Eurovision 2012 Blog -
Paul G. Sheridan

Saturday 19 May 2012

Up at 3.30am to do last-minute stuff before my chauffeur (my good mate Seán, you know who you are!) arrives at my door at 4.50am to drive me to Dublin Airport, arriving at 5.30am.

There, I meet Derek (presenter), Fergus (producer) and Katriona (reporter) as we’re on the same flight. We fly to London Heathrow first where we have a three-hour stopover before boarding the plane for Baku. The aircraft is late leaving the runway, departing (one hour behind schedule) and the flight lasts five hours ten minutes. At least I can catch up on some sleep along the way. We arrive at 7.15pm Irish time, and Azerbaijan is four hours ahead, but after we go through passport control, it’s over to the visa desk, we pay 60 euro each and our visas are stuck into our passports, so we’re now legally in the country. By the time we arrive at the Irish delegation hotel, it’s past midnight!

Friday 18 May 2012

Day 6, and it’s the turn of the remaining five of the first semi-finalists (including Jedward): Russia, Hungary, Austria, Moldova, and Ireland, plus the first eight countries in the second round: Serbia, Macedonia, Netherlands, Malta, Belarus, Portugal, Ukraine and Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, it’s also the day I start packing my bags for Baku, as it’s an early start tomorrow.

Thursday 17 May 2012

Day 5, and the first thirteen countries in the first semi-final have their second day of rehearsals with a reduced duration of 30 minutes each, compared to 40 minutes each for their first stage rehearsal.
Therefore it was the turn again of: Montenegro, Iceland, Greece, Latvia, Albania, Romania, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Israel, San Marino, Cyprus and Denmark.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Day 4 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the remainder of the second batch of semi-finalists go through their first stage rehearsals: Today, it’s Slovenia, Croatia, Sweden, Georgia, Turkey, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and finally, Lithuania.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Day 3 of the rehearsals, and it was the turn of the first 8 songs for the second semi-final.

Serbia were called to the stage first. Željko Joksimović, having previously finished in second place eight years ago for then-Serbia & Montenegro, was back to go through his first rehearsal.

Staying in the Balkans, Macedonia was up next with Kaliopi, who missed out of singing in the contest in 1996, but has her chance now sixteen years later.

The Dutch entrant Joan Franka complete in Indian headdress stepped onto the stage next with her simple ballad ‘You and Me’. Then it was the turn of Malta, with Kurt Calleja’s upbeat ‘This Is The Night’. The Belarussian brothers Dmitry and Vladimir Karyakin have written their country’s entry, and they were on next with their band LiteSound. Then it was the turn of Portugal with Filipa Sousa’s first rehearsal, followed by 2004 winners Ukraine – Gaitana wrote and performs ‘Be My Guest’ – a dark horse. And finally for today, Bulgaria with Sofi Marinova and ‘Love Unlimited’ – that’s the song, not Barry White’s soul group! In addition, the artists had to answer questions in the Press Conference hall, where many of the European media were in attendance.

Meanwhile back in Dublin, apart from prepping this Saturday’s Saturday Night Show, I am mad busy in preparation for the Eurovision shows happening next week. Having given call times to the members of the Irish jury who will be voting in the 1st Semi-Final (next Tuesday) and of course the Grand Final (on Saturday week), I have to make sure that the Satellite Room (which usually acts as the Green Room on Eurosong night) is in order for those two nights, having consulted with Oliver, our Designer for the occasion. Then there’s the food and drink to be ordered – the jury have to have sustenance! Then the booklets were prepared with the song lyrics of each of the eighteen songs (in original and English-language versions) for Semi-Final 1, so the jurors have a sense of each song on the day. Sorry folks, I can’t reveal who the jury are until the day of the Final!!!

Monday May 14th 2012

Day 2 of rehearsals, and the second half of the line-up for the first semi-final took their turn.

First up this morning was Israel, this year represented by the band Izabo. The 1968-sounding number ‘Time’ was illustrated by timepieces on the huge screen behind them. Then the tiny state of San Marino took to the stage with Valentina Monetta and her ‘Social Network Song’. Cyprus then took their turn with Ivi Adamou and ‘La La Love’, an upbeat club anthem-type number, then over to Denmark with Soluna Samay and her band being put through their paces with ‘Should’ve Known Better’. After the Danish rehearsal, came the most-talked about novelty act of this year’s competition – Russia’s Buranovskiye Babushki (or the Buranovo Grannies, if you can’t pronounce their Russian group name!) and their ‘Party For Everybody’. The chorus is in English while the verses are sung in the grannies’ Udmurt dialect.

© Elke Roels (EBU)

Buranovskiye Babushki will represent Russia with a 'Party For Everybody'

Next was the song from Hungary – not in the best place in the line-up after the Russian grannies – but the band Compact Disco delivered their strong contender ‘The Sound of Our Hearts’ with determination. This was followed by the Austrian song, translated as ‘Shake Your Ass’, or even ‘Shake Your Booty’, by the male duo Trackshittaz. When I spoke about this act on ‘Mooney’ two months ago, I was accused of using bad language on air by a couple of listeners!!! Two songs left to rehearse, and next on stage was the upbeat jazzy song from Moldova, sung by Pasha Parfeny.

Jedward in rehearsal...

Jedward in rehearsal...

Both photos © Elke Roels (EBU)

And last, but not least, it was Ireland’s turn – how would Jedward go down? It has to be said that their vocals have improved considerably in the past year, and if they keep this up, then their song ‘Waterline’ will certainly qualify. When it came to their press conference, they started off by dancing on the tables dressed as buckets of popcorn before going off into the usual Jedward-type question-and-answer session.

