The next country to have chosen their song to represent them in Malmö is Ireland. Also known as the Emerald Isle. They held their annual Eurosong on Friday on ‘The Late Late Show’ hosted by Patrick Kielty. Ireland have had an astonishing trajectory at the Eurovision Song Contest winning it no less than 7 times in total. In the early nineties they even managed a 3 year streak. Johnny Logan was the first person to win the contest 3 times. Twice as a singer, and twice as a songwriter. They long held the record for the most victories until a legendary queen called Loreen came along last year and gave her home country Sweden its 7th win, therefore earning them a shared lead.
Despite all the past succes it’s safe to say that Ireland has found itself on a bit of a rocky road lately. Since the introduction of the semi final in 2004 they only managed to qualify 8 out of 19 times. 2 of which they were automatic qualifiers following succes the previous year. In fact in the past 10 years they only saw the final once, in 2018, when Ryan O’Shaughnessy managed to qualify with his ballad “Together”.
This year however it seems like a change of fortune might be on its way. After a thriller voting Bambie Thug, a 29 year old singer from Cork, came out on top with their song “Doomsday Blue”. Bambie describes their music as Ouija Pop, having created the genre themselves: “my stuff is hyperpunk avant electro-pop. We call it grit pop or rot but recently I’ve been coining the term ‘ouija pop’”. With this Ireland is taking a risk this year in an attempt to end their seemingly endless streak of non qualification. Will Bambie be able to change the luck of the Irish? Or will they be doomed to stay in the semi? Find out what we think below!
niallpoints Review
Niall
As I said in my initial review, which you can find here, Bambie Thug delivers something completely different for Ireland. This is fun and dramatic, eerie yet enchanting. The studio cut is impressive and the live is a full on performance piece. I’m obsessed with the demon dancers and Bambie gives this a lot of energy, I think it needs a bit of work to give Ireland a chance to qualify, I’d love it to but I’m not fully convinced yet.
Early prediction: Either NQ (just) or 22-26
Tomas
This is one I’m very conflicted about. I don’t exactly love this song, but I like it! When I was listening to the entries of Eurosong a while back this was my favourite. However seeing the live performance has temporarily ruined it for me. It was unhinged and all over the place. I had expected it to be a lot more sinister and a bit less theatrical. I think the staging in itself was the problem and we can’t really blame Bambie for that if Ireland’s going to insist on hosting their NF on The Late Late Show with that lacklustre production. If RTÉ give Bambie the budget and creative freedom to direct their own staging for Malmö, however, I can see this qualifying! Good on Ireland for taking a risk! We love to see it!
Early prediction: 22-26
