauliebhoy: So long as they cut out the sax solo!
If Marty thinks us qualifying for the final would have brought the County together he needs to lay off the glue!
@Ciaran McCann: Marty is heartbroken, he’s on the next flight home!
@Paul Brierley: he wasn’t there. He was in Ireland
@Tony O Neill: Marty told the Indo he’s broke and needs to keep working. Must think he’s the new Gay Byrne. Can’t get rid of him.
@lelookcoco: I like Marty. He’s a decent guy.
@Teresa O’Halloran: Agree Teresa no air and graces about him just a genuinely nice bloke imo.
Really a push notification for this. Mother of God.
@TheKloppKop: was thinking the exact same thing
@Hugh Morris: as was I. Awful abuse of push notifications. It’s beyond a joke.
@TheKloppKop: Really would rather get this notification than learning about how FF/FG are f****** up the country even more.
@TheKloppKop: do that again lads and we’ll turn them off
I’m not a bit surprised am I the only one that didn’t know one word she said and besides it has nothing to do with the song. Cyprus shouldn’t have been allowed participate cause the song was a exact copy of another well known hit the name escapes me now. Of course there is the political voting. It’s time we stopped participating.
@Fidelma Frewen: Bad Romance, Lady Gaga. Impossible to miss the similarities
@Rob Nolan: the powers that be at Eurovision didn’t or either chose to ignore that rule. I’ve been watching it for donkeys years when it was a contest but I’m done with it now
@Fidelma Frewen: we hadn’t a clue what she was saying either :-/
@Fidelma Frewen: Lady Gaga Bad Romance
@Fidelma Frewen: think one of lady gagas songs???
Why do we bother ?
@Dan Mc Carthy: €€
Is there a back door qualifier?
@David Clarke: That’s what she said
@Eoin Fitzgerald: Cheeky!
@David Clarke: ask John Delaney!
I’m not surprised Ireland failed to make the final. Who in their right mind thought up or designed the set ? Plus the diction was poor or drowned out by the musical arrangement. I personally like the song but not that version of it. Ireland you never learn,,,, little is more ,,, keep it simple.
Forgettable song and poor vocals , presentation was good and song ok .
@Seán O’Sullivan: song wasn’t great either. We always send songs without a real chorus.
I actually thought it was a good song this time, better than most of the others. Maybe we’re not as popular in Europe as we think we are.
@Seán Dillon: or Russia
@Seán Dillon: Israel got through so popularity means nothing. The voters ignored genocide, very disappointed.
@Paul Cunningham: it’s a song contest Paul
@Seán Dillon: all 10 qualifiers had better songs, judged by 39 juries. It’s nothing to do with how liked we are.
@Ruth Colbert: I think a lot of eastern european would have voted for them, although I reckon St Petersburg had a big influence on the voting :)
@Seán Dillon: or maybe everyone else thinks differently to you
@Bennett blaster: Unlikely!
@Theportobello: they had an IDF soldier sing ‘Set Me Free’, that song should have been disqualified given the current situation.
@Seán Dillon: Ah no it was dreadful. Music was too loud and she was out of tune. On another note, pardon the pun, Israel singing Set me Free was irony at its utmost!
@Paul Cunningham: And the name of the song thought someone was taking the p$#s.
@Franny Ando: Your probably right, I’m not the greatest music person, the other songs just did do much for me. I thought it was good enough to get through ha.
@Paul Cunningham: Did your favourite Hamas group not get through with “we hate the Jews”?
Delaney out
@Liam Collins: F * NK Delaney and the FAI
Performance was beyond BAD!!!
Hmmm… How could RTE save a little more money in the next year…. Let me think….
She was terrible
No surprise there.
@Madra: Who chose this performance? Who paid for it?!
@Chris Avison: RTE, and us
@alphasully: And we pay everything at RTE!
@Madra:no suprise is right our presentation was bad and singing poor, could barely hear a word she sang
I hope we now develop the good sense to abandon this annual charade that has nothing to do with music or its qualities.
@Chris Gavican: Won’t somebody please think of Marty!!
Please can we stop now….it’s a fix and a big waste of money
@Aidocasey: Who is fixing it? And why?
Am I the only one excited by this… Eurovision is rigged and costs us the tax payer on average over 300,000 euro every year to enter. The golden days if eurovision have been over for a long time.
@Sinead Merrigan: that’s the adult equivalent of ‘I’m taking my football home cos things aren’t going my way’.
@Ross McBride: not really if you think about it it is no lomger even a Eurovision song contest with other countries out of the eurozone able to take part. We have only made the top 10 once in the last 14 eurovisions and that was Jedward in 2011. I really do believe that over 300,000 of tax payer money can be better used rather than flogging a dead horse. Its all political at the emd of the day, sire remember whem israel won it back in 2018 and the epic uproar over that
@Sinead Merrigan: the Eurovision is nothing to do with the eurozone or the EU. It’s run by the European Broadcasting Union, a collection of national broadcasters. That’s why Israel can compete. You’ve yet to point out how it’s political. The last 3 winners were Netherlands, Israel and Portugal. These are small countries with few, or no, borders. The reason Ireland doesn’t do better is because we don’t have the best song needed to win a song contest.