Jedward at the press conference

© Thomas Hanses (EBU)

Sunday May 13th 2012

Well folks, Eurovision fortnight officially starts here, and the first wave of delegations arrived in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, last Friday and Saturday. Our boys Jedward, fresh from their Late Late Show appearance the night before, and the rest of the Irish delegation, flew out yesterday morning – and there was no shortage of Jedheads at Dublin airport to wave them off and wish them luck. The boys received a similar welcome at Baku airport. Were there Irish fans in Azerbaijan already?!

Today saw the first nine countries (in the first semi-final) rehearse their songs for Tuesday week. First up was Montenegro’s Rambo Amadeus – rumour has it that he’ll be bringing a donkey onto the stage for the actual performance! Iceland were next up with the duo Greta Salóme and Jónsi. Jónsi, as many keen fans will remember, sang for Iceland back in 2004 in Istanbul. Third to perform was Eleltheria Eleftheriou from Greece, followed by the Latvian representative, Anmary, who, according to the lyrics of her ‘Beautiful Song’, was ‘born in distant 1980, the year that Irish Johnny Logan won …’ Albania’s turn was next – this is a dark horse – and Rona Nishiu (who also wrote the lyrics) was powerful vocally in the Baku Crystal Hall. Following the Albanians was Romania, and the band Mandinga with their latino number ‘Zaleilah’. The brothers from Switzerland were up next, together they’re called Sinplus and they went through their paces with the U2-sounding ‘Unbreakable’. Belgium and their 17-year-old singer Iris took to the stage next with ‘Would You?’, a pleasant ballad. And the final rehearsal for the day was the song from Finland, performed in Swedish by Pernilla Karlsson. Throughout the day, of course, once each country had finished rehearsing and having viewed the playback of their first performances, the event for each artist was the press conference. This is the usual daily itinerary, so with rehearsals and press conferences over, the first nine performers wouldn’t rehearse again until next Friday.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2012 SEMI-FINAL 1
from the Crystal Hall, BAKU, Azerbaijan
Tuesday 22 May 2012, RTÉ2, 8.00pm

Introduced by
Leyla Aliyeva, Eldar Gasimov and Nargiz Birk-Petersen

Television commentary by
Marty Whelan

An İctimai TV Presentation

The 18 entries in order of appearance:

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2012 SEMI-FINAL 2
from the Crystal Hall, BAKU, Azerbaijan
Thursday 24 May 2012, RTÉ2, 8.00pm

Introduced by
Leyla Aliyeva, Eldar Gasimov and Nargiz Birk-Petersen

Television commentary by
Marty Whelan

An İctimai TV Presentation

The 18 entries in order of appearance:

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST FINAL 2012
from the Crystal Hall, BAKU, Azerbaijan
Saturday 26 May 2012, RTÉ1, 8.00pm

Introduced by
Leyla Aliyeva, Eldar Gasimov and Nargiz Birk-Petersen

Television commentary by
Marty Whelan

An İctimai TV Presentation

The 26 entries in order of appearance:

Sunday, March 10th 2012

Only one national final tonight – in Moldova. Twenty-one contenders arrived at the TRM studios in Chisinau, each hoping to represent the small Eastern European republic. A fifty-fifty jury/televote decided the winner, and it was third time lucky for Pasha Parfeny, who finished joint second in the 2010 national heat, and took third place last year in same. The title of the song, which Pasha also co-wrote, is ‘Lautar’, a local word for ‘traditional fiddler’, although it will be sung in English.

Pasha Parfeny performs for Moldova

Saturday, March 10th 2012

Another hectic in the Eurovision calendar with three national finals underway tonight.

Firstly, we’ll go to the most watched show in Sweden, the event that all music lovers throughout Europe turn to – Melodifestivalen. Those Swedes know how to put on a great show, and once again they did not disappoint. After five weeks of knockout rounds, ten songs and ten acts descended on the Globe Arena in Stockholm, as is traditional at this stage, each hoping to win the Swedish ticket to Baku.

But from the outset, it was a two-horse race between Song 6: ‘Euphoria’, sung by Loreen, and Song 10: ‘Amazing’, sung by Danny Saucedo (who finished in 2nd place in last year’s Swedish final). Both songs would not be out of place in the ‘club anthem’ genre, and no doubt they’ll be played in the European clubs for the next six months.

Once all ten songs had been performed, it was time to call the eleven international juries, whose points made up 50% of the overall vote. Each country awarded from one point, then 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and the maximum 12 points to their top seven contenders.

I can now tell you that the Irish jury (each one had five members) were: Julian Vignoles, Head of Irish delegation (spokesperson); Emma O’Driscoll, children’s TV presenter (chairperson); Mairéad Farrell, Today FM co-presenter on the Ray D’Arcy Show; Diarmuid Furlong, president of the Irish branch of the Eurovision fan club OGAE; and myself.

As you can see from the table below, Loreen and ‘Euphoria’ was leading the field with 114 points after the eleven juries’ results were in, while Danny Saucedo with ‘Amazing’ was 22 points behind in second place.

The interval act was provided by Eurovision 2005 winner for Greece, Helena Paparizou, who performed a completely rearranged version of last year’s Melodifestival winner and Swedish entry, ‘Popular’, which Eric Saade took to third place in the Eurovision 2011 final in Düsseldorf.

Then it was time for the Swedish public vote. The percentages for each song’s votes were converted into points totalling 473 (don’t ask!), starting with the lowest percentage which was awarded 18 points (Song 4: ‘Why Start A Fire?’) to the highest which went to the eventual winner, which came as no surprise. So it’s Loreen and ‘Euphoria’ which became the Swedish entry for 2012. The single is already No. 1 in the Swedish charts.

Results:

* International juries were located in: Belgium, Estonia, Cyprus, UK, Bosnia & Herzegovina, France, Ukraine, Malta, Germany, Ireland and Norway.

