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.

Doing Anything Tomorrow?

Well if your not then you may want to take a look at what is on tomorrow. Tomorrow from 1pm the Melodifestivalen songs will be appearing online. We are very much looking forward to seeing Timoteij.

Also more importantly for us Irish tomorrow we will hear all the songs in the National Final on The Mooney Show. You can listen to the show here on the RTÉ website. Click "Play now" in the What's on now tab. It will be broadcast at 3pm GMT/ 4pm CET. We aim to have some coverage of the show on Twitter. Follow us @besteuroblog. We look forward to seeing all the artists song but especially Jedward.

And if you're still not sick of Eurovision at this stage there is another show on in Germany. It is their quarter final of their Unser Star Fur Baku show so Raab may be very excitable.

Reaction to Latvian Semi-Final and some other points

So after a relatively uninteresting semi-final, but a fun night on twitter (Thanks to all), we have 5 songs out of Eirodziesma. The qualifiers were good with the exception of Andris Abelite who I thought was below par. I think PeR are the ones to watch from this semi-final. They came second with the juries, which means that they could do well. However I would think the song is over repetitive. 

The big disappointment for me was Laura Bicane and Romans Sladzis folk music which surprised me by how good it was. Naturally I was pleased to see Ruta Duduma make it through.

In other news.....

We have not got a list of participates from the EBU yet and we look forward to see if Armenia is on it. I think it is delayed because the EBU doesn't want politics dragged into Eurovision but a draw is expected around 16th January so we will be keeping a close eye on that.


A campaign video has been launched for Rick Santorum Nickolas Sarkozy Jedward? We are unashamedly supporting Jedward for Eurovision  and we think this is just great.

Another Eurosong Finalist Annonuced

The second confirmed entrant to Eurosong 2012 in Ireland is Donna McCaul of Donna and Joe who sung for Ireland in 2005.

While I respect her as a former entrant for Ireland, personally I think that she will come with a moody ballad that won't stand out on the night. But this remains to be seen.

There is rumour going around that other finalists may emerge today or tomorrow and we will try to have reaction as fast as possible when these announcements happen.

So we finish off the reviews with the final 9.

1. Jessica Muscat - This might be a little to disco for my taste however it is good, but I don't expect it to be performed well live. Grade: B

2. Kaya - This might not be schlager but it does raise the standard. This is the first song I have heard that lifts to the standard that we would expect at Eurovision. An early favourite? It is not my favorite but I do expect it to do well. Grade: B

3. Kilnsmann - Why start by sitting on the ground? The chorus of the song sounds a bit boybandish however it is pleasant. Pleasant never won Eurovision but anyhow. But is it meant mean to be pop/rock or a boyband? There are some performance flaws but a nice song. Grade: C

4. Kurt Calleja - Very good but he needs to be able to live on the night to get to Baku. But remember Maltese voters are arguably the madest hatters of all ESC western countries. This is a nice song but this still would need a real live performance to lift it. If Kurt can pull that off the song has a hope. However I can only grade on what I hear in the studio version. Grade: C

5. Lawerence Grey - Good voice, dullish song we lots of these in Malta. Song only gets duller. Why wear a suit? Grade: D-

6. Nadine Bartolo - Here is yet another dull song from Malta. The song needs a lot more passion that Nadine is not able to deliever. Beat and style sounds a bit disorganised. Grade: E-

7. Richard Edwards - Look at me now is a better song than the last couple that I listened to it before, however this is still not over interesting. Nevertheless I like the overall song somewhat. Grade: D

8. Romina Mamo - This is actually rather good, but doesn't go for the final punch. However the overall song needs a little bit more music. Romina has a good voice and the song will need a good vocal on the night. Romina also could ditch the jacket/jumper combo in favour of a little more leather. Grade: D+

9. Wayne Micallef - Grade: F

So here at the BEB (Best Eurovision Blog) we are looking forward to Eurosong 2012. Even though some of the songs may not be the best. Overall the scores given are a little better than those in the Swiss final so may be we will get a better winner. In the meantime we are supporting DEBORAH C FEAT. LEILA JAMES for Eurovision 2012.