@Ross McBride: bloc voting
@Sinead Merrigan: so it’s rigged because culturally similar countries sometimes have culturally similar tastes in music?
@Ross McBride: Armenia and Azerbijan, Russia and Ukraine, Georgia and Israel
Just heard it for the first time on youtube there. A couple of loops, pitch correction to the extreme and a pile of reverb. And that’s our entry? Should we be surprised we didn’t get through.
What a surprise!
Bring back Dustin!
“Only 10 out of the 16 qualified”
Only?? Come off it.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: Would this work better? “Only 6 out of the 16 didn’t qualify.”
Lesley did her best and it’s nice to see RTE trying something different for once.
But her vocals were shaky and she looked nervous.
We need experienced performers who are absolutely BORN to be on stage. Just look at her compared to Cyprus who followed us. Lesley cried at the end as she seemed relieved it was all over. Cyprus was almost crying because she didn’t get another 10 mins on stage!
We now have the worst qualification record of any country. It’s as bad as the football lol. And Israel qualifying clearly knows it’s not down to neighbourly voting!
The feckin’ Jesuits have it all tied up.
Because its a rubbi$h song. Ireland have produced absolute rubbish songs for years. Do rte still have a say on who goes? No wonder
@Ross: I think they’re picking these boring songs on purpose so we won’t win because we know they don’t have the money to host.
We used have a national song contest. The winner would represent Ireland and we’d win most of the time.
Why did we change?
@Munster GPS UK: Because people whinged about it being fixed and a waste of money and the sings were poor………….. Oh, wait.
She deserved to get to the final, it’s a great song… Feck it anyway!
@Lynda McNamara: good song ,but a poor singing performance on the night. Couldn’t here the vocals/ words and she appeared out of breath.
She sang it better earlier in the year.
@Lynda McNamara: it’s not a great song at all. It’s not an awful song but it is boring and forgettable.
Just get me to write the song for next year lol. Call me!
@Keith Fay: my lovely horse??
@Dave Barrett: yes you have a lovely horse Dave now stop going on about it, we spoke about this
@Keith Fay: He meant to say “What an as$!”
@Keith Fay: you’d probably do a better job than the recent crop we’ve had. Catchy dance songs with an unusual angle win the Eurovision but we keep sending the kind of boring stuff that might have had a chance at winning in the 80s but not now.
We got absolutely screwed on the stage performance. If we had lights and special effects like practically all the other acts we might have had a chance.
Find an Irish man/woman with a great voice and surround him/her with beautiful women and have excellent production with a light show etc and we might have a chance. Instead we send someone who can’t sing in tune and have her stuck in some kind of container or something
Surprise surprise!!
The poor girl just cannot sing. She was so off key. But what about the Russian entry?? Shocking that it qualified. Just a ready up
@Donal Sweeney: Russia probably hacked the voting system
Time to pack it in, I can’t bare another year of this devastation
Open the pubs.
Staging was shocking.. ruined the song.
Can we Not invoke the Northern Ireland protocol ???
Ireland was robbed again this year we should give up now we are never going to qualify again. Anyway she was over dressed judging by what the others were wearing.
@Una Dwyer: the Brits have that ‘everyone hates us’ attitude too. Maybe we lost fair and square and there’s no conspiracy.
@Una Dwyer: No we weren’t. It was a cr-ap song and an appalling performance. The music was way to loud and the set was bizarre. We have some great musicians in this country so how do the powers that be get it so wrong.
At least Israel qualified. So…y’know…every cloud.
@Robert Melia: you’re joking I hope.
@Joe Healy: I am Joe.
The Russians diverted our vote to themselves.. fact…
Unfortunately we dont have 4 or 5 bordering Countries to play swop the Dozza Poit with – and let’s face it our nearest neighbours are not exactly supportive.
Here’s an idea, theres loads of good looking Eastern Europeans living here, one of them is bound to be able to sing – why dont we enter them next year?
Or perhaps a quintet made up from 5 scantily clad stunners from Poland, Ukraine, Czech Rep, Austria and Azerbaijan – that’ll catch the floating vote.
@Padraig Nolan: Malta, an island nation with no borders, are favourites to win this year. Our song choice, not our geography, is stopping us doing better.
Can we be the 33rd team? Where’s John Delaney when you need him
@Seán Ryan: I heard the Russian entry entered Holland without quarantine. He will get another €5 million on the quiet.
Who dis
Poor song and poor singer. Surely we can do better than this, RTE can do better than this surely?!?
@Gareth Miskelly: they do not want to win as they are broke. The Government needs to provide seperate funding for the Eurovision if we are ever to qualify again. One thing for sure l will not be watching as it is not the Eurovision anymore.
Now there’s a surprise.
Every year the media talks about us having a strong song and every year it’s absolutely not. It wasn’t an awful song but it wasn’t memorable or catchy either. No offence to the artists that are chosen but we know the kind of song that wins and yet the panel never chose that type of song. Are we purposefully trying not to win so we don’t have to pay to put it on?