Loreen will sing ‘Euphoria’ for Sweden in May

Meanwhile in Romania, the band Mandinga won the national heat in Bucharest with ‘Zaleilah’ among fifteen finalists.  There was Irish interest in one of the songs, ‘Twilight’, co-written by Karl Broderick.  Karl had previously composed Donna & Joe’s 2005 entry for Ireland, ‘Love?’  It eventually finished in joint sixth place.

The interval act was provided by our own Jedward performing ‘Waterline’, alongside Anggun who performed her French entry ‘Echo (You and I)’, and last year’s Romanian representatives Hotel FM.

The winner was decided by 50/50 jury/televote.  The band Mandinga had previously entered the Romanian heats in 2005, and finished fourth.  Now they are on their way to Baku.

Wednesday 7th March 2012

Tonight it was the turn of Europe’s largest nation to make its choice.

Tonight, the Russian national selection took place in the Academic Concert Hall in Moscow. A total of 25 artists fought for the honour to represent Russia in Eurovision 2012 in Baku two months from now. Until the last week, the Russian national broadcaster RTR kept the Eurovision fans excited about their finalists. The more interesting it was to follow the entries of 25 contestants who competed in tonight’s show. The concert started with the powerful ballad sung by Lena Maksimova.

The hosts for the evening announced the names of the professional jury. Among the jurors were famous musicians and experts in Russian showbusiness. One jury member familiar to fans and aficionados alike was Philipp Kirkorov, who many will remember performed in the then Point Theatre, Dublin, for Russia in Eurovision 1995.

The contestants performed in Russian and English, and TV viewers could start to vote for their favourite candidates once the first entry of the night had taken to the stage. The voting closed 40 minutes after the last finalist performed on stage.

Ani Lorak who represented Ukraine in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade sang her second-placed song from that year, Shady Lady. The band Diskoteka Avariya came to support the finalists. They provided the interval act while the votes were being counted.

Once all the votes were in, it was the sextet of grannies, going by the name of Buranovskiye Babushki (in English: Buranovo Grandmothers), who won the hearts – and votes – of the TV viewers and jurors with their song Party For Everybody!

Buranovskiye Babushki will represent Russia with 'Party For Everybody!'

To watch the Russian entry, click here.

Saturday, March 3rd 2012

A busy night across Europe tonight in 3 countries: Spain, Estonia and Lithuania.

But firstly, across the water the BBC announced on Thursday night that the singer Engelbert Humperdinck will be representing the UK. The song will be announced later, but Engelbert, who will be 76 by the time the Eurovision final is upon us, hasn’t had a chart hit for about 40 years now. He will also be the oldest performer ever at a Eurovision Song Contest – and this will be the 57th annual extravaganza! Engelbert had massive hits between 1967 and 1972, including two Number One hits – ‘Release Me’ and ‘The Last Waltz’ – both in 1967 … and I actually remember them!!!

Now firstly to Spain, winners in 1968 and jointly in 1969. The well-known recording artist Pastora Soler had been internally selected by TVE to perform all the songs in their final. Pastora is 34 and signed her first record deal in 1994, and has already released ten albums. Tonight she performed 3 songs, the winner being a 50-50 televote/‘expert’ jury vote. And the jury and the Spanish public that Pastora will sing ‘Quédate Conmigo’ (‘Stay with me’) as their entry in two months’ time in Baku. Spain, as one of the ‘Big 5’ countries, will go directly to the Final on Saturday 26th May.

Pastora Soler sings for Spain

Now to Estonia, winners in 2001. Their national selection programme Eesti Laul 2012 (Estonian Song 2012) was held in the Nokia Concert Hall, Tallinn. Ten finalists, five of whom were each selected from two knockout rounds, lined up hoping to succeed Getter Jaani as Estonia’s Eurovision representative. One of the acts this year was a band called Traffic. Did they not know that there was a British band in the late ’60s by that name who had huge success?
Anyway, there were two rounds of voting, again a 50-50 jury/public televote – the first round to determine the two shortlisted songs out of the ten, and the second round, which was by public televoting only, decided the outright winner.

And it is the pop star Ott Lepland who wins the Estonian ticket with the song ‘Kuula’ (‘Listen’). Ott will be 25 the week before the Eurovision semi-finals in May, and won the 2009 season of the Estonian equivalent of X Factor, but had been singing since he was eight years old.

Ott Lepland will sing the Estonian entry ‘Kuula’ (‘Listen’) in Baku

Remaining in the Baltic region, Lithuania held its national selection in the LRT-TV studios in Vilnius. Fourteen songs, which had qualified from four semi-finals, were performed in turn then the five jury members then gave their opinions and marked each song. Each of the jury members marked up to 10 points. After all the jury votes were in, it was Song 13: ‘Love Is Blind’ sung by Donatas Montvydas (aka Donny Montell) which received a full house (50 points) from the jury, and 15664 votes from the public. In second place was the group Dar with ‘Home’, and in third, Monika with ‘Happy’. These three songs then proceeded to the ‘superfinal’, the winner of which was decided by the jury, who unanimously decided on Donny Montell with the song ‘Love Is Blind’ to carry the Lithuanian flag in Baku.

Donny Montell (Donatas Montvydas) will sing ‘Love Is Blind’ for Lithuania

Wednesday February 29th 2012

The Bulgarian national selection kicked off at 8.30pm local time (6.30pm Irish time), and twelve finalists descended on the National Palace of Culture in Sofia to decide who and which song would be Bulgaria’s eighth Eurovision entry. The whole programme last three hours!!!

The interval act featured several of this year’s Eurovision performers as guest performers: Anggun (France), Ivi Adamou (Cyprus), Soluna Samay (Denmark) and Kurt Calleja (Malta). Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov, who finished in fifth place for Bulgaria in 2007, also made an appearance, along with other local artists. The interval itself lasted more than an hour!

