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Daragh Brophy reports from Turin, Italy:
IRELAND’S RECORD IN the Eurovision has been more miss than hit in recent years.
It’s been almost two decades now since the introduction of the semi-final system. During that period we’ve failed to make it out of the qualifiers around half the time.
Adding insult to injury, in two of the years when we did appear in the final – in 2007 and 2013 – we finished rock bottom.
“Look it didn’t go our way,” 2022′s hopeful Brooke Scullion said last night, “but we are so, so happy with what we did.”
“It just wasn’t maybe for me right now, but maybe in the future bigger things are going to come.
“I couldn’t have done any more, and I’m so happy.”
Hoping to make it through to the decider for the first time since Ryan O’Shaughnessy in 2018, the Derry singer put in a strong performance last night. Online and around the press centre yesterday evening, Irish Eurovision watchers warily speculated that she may have done enough to make it out of the semis.
Of course, Irish Eurovision watchers always warily speculate that the entry will make it through from the semis around that time of the night every year.
By now it’s all part of the five-stage Song Contest cycle: doubt, apprehension, belief, disappointment, and deciding to put all your money on Sweden.
There’s always a sizeable Irish contingent in the crowd at semi-final night.
Speaking to us afterwards as fans from countries across Europe (and Australia) spilled out of the vast PalaOlimpico venue, Irish supporters who made the trip this year said they weren’t entirely suprised at how things turned out.
The usual, not unreasonable, justifications all got an airing – first and foremost that geographical and political voting across the continent means it’s impossible for a country like Ireland to do well.
But the overall sentiment was that it’s been a very strong couple of years for the Eurovision: you need an outstanding song that really resonaties with the juries to have a chance of making it, or, failing that, a performance that’s enough of a novelty to rack up millions of views on social media and win over those fickle televoting fans.
“Brooke gave a state of the art performance. She really did the country proud,” Dubliner Declan Burke told The Journal last night.
“I think that Ireland needs to invest a little bit more in the competition, generally, but this year I think we really pulled it off. The staging was really good.
We were a little bit unlucky not to qualify. I mean, it’s how it goes nowadays. You need something spectacular to win the Eurovision as is evident from previous years.
Steve Reynolds, from Kerry, said the song had gone down well in the venue.
“It was very good. She had a great reception in the hall. I think people really liked it so it was a shame she didn’t get through. I think she would have done really well in the final.
There was a sense that other countries had a higher production value – I think some other countries just put more effort into it this year.
Irish fans outside the venue in Turin tonight disappointed but reckon result not entirely unexpected. General sentiment: performance was strong but it's a very tough year. #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/49rU6RwdwR
— Daragh Brophy (@DaraghBroph) May 12, 2022
Another fan, Colin, who spoke to us before and after the show last night said Brooke had been a big hit with the broader Eurovision fan community since arriving in Turin at the start of the month – particularly online.
“There’s a lot of people on Reddit who were very disappointed that she didn’t qualify – along with ourselves, obviously, but she knows she did a really good job. She progressed so much from the Late Late Show so I hope she wasn’t too disappointed.”
In keeping with tradition, Colin is now switching his allegiance to Sweden for the final.
Daragh Brophy will be covering all things Eurovision from Turin up until the early hours of Sunday morning. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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Ah here it was dreadful. How it was picked on the Late Late is beyond me. We have sent seriously substandard acts for the last number of years. Embarrassing for a country that has a vast musical talent. The only reason I can see for it is that we can’t afford to hold it. So either pull out of the competition altogether or send proper talent. Stop selecting second rate acts and using them as scapegoats. Its unfair on them.
@Franny Ando: it was 5hite, in fairness
@Franny Ando: it was the best of a bad bunch on the late late imo. The issue is the selection committee in RTE…300 plus entries and they thought that was our best shot? A song that would have struggled to get through a qualifying round in Sweden about 5 years ago. We need to take some risks.
@Gareth Miskelly: Ah yes, the selection committee.
Let’s get a group of out of touch, over forties to pick our entry rather than open it to a public vote where people who might actually have a clue about current music trends can have a say.
I’m in my fifties and I haven’t a clue who’s in the charts or who the stars of the day are.
My daughters on the other hand…..
As I said yesterday it’s all about the song.
If the song is good enough we’ll do well.
In answer to how do we get a good song?
Well up to 1990 we used to have a national song contest which served us well to attract entries and condense them down to a decent winner.
In these days of X-Factor, Britian’s Got Talent etc surely RTE / Virgin could do worse than resurrect that.
Europe hasn’t forgotten that we sent Dustin the Turkey-Vulture to represent us at the height of our hubris. Suffice to say the joke didn’t translate very well. It will take a generation to expunge our shame and until then we will have to get used to falling at the first hurdle…
@Phil O’ Meara: he was still a step up from jedward
@Damien Leahy: He was a step up from most of them:)
@Damien Leahy: jedward who qualified for the final both times and had a top 10 finish. There is a difference between a novelty act and sending an act to rip the piss
@Gareth Miskelly: Dustin had more number 1s than jedward here in Ireland. I’d rather send a puppet over those two muppets
Her performance was really good (as evidenced by the audience cheer), but the song was only average. Having said that, don’t think Serbia’s handwashing song deserved to go through. Think Belgium, Romania and Sweden had the best entries.
Being on the edge of Europe, we don’t have that neighbour advantage that a lot of European countries have which can help push their average song through.
We need to be strong in all 3 areas, really strong song, well performed with high production values, to get us through.
@Conrad Shields: the audience will be cheering for a chair at the stage
@Conrad Shields: I think one of the mistakes we make is we pick songs that were written for the purpose of entering Eurovision rather than songs that were written for the purpose of being good songs.
If you start out with with a preconcieved idea of what is required you’ll almost always end up with generic, eurotrash, nonsense.
My lovely horse
@Great White Hope: That would be the ultimate kick in the teeth for Eurovision!
We could even include the sax solo just to show how much we don’t care.
The song was dated and frivolous, the costumes tacky, and the dancers out of sync and distracting. Brooke sang well, but that was never going to lift this lacklustre specimen.
Certainly not the end for Brooke Scullion
Why do people delude themselves into thinking it is about the song. It is all about neighbourly politics, and what country has upset the others. Ukraine have already won it, hands down. Ireland’s problem is we have won it too often in the past and we are probably now associated too closely with the Brits. But yet despite the singer not being able to control these factors, some people are prepared to ruin a singers life before their career has even started. Thank God these people weren’t around when the first prototype of the wheel came out.
I agree with the most of the comments here. Song just wasn’t good enough. We need to rethink how we select our act we send.
it was a great tune
The only way our song was ever going to be performed on the day of the final, would have been if we’d performed the Charpentier TeDeum.
If the Eurovision is so important to us we need to do what we’re good at. Choose a really good song, in any style that suits US. Not think about about a Eurovision formula style and then perform it just in a mediocre way. We’re not good at that. Look how simple ‘Rock ‘n roll Kids’ was.
Whovever chooses our entries have a very limited mindset.
Another year another turkey
have your say