@Bananaquit: yes RTE are broke
We should have entered ‘my lovely horse’
@Eoin Fitzgerald: I believe that’s illegal
@Pauliebhoy: sssshhhh
@Eoin Fitzgerald: Yawn. Thanks for recycling that joke every year since 1996
@Ross McBride: lighten up a bit Ross
Very bad song with someone who can’t even sing
Shock horror
Terrible song sung badly
@Tony O Neill: You would do better would you?
@Aidan Dorney: wouldn’t be hard to do better than that tbh
Can this year get any worse
@Lets be real: Israel got through, thats worse.
Get the Israelis out of the thing ffs
She did us proud blaa blaa blaaaaaaaa
Shocking song, performance and a paper stage?goddam Rotterdam we bombed so did Israel but they get through ?
@declan hassett: yes I found the paper trees etc that were flying around very distracting fromtbe actual song.
@declan hassett: yes i found the paper trees etc flying around very distracting from the actual song.
Load of rubbish anyway. Song contest that has absolutely no merit. (PS The Journal and your warning that this may be perceived as toxic……get a grip)!
Is this competition still running? Wow!
I only watched part of this contest and sent in a vote for Ukraine. Glad they made it.
Why are we wasting our time sending someone to this farce. Time to call it a day and stop wasting money as we haven’t a hope in hell of ever qualifying. Also why did Lesley’s voice sound different, at the beginning of the song l thought she was singing in Dutch!
Politics….. its all politics lads.
Most whare terrible songs, no auto tune or synthetic voice effects showed on live tv lads…
Just listed to it there. Looks like we’ve been searching in all the wrong places for a decent song
Who?
The song was rub-bish and the stage set looked like we borrowed it from the set of Wanderly Wagon. Plus, with all the racing around she was out of breath and off key. But to be fair, all the songs were brutal. How did the Russian Doll get through? Those darn hackers!
NPHETs fault. Totalitarian regimes have never produced good music
@Derek Goulding: Vietnam came out with a banger with the corona song. We can’t use NPHET as an excuse. And if you think we are totalitarian you have never been to China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtulL3oArQw
Good
After watching it there, this competition has changed a lot from who’s the best singer and the song to who’s the most “unique”.
Shame, the Irish performance was decent good on them.
I am shocked and saddened, absolutely heartbroken
Urinevision,a load of p!ss
Even my Lovely horse was more entertaining then this song.
It’s groundhog day
Ah shor what’s another year!!!!
Big surprise….. NOT!
Not another year
Whats this. Eurovision, never heard the song.
I thought it was the best song of the night along with Norway. Ah well.
Unnecessary choice of words in headline there, she did a great job and other acts appealed more to voters this year..no failure at all
@Carla Brennan: No failure at all ? Correction..
there was a failure, we didn’t qualify!
@Carla Brennan: Sorry but she was dreadful and she knew it.
Was it just me, but I could not understand a word of what she sang. It was just noise and screaming.
Shocker
Have to say the song was rubbish. High time they fixed the song selection process because Tubridy, Linda Martin etc haven’t a clue
Some people seem to have watched it, bizarre
It’s embarrassing now let’s remember the good years and bow out gracefully.
My wife is a Eurovision super fan and liked the song and thought If the staging and her vocals were on point we had a chance.
Whoever thought that staging suited the song or any song should go and retire. Awful awful awful. She also cracked under the pressure and couldn’t relax and shine and bring a great performance which was her only chance to even think of qualifying.
I don’t think we should continue participating personally as Ireland never learns, progresses or innovates. We are as bad at football as singing it seems.
Oh dear oh dear…..oh well what’s another year sure.
Absolutely fabulous song I would go as far as to say it was the best song. Lovely woman & huge passion was put in. I think a fair assessment would be to say maybe nerves took over somewhat & the set was a bit crap. To those that left negative comments shame on ya.
@Aidan Dorney: hahahahhahhaha
Shocker
We need to be more creative. Send something more modern. More bisexual.
Bring back the turkey at least that way we would have a chance
Should be scrapped. End.
I blame John Delaney.
Shocked reading this we always do well here nowadays
There is no point in entering the Eurovision Song Contest anymore. We just don’t stand a chance of winning ever again. We can’t even make it pass the qualifying stage and if we do make it into the finals we’re fighting a loosing battle because of all the block voting by other countries. I’ve been a great fan of Eurovision over the years. Since they got rid of the old traditional way of voting, it’s not a fair contest anymore.
Well you know you had the bucket and the throne and the in and out of doors and giddy up
STOP THE COUNT !
I don’t mean to be rude but i wouldn’t go as far as calling it a stellar performance!
Whew
The Eurovision song contest has become a monster or of control. We need a European Union song contest instead. It could still have all the tension of international voting, but would probably be more relevant.
No offense to Leslie, but she looks like any other average woman in early middle age down in Tesco. Other countries are sending their top performers…. They’re young, beautiful, stylish, with incredible bodies and voices. Leslie just can’t compare. Her voice also sounds strange.. and what’s the strange accent all about?
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