But after a 50-50 televote/jury vote, it is Sofi Marinova who will represent Bulgaria in Baku with the song ‘Love Unlimited’.

Sofi Marinova will sing for Bulgaria at Eurovision 2012

Sunday 26 February 2012

Tonight, there were two national heats taking place. The first was in the Netherlands, five times winners of the contest – but not since 1975 when the group Teach-In rang the juries’ bell with ‘Ding-a-Dong’. The TROS studios in Hilversum were the location for the Nationaal Songfestival 2012.

Six soloists battled for the honour of representing their country in Baku three months from now. The first round consisted of three duet rounds – think ‘The Voice of Ireland’ and you get the picture – and the decision lay with the professional jury and public televote, with an international jury playing a part. This combination sent through the 3 successful singers: Pearl, Joan Franka, and Ivan Peroti.

In the second round, these three singers performed their songs again, and the professional jury plus the public televote then decided which of the three would be given the Dutch ticket.

In the end, it was Joan Franka who won the Dutch national final Nationaal Songfestival and therefore will represent the Netherlands in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘You and me’ in the second semi-final on Thursday 24th May.

Joan Franka, who will represent Holland

Dutch ‘Nationaal Songfestival’ results:

Meanwhile in Slovenia, two chosen acts from earlier knock-out rounds, Eva Boto and twin sisters Eva & Nika Prusnik, were each given three songs which could represent Slovenia in Baku in the show Misija EMA 2012.

These two contestants had finally made it after eleven knock-out rounds which started last October. The last contestant was eliminated in early January, leaving just Eva and the Prusnik twins in tonight’s final.

The voting was made up of 50% public telepoll and 50% expert jury for the first round. This involved choosing the favourite from each of the two acts. The result of the first round was as follows:

Eva & Nika Prusnik – ‘Konichiwa’ (‘Hello’)
Eva Boto – ‘Verjamem’ (‘I believe’)

These songs were performed again, and it was the Slovene people only who would decide the winner, and Eva Boto won overwhelmingly with 28385, more than twice the votes of Eva and Nika Prusnik, who polled 12884 votes. So it is Eva Boto who goes to Baku with ‘Verjamem’, which translates as ‘I Believe’, and she will compete in the second semi-final on 24th May.

Eva Boto will represent Slovenia

Saturday 25 February 2012

Tonight it was the turn of Finland to select its Eurovision 2012 entry.

After five elimination rounds, tonight saw the final six singers and songs hoping to win the Finnish ticket to Azerbaijan.

After all 6 songs were performed, it was down to a public televote with two rounds of voting. The first was to shortlist the 3 top songs, which were performed again. This was followed by the second round of televoting to determine the outright winner, and it was Pernilla Karlsson with the song ‘När jag blundar’ (‘When I close my eyes’), the first song from Finland since 1990 to be performed in Swedish.

Permilla Karlsson will represent Finland in Eurovision this year

The results are shown below:

Finland will compete in the 1st semi-final on Tuesday 22nd May.

Friday February 24th 2012: EUROSONG DAY

Well, it’s finally upon us – when the nation is asking, “Which song will represent Ireland at Eurovision 2012?”

Rehearsals started after lunch in Studio 4, starting with Celtic Aura with Maria McCool with the Edele Lynch-composed song ‘Mistaken’, which will open the contest tonight. The group name had to be changed at the last minute from ‘Celtic Whisper’ due to another band already having that name. Now Azerbaijan is known as the Land of Fire, but when this group took to the stage, let’s just say that, well, there was fire! Maria was surrounded by a circle of fire, and her two dancers were waving flames around during their routine. Thankfully the staging and security guys were on hand in the interests of health and safety!!! But this song was back to the heady days of the Celtic ballad with a traditional look and feel.

Then it was onto the last of the five (which will be Song 4 tonight) – Úna Gibney (from the ’70s tribute band Boogie Nights), paired up with David Shannon for the song ‘The Language of Love’. Both were in fine voice as you would expect from two seasoned professionals.

With the rehearsals over, all five acts had one last chance to rehearse from around 7.00pm, with the full dress run in the order of performance on the night.

6.00pm, and I go for a bite to eat in the canteen! As I pass, the exterior of TV Reception is swarmed by underage girls waiting for their idols. I joked with some of them that I thought they might be waiting for the Brotherhood of Man (special guests tonight). They looked at me as if I had two heads!!! It was pretty clear that a lot of these ‘Jedheads’ took the afternoon off school just to be here to get a glimpse of the twins. Well, they weren’t disappointed.

8.30pm and I’m in my ‘evening wear’ to meet my guests who were going to be with me in the audience. We proceeded to the Audience Holding Area of Studio 4, were we had a drink each (orange juice for me!) before taking our seats at around 9.00pm.

9.35pm, and the show is live to the nation! Ryan opens proceedings, of course, and introduces us to the Eurosong 2012 panel: RTE Eurovision commentator Marty Whelan; former Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh, and Ray D’Arcy’s co-presenter on his Today FM show, Mairéad Farrell.

Then it was time for the first song of the evening: ‘Mistaken’, being sung by Celtic Aura with Maria McCool. But not before Ryan came over to the audience to chat to the group’s mentor, former B*Witched singer, Edele Lynch (also the composer/lyricist) who said that she wanted to ‘bring back a bit of Ireland’ to the contest. The artists gave an excellent performance (fire included!), but would the public go for it?

After the panel gave their opinions on the song, it was straight into Song 2, co-written by freelance TV producer Bill Hughes, who was also the mentor of the performer of his song ‘Mercy’. Donna McCaul, you may remember, has previous Eurovision form. In 2005, she and her brother Joe went to Ukraine with the song ‘Love?’, but failed to qualify from the semi-final. This year, however, she had a powerful upbeat pop song co-written by the aforementioned Bill and three Swedish composers – and this was tailor-crafted for the Eurovision stage. Having seen Donna belt out this number in rehearsal yesterday, I genuinely thought that this could be the one to beat. For the live performance, she didn’t disappoint. This girl is able to hold a tune! But would the juries and the public go for it?

After the first commercial break, it was the turn of Song 3: ‘Here I Am’, written/composed by Greg French, and performed by Andrew Mann. Ryan spoke briefly to Greg before the song performance, who said that he wanted to bring ‘rock’ back to Eurovision. Did it ever go away? Andrew gave a rousing performance, accompanied by his band, and some said that it could even go one place above Donna McCaul, if not win the ticket to Baku!

The fourth song of the night was co-written by the mentor of the duo singing it, Julian Benson. He had co-written ‘The Language of Love’ with Éanán Patterson, and had teamed up established singer Úna Gibney alongside West End star David Shannon to perform the number. Their voices blended well together for this pleasant, upbeat song.

After another panel discussion, it was time for the final song in the competition: ‘Waterline’, composed by Swedish songwriter Nick Jarl who collaborated with Sharon Vaughan. The performers, who took top honours in Studio 4 last year at Eurosong, were hell-bent on having a second bite of the cherry!!! Jedward – John and Edward Grimes – now 20, were polished and undoubtedly had the most fans, especially on the RTE campus, who didn’t have tickets for the studio, so had to camp outside the building. The boys gave a polished rendition of the song, though at the beginning the vocals were a little wobbly, but it received the biggest applause of the night.

Job done, and another commercial break. Into Part 3, and we were temporarily taken out of Eurosong mode when Ryan interviewed legendary US actor Martin Sheen. Martin declared his support for Song 2: Donna McCaul with ‘Mercy’, before the in-depth chat. Then it was into another commercial break.

Time for the interval act, and as I mentioned earlier, four legends flew over from the UK to perform their Eurovision-winning classic from 1976. For those of us old enough to remember, they were compared to the biggest band of that era, Abba, who incidentally had won the contest two years before them! Well, 36 years on, and The Brotherhood of Man were still in fine voice, and of course, we were all singing along in the audience.

Then it was crunch time. Ryan contacted the jury spokespeople in each of the regions: Cork (Sinéad Kennedy, presenter of RTE2’s ‘Juice’); Limerick (Emma O’Driscoll, presenter of RTE Junior’s ‘Hubble’); Galway (Katie Van Buren, another ‘Juice’ presenter); Sligo (Stephen Byrne, yet another ‘Juice’ presenter) and Dublin (Royseven frontman and TwoTube presenter Paul Walsh). You can see on the scoregrid below how the juries voted. Then it was time for the telepoll results. Bearing in mind that (by my reckoning) the majority of texters/callers on this occasion were mainly the under-16 female population, the overall result came as no surprise. Jedward had topped the public vote and were thus awarded a further 60 points on top of the 54 points from the juries, bringing them to 114, twenty points clear of the second-placed ‘Here I Am’, sung by Andrew Mann, while Donna McCaul came in third, ten points behind Andrew, with her vivacious pop number ‘Mercy’.

So for the second year in a row, Jedward will be representing the nation, the first ‘main’ – as opposed to backing – singers to do so. The question is: Will ‘Waterline’ finish higher than ‘Lipstick’ in eighth place in Düsseldorf last year? That will be answered in less than three months’ time when the Jeds travel to Baku, Azerbaijan, to represent Ireland once again. Good luck, boys!

Jedward will represent Ireland in Eurovision for the second time

Jedward then wrapped up the show when, as is traditional, they reprised their winning song, before going out to meet the (all-female) fans fifteen minutes later. Now as I was going out from one exit with my guests past TV Reception, the Grimes twins also came out. The sudden stampede by these young teenage girls to reach their idols nearly had me trampled underfoot!!! Imagine my headstone: ‘Killed underfoot by a swarm of underage Jedward fans’. I’d be a laughing stock in death! I ran for my life out of their direction, and took another way into the after-show party, which was already in full swing. After mingling with the Eurosong panellists and some of the Eurosong production team, and one or two artists, it was time to call it a night! Jedward had already been whisked away by this time.

You can see the full results of Eurosong 2012 below:

Meanwhile earlier in the evening, over in Austria, ten hopefuls were also competing to win the national ticket to Baku in their national final, ‘Österreich Rockt den SongContest’ which went on air at 8.15pm local time (7.15pm Irish time). Two rounds of televoting were used: the first to determine which two entries would advance to the ‘superfinal’, and the second round to determine the outright winner between the two remaining contenders. The two in question were Conchita Wurtz with ‘That’s What I Am’, and the hip-hop boy band Trackshittaz with their song in an Austrian dialect, ‘Woki mit deim Bobo’, which translates as ‘Shake your ass!’ Interesting to note that the last-mentioned song had already been released and had entered the charts at the end of last year, but no Eurovision rules had been broken. Eventually after the second round of public voting, it is Trackshittaz, who polled 51% of the overall vote, who will be representing Austria in Baku.

Trackshittaz will represent Austria

Thursday 23 February 2012: EUROSONG REHEARSALS – DAY 1

Studio 4 in RTE is the venue for tomorrow night’s national final to select Ireland’s entry to Eurovision 2012. Therefore The Late Late Show, for one week only, isn’t The Late Late Show per se, despite the opening titles and Ryan Tubridy taking charge of proceedings. It’s Eurosong 2012, and rehearsals started at 3.00pm this afternoon.

First up, out of sequence, are Jedward, ready to go through their paces with their song ‘Waterline’. Also present as part of their entourage are their mentor Linda Martin, and their road manager Liam McKenna. Their song will the last of the five to be performed tomorrow night. Meanwhile – surprise, surprise! – outside RTE-TV Reception were hordes of teenage girls ‘taking the afternoon off school’ hoping to get a glimpse of their idols as they arrived. Once inside, the boys were hurried into the studio and were put through their paces. The final rehearsal was taped to be included in the recap package during the show.

Next up was Andrew Mann, performing Song No. 3, ‘Here I Am’. He was accompanied by his band, and mentor Greg French, who also composed the song. This powerful rock ballad was one to watch.

Last up for today (the remaining two artists would perform tomorrow afternoon) was one of the favourites, ‘Mercy’, sung by Donna McCaul, who returned to the Eurosong stage seven years later, having gone to Kyiv, Ukraine, to represent Ireland at Eurovision 2005 alongside her brother Joe with Karl Broderick’s song ‘Love?’. Donna gave an excellent performance in rehearsal, and this Athlone girl can really belt out a tune! It’s a song that’s tailor-made for the Eurovision stage too. Bill Hughes, Donna’s mentor, was obviously in attendance. And one of Donna’s backing singers is Ann Harrington, who also did backing vocals for Dustin in Belgrade four years ago. So Donna’s uptempo number went down well with the Eurosong crew, and hopefully it will get the votes tomorrow night.

Sunday February 12th 2012

Last night was a busy one in three European countries.

In Norway, the grand final of the Melodi Grand Prix (Norwegian Eurovision selection) took place in the Oslo Spektrum, venue for the 1996 Eurovision final (which Eimear Quinn won for Ireland). Ten songs progressed from the three semi-finals held over the previous three weekends, which of course were televised live by NRK.

After the songs were performed, it was down to a public televote to determine which four songs would progress to the ‘super final’. The lucky participants were: Tooji with ‘Stay’; the band Plumbo with ‘Old Nordmann’ (the hot favourite with the locals and fans alike); Nora Foss Al-Jabri with ‘Somewhere Beautiful’; and the male country duo Bobby Bare and Petter Øien with the song ‘Things Change’ – Bobby came all the way from Texas, USA.

After 2009 Norwegian winner Alexander Rybak provided the interval entertainment with a medley of Eurovision classics, including his own ‘Fairytale’ which won him the grand prix in Moscow three years ago, it was down to the nailbiting voting, initially from three juries stationed in Ørland, Larvik and Florø, who each awarded a minimum of 2,000 points up to a maximum of 8,000. After the three juries’ points, it was ‘Somewhere Beautiful’, sung by Nora Foss Al-Jabri who led the field on 24,000 points (three lots of the maximum 8,000). Then it was the turn of the televoting results from the five regions – North, West, South, Central and East. Well, it just goes to show that the juries and the ordinary public have differing opinions. The points from the public overwhelming went in favour of the first song of the night, ‘Stay’ sung by the young male performer Tooji. Of course, there were comparisons between him and last year’s Swedish Eurovision ambassador Eric Saade, who was placed third in the 2011 Final in Düsseldorf.

Tooji sings 'Stay' for Norway

But it’s the Iranian-born, Norwegian-raised Tooji, who’s 24 – he’ll be 25 on the day of the Final, so that will be a real birthday gift to him if he qualifies from the second semi-final – who will fly the Norwegian flag with ‘Stay’ in Baku.

Going westwards to Iceland, where only seven songs competed for the ticket to Azerbaijan. Unlike in Norway, where only two of their ten songs were in the native language, Iceland’s lucky seven were entirely in Icelandic. Eurovision 1997 performer Paul Oscar was one of the hosts. The decision lay with the televoting public and a panel of ‘experts’, and only the top two singers and songs were known when the results were announced. The successful acts were: the boy band Blár Ópal (with the song ‘Stattu upp’ – ‘Stand up’ in English), and the duo Greta Salóme and Jónsi. Once they arrived on stage and had received bouquets of flowers, it was time for the nail-biting climax. Which of these two was going to win the Icelandic ticket? In around sixty seconds, the presenter announced that Greta and Jónsi had won the overall vote with the last song of the night, ‘Mundu eftir mér’ (‘Remember me’).

Greta Salóme and Jónsi perform 'Mundu Eftir Mér' ('Remember Me') for Iceland

Now the chances are that new English lyrics will be written for this song, so we’ll have to wait another few weeks to hear the new English-language version for the Eurovision stage. Jónsi (known to his family as Jón Jósep Snæbjörnsson) is no stranger to the contest – he represented his country back in 2004 with the song ‘Heaven’, and finished in nineteenth place in Istanbul. So good luck to Greta Salóme and Jónsi in May.

Completing the Saturday night trilogy, Hungary also made its selection for Baku. Over the previous two weekends, twenty songs (ten each week) had been shortlisted to just four in the two semi-finals. Therefore, eight songs proceeded to the grand final in Budapest last night. Two rounds of voting took place – the public televote decided on four of the eight songs to proceed to the ‘super final’, then the outright winner was decided by a jury. The ‘expert’ jury’s decision was for the electronic rock quartet Compact Disco with the song (in English) ‘The Sound of Our Hearts’ to be the Hungarian representative in Baku.

Compact Disco will perform 'The Sound Of Our Hearts' for Hungary

Friday February 10th 2012

Now the five contenders for Eurosong 2012 have been played, and have since been listened to countless times by fans and aficionados alike, the question on everybody’s lips now is: Which song is going to Baku to represent Ireland at Eurovision 2012? Well, we’ll have to wait another fortnight for the answer.

We showcased all five songs on Mooney (RTÉ Radio 1, 3.00pm) yesterday. But for me the day didn’t just start once we were on air. On Wednesday, I was listening to and digesting the four songs that were available to me at that time. Then I started writing my notes for the programme. Yesterday (Thursday) morning, I came into RTÉ at around 11.00am, and finished my notes, as well as finally acquiring the remaining song from one of the writers, so I listened to that about three times. After lunch on the run, it was time to go to Studio 7 (where Derek’s show comes from each day) at the RTÉ Radio Centre for the live broadcast and meet up with the other panellists Brenda Donohue and ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ star Rory Cowan. I had the pleasure of presenting each of the songs and singers, while Brenda and Rory gave their opinions on each of them.

I’ll bring you more news on the Eurosong national final once the first rehearsals get under way on Thursday 23rd February.

Meanwhile, around the rest of Europe:

Kurt Calleja

Malta made its selection last Saturday (4th February) night. Kurt Calleja, who’s 22, will represent the Mediterranean island with the song ‘This Is The Night’, written by Johan Jämtberg, Kurt Calleja and Mikael Gunnerås, which scored 84 points. The decision was made with 75% of the votes from the jury, and the other 25% was from the public televote. Kurt finished third in the Maltese final last year. In second place last weekend, Claudia Faniello on 78 points with the song ‘Pure’, which was favoured by the juries.

This weekend, Saturday sees the national selections taking place in Norway and Iceland, and on Sunday it’s the turn of the host nation Azerbaijan to choose a successor to last year’s winners, Ell & Nikki. More news after the results.

Thursday, February 9th 2012

Yesterday, RTÉ announced the five Eurosong 2012 contenders, as decided by 5 mentors selected internally late last year. These 5 songs will be premiered on Mooney, this afternoon, from 3pm, when Derek is joined by Rory Cowen, Brenda Donohue, and our very own Euro Guru, Paul G. Sheridan. On Friday, February 24th, they will be performed live on The Late Late Show Eurosong 2012 Special, hosted by Ryan Tubridy. The songs are as follows, in order of appearance:

Click here to download our Eurosong 2012 Score Card

The winner will be decided by both regional jury vote, which will make up half of the overall marks (the juries are located in five regions: Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Sligo) and the public televote which will account for the other half of the overall result.

The five mentors responsible for selecting their artists and songs are: Edele Lynch (on behalf of Celtic Aura with Maria McCool – Edele has also composed the song); Bill Hughes, independent TV producer (on behalf of Donna McCaul – Bill has co-written Donna’s song); Greg French from the band The Brilliant Things (on behalf of Andrew Mann – Greg has also composed the song); artists’ agent Julian Benson (on behalf of duo Una Gibney and David Shannon who have been put together for this event); and 1992 Eurovision winner Linda Martin (on behalf of Jedward).

The Late Late Show Eurosong Special will be broadcast on Friday 24th February and hosted by Ryan Tubridy, with the winner being announced at the end of the show after the national televote results and the verdicts of the 5 regional juries.

Two Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals will take place – on Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th May. The ‘Big Five’ countries: United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and last year’s winners Azerbaijan, will proceed directly to the Eurovision 2012 Final on Saturday 26th May. The contest will take place in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan. The remaining 37 countries will compete in one of the semi-finals in order to win a place in the aforementioned Final. Ireland will compete in the first semi-final on Tuesday 22nd May. Live coverage will be on RTE 2 for the semi-finals, and on RTE 1 for the Eurovision 2012 final.

SONG 1: MISTAKEN

Composer/Lyricist:
Edele Lynch

performed by
CELTIC AURA with MARIA McCOOL

Maria McCool

Singer Maria McCool comes from the Gweedore Gaeltacht in County Donegal and is a Primary School teacher in Gaelscoil na Ríthe, Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath.

Maria’s talent was nurtured from an early age by her singing and music teacher Máire Bn. Uí Bhraonáin, mother of the Brennan family of Clannad and Enya fame.

At the tender age of 12, Maria appeared on RTÉ Television with her rendition of Airdí Cuain – a Gaelic song – after winning An t-Oireachtas (an Irish cultural event that happens in Ireland each year).

In 1994, Maria represented Monaghan in the Ulster Rose of Tralee competition where she worked as a primary school teacher.

Acclaimed at national and international festivals of Gaelic music and song, Maria has accompanied Clannad and played the fiddle with Clann Uí Mhaonaigh of Altan. In 2005, Maria was support to Ronnie Drew at the Celtic music festival in Lorient, France, and more recently collaborated with Manus Lunny where she recorded tracks for Trad Tráthnóna albums.

To date, Maria has released two CDs. In 1998, the Celtic singer released her debut CD ‘Ailleog’, a mix of Irish- and English-sung Gaelic ballads. Following the success of ‘Ailleog’ (340,300 You Tube hits for “Ar Éirinn Ní Neosfainn Cé hÍ“), in 2009 Maria released her second CD ‘Doagh’, a 16-track album featuring Celtic ballads and enchanting versions of classics such as “When You were Sweet Sixteen” and “Bright Blue Rose”.

Maria has been described as, “an exceptional talent whose voice is mesmerizing and alluring”. Living in Kilmessan, County Meath, Maria is married to Tom and the couple have two children, Mia (5) and Tomás (3).

Former member of girl band B*Witched, Edele Lynch (mentor) has created the act Celtic Aura with Maria McCool for Eurosong. Maria will be performing Mistaken which Edele has written for the contest. Speaking about Maria and her choice of song Edele said:

“I want my song and artist to be a representation of Ireland, and Maria fits that perfectly. She is a beautiful woman with a beautiful haunting voice and she fits Celtic Aura perfectly. She has brought the song ‘Mistaken’ to its intended life. When I wrote the song I knew I wanted a beautiful Irish vocal on it and the moment I heard Maria, I knew she was the one for me. In working together, we have created Celtic Aura with Maria McCool."

SONG 2: MERCY

Composers/Lyricists:
Mårten Ericsson, Peter Månsson, Lina Ericsson & Bill Hughes

performed by
DONNA McCAUL

Donna McCaul

Donna McCaul is from Athlone, Co. Westmeath. She has been singing most of her life and together with her brother Joe she represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev in 2005 with Karl Broderick’s song Love? – their prize for winning the You’re A Star competition that year. Donna has been a solo artist for the past few years and has been working hard to break into the Irish music scene. Mentor Bill Hughes said, “She is a powerful live performer and was described by the Swedish producers of the single ‘Mercy’ as having perfect pitch.”

Bill Hughes (mentor) has selected Donna McCaul as his act. Donna will be performing Mercy which was written by the Swedish production team of Mårten Ericsson, Peter Månsson and Lina Ericsson – alongside Bill himself. Speaking about his act, Bill said, “It’s a big dance track in the style of a club anthem. ‘Mercy’ reflects the music of the current charts which is the main reason I have put it forward. It has been a pleasure working on the lyrics and we are all very happy with the result.”

SONG 3: HERE I AM

Composer/Lyricist:
Greg French

performed by
ANDREW MANN

Andrew Mann

Dublin-born Andrew Mann has been playing guitar and writing songs since the tender age of twelve. For the last 10 years he has been performing none stop around Ireland and Europe and released his début album "Hidden In Plain Sight" last year. At the end of 2011, Andrew wrote the soundtrack to an independent film called "Eden" which recently won the International Award for Excellence at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Greg French (mentor) is a music producer and a member of The Brilliant Things. He has selected Andrew as his act, and has also composed the song Here I Am, which Andrew will be performing at this year’s Eurosong contest.

Speaking about his act, Greg said “I wanted to bring something to the Eurosong competition that represented what I believe to be Ireland’s best musical genre - Rock. I accepted song submissions but none fitted the genre so I went about writing ‘Here I Am’ myself. I selected Andrew as he’s a talented and hardworking rock singer whose voice tells a story without singing one word.”

SONG 4: THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE

Composers/Lyricists:
Éanán Patterson & Julian Benson

performed by
UNA GIBNEY and DAVID SHANNON

Una Gibney & David Shannon

Una Gibney is an experienced performer who has worked with the likes of Michael Flatley (on his Celtic Tiger tour), Christy Dignam (Aslan), Something Happens, The Devlins and Red Hurley. Una will also be familiar to a lot of people as the lead vocalist with one of Ireland’s most successful tribute bands, ‘Boogie Nights’. The band have played to audiences the length and breadth of Ireland and the UK.

The name David Shannon is synonymous with the West End. David grew up in Ireland and has been singing professionally for over 18 years. He has played the leading roles in some of the most famous musicals including Valjean (Les Misérables) Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd) Jesus and Judas (Jesus Christ Superstar) Chris (Miss Saigon) and, most recently, the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera at her Majesty’s Theatre, London. David also released his début album ‘Till I Hear You Sing’ last year. Una and David had not met before this venture.

David was nominated for Best Actor at the 2001 Olivier Awards for creating the role of John Kelly in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Beautiful Game at the Cambridge Theatre. He also has a busy schedule working with major international orchestras. Recent and current projects include collaborations with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the RTE Symphony Orchestra, the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony and the Gothenburg Opera Orchestras.

Showbiz agent and choreographer Julian Benson (mentor) has chosen Una Gibney and David Shannon as his act – the duo will be performing The Language of Love which Julian has co-written with Éanán Patterson, whose famous father is Irish tenor Frank Patterson. Julian and Éanán previously collaborated on the critically-acclaimed ‘Celtic Rising – The Show’. Speaking about his act and song, Julian said:

“When I was chosen as a mentor by RTÉ for Eurovision 2012, I decided to write a song that specifically embraces the spirit of Eurovision and unites Europe. It is an anthem for Europe sending out a positive message through the universal “The Language of Love”. With the times that are in it, I truly believe that it’s time to send out a positive image for Ireland. I sincerely believe that Ireland has a wealth of musical talent and now is the time to celebrate it on the European stage by sending genuinely talented singers and musicians to Eurovision. With their wealth of experience, Una and David are the perfect ambassadors to fly the flag for Ireland. I chose Una and David to perform the song as they are the perfect Eurovision package – they look superb, have phenomenal voices and most importantly have the experience of performing live on a worldwide stage.”

SONG 5: WATERLINE

Composer/Lyricist:
Nick Jarl

performed by
JEDWARD

Jedward

John and Edward Grimes (b. 16 Oct. 1991), aka Jedward, made it big after appearing on The X Factor in 2009. Known for their distinctive blond quiffs and unique performances, the identical Lucan twins have risen to fame in a phenomenon described as the “Jedward Paradox” (by the UK Guardian’s Mark Lawson). They released their début song Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby) a collaboration with 90s hip hop star Vanilla Ice. It hit #1 in the Irish singles charts and #2 in the UK singles charts, on downloads alone. The twins then went on to release a cover of Blink 182’s 2000 hit All The Small Things and their debut album Planet Jedward in July 2010 which became the fastest selling record in Ireland in 2010.

Since their X Factor experience more than two years ago, Jedward have not stopped working, taking part in The X Factor 2010 tour where almost a million people watched their high kick antics and they then went on to have their own sell-out Irish and UK tour. In July 2010 ITV2 in the UK and RTE2 in Ireland both commissioned the twins to take part in their own reality show Jedward Let Loose, a three-part series, and OMG It’s Jedward for RTE2 that gave fans a bizarre insight into the world that is Planet Jedward. Christmas 2010 saw the twins take to the stage in pantomime in Dublin which became the first pantomime in Ireland to sell out before the run started.

In the last twelve months, the twins finished in eighth place in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf (both semi- and Final). In addition, the boys finished third in Channel 5’s ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ last August, and for RTÉ (over Christmas) they were given another TV series, ‘OMG – Jedward’s Dream Factory’, which was a latterday version of the BBC’s ‘Jim’ll Fix It’. In addition, they released their second album ‘Victory’ last summer which included their Eurovision 2011 song, ‘Lipstick’ and their follow-up single, ‘Bad Behaviour’, