A Night Where Two Show Songs Were Picked

For those who think that Eurovision has more to do with the song than the entertainment factor.

In Austria Trackshittaz won and I was delighted. It is a great song and was more entertaining than the bearded lady.

In Ireland JEWARD WON. As I'm sure your aware we are huge fans of Jedward for two reasons: 1. I suspect they could win Eurovision 2. Jedward fans give us a lot of hits. If another artists fans did this we'd also  support them, if I liked the song enough - we're fickle like that. Sadly RTÉ now

This really was excellent performance and I really liked the mixing. The big surprise was Donna's rather poor performance and Andrew Mann's very good performance which sort of changed peoples expectations of the outcome.

On other points my brother was watching the Late Late Show with me and he took some interest in the songs that other countries have picked. He normally is good to pick up on songs that do well in ESC. He thought that Denmark had picked a rather good song. He drew parallels between Soluna's song and Adele. He also was rather critical of the backing track behind Tooji's song but that may have been the poor sound on our TV. We will be hearing more from him at a later stage - once he owes  me enough.

It's Time To Talk About Ireland

As an Irish Eurovision Blogger of course I have to cast the rather good Austrian selection to the side and favour the country that matters the most to my heart. Ireland this year have a national final that offers two returning Eurovision artists in the from of Jedward and Donna McCaul. We also have a rather strong national final line up by all accounts. At the start of the national final season I had expected the poorest national final imaginable to ensure a Jedward win.

It is time to examine exactly what Ireland needs to do and what is happening with our national final.

Tomorrow night The Late Late Show takes place at 9:35GMT/10:35CET so if your not on GMT you can look forward to a late night for this. I am looking forward to being able to finally watch a national final on the television. If your not in Ireland you should be able to watch it on the RTÉ Player.

So we have 5 songs my full review is here. Too sum it up here we go:

Maria McCool - VERY Traditional song, good vocals. Won't widely appeal. The people who like this music are too conservative to vote I do like it but not as a Eurovision song.
Grade: C-
Jury Prediction: 4th
Public Vote: 5th
Overall: 5th

Donna McCaul - Modern enough song, seems popular with a good number of Eurovision fans. Personally it is good but not amazing, it seems to lack a small amount of fluidity. I'm a little unsure if it will be as good live.

Grade: B
Jury Prediction: Either two points ahead of rest or well behind leader.
Public Vote: 2nd
Overall: 2nd

Andrew Mann - Slow rock is hardly going to be to the taste of the two major groups who will be watching the Late Late - Jedward fans and the arch-Conservative elderly Irish who always watch the show.

Grade: D
Jury Prediction: 3rd
Public Vote: 4th
Overall: 3rd

Una Gibney and David Shannon - This song has been a guilty pleasure of mine. However I think it more than likely won't challenge for votes. It is just a little cheesy and then some.

Grade: B+ [Because I do really like it for it's cheesiness]
Jury Prediction: 5th
Public Vote: 3rd
Overall: 4th


Jedward - Ok the bit that you've been waiting for: by far and away the big ticket item in Ireland has been Jedward returning to Eurovision. It probably has generated more interest in the Irish national final than normal and this may not be a bad thing. The bottom line here is that as the hot favorites to win the question is not are they going to win but how could they not win? Really I cannot see them losing the televote. The massive number of Jedward fans out there going to vote them through. The biggest block in their path is the juries but in reality Jedward  would need to be completely rejected by the juries not to win. However I think the juries will respect their 8th place finish last year and their international recognition and while they may not completely back them they will give them 10 points which would allow them to progress.


Grade: A
Jury Prediction: Leading by either two points or winning all juries
Public Vote: 1st
Overall: 1st

So really it boils down to will Jedward scrap through with two/four points or will they win across the board.
I know there will be many Eurovision fans telling me that Donna would be a far better choice but remember that Jedward fans account for a sizeable share of our readers.

It still is up to Jedward fans to ensure Jedward get a couple of votes on the televote so for get out their and
VOTE FOR JEDWARD!

I Could Hardly Wait: Ireland: The Reivews

In case anyone on Twitter did not notice Ireland revealed it's songs today. To be honest we have a higher standard than I expected from Ireland.

Maria McCool - This is a Sean Nós (Old Tradition) song, which comes from the long tradition of singing in Ireland. It be a style that the rest of Europe would not like and really this style of singing only exists in more remote parts of Ireland. As someone who would listen to this type of song outside Eurovision I think that this song is just a little average. The issue is in the way the bridge to the chorus builds but the chorus does not really develop beyond that level. Overall while I respect this genre of music I can't see it doing overly well on the Late Late Show.

Donna McCaul - Unlike the previous song this is very good and seems to have split fans down the middle between Donna and another two contestants who we will speak about shortly. Donna should be proud of coming back to Eurosong with a reasonably strong song. However while it appears strong I think that the chorus could be hard to replicate on the live show. Also I question if Donna while have the strong staging to lift the song unlike another contestant.

Andrew Mann - And here is the slow rock. I know some fans have hailed this a a great success but I think this is just a little poor in comparison to the other songs in this contest. This will most likely fad away in the contest. Don't like it personally. The Late Late Show stage most likely won't bring out this song at all.

David Shannon & Una Gibney - I don't think that this is a great song for Eurovision it is just a little too cheesy. However on a personal level I real like this song, and I look forward to hearing many times more. The advantages that this song has is that it has a great beat to it. I don't think it is enough to get them to Baku but they might steal a couple of votes off of Donna.

Jedward - What was one of the most anticipated entries of the year came just a little before four o'clock. It's Ireland's revenge for the Nice and Lisbon treaties, it's Jedward. So the song: Well it is good that's for sure and I think that it does suit Jedward. It was not quite what I had expected but it is a direct target at the age group that Jedward's primary fan base is in. The song itself it a tad generic but I think you could say the same about Lipstick. It is good with a nice chorus that is memorable; like Lady Gaga, Jedward's main appeal is their performance rather than music. That's fine too because they are performers. The question is how to perform this. I have no doubt that this will be performed well, however vocals are actually my biggest concern. This song, unlike Lipstick, does require a better standard of vocals or in Jedward's case really good backing singers to get them through the hard bits.

Overall we (Ireland) should be proud of what we have presented. The biggest problem is that unlike say Melodifestivalen where we see the performance as well all we have now is a studio version. This might be fine in Norway but in Ireland it is a chance to weed out poorer entries. In Jedward's case this is their biggest weakness for now. No doubt I will have more editorial on the matter of the Irish Eurosong, but I have to move on the more pressing matters for this weekend. And find the time to review the French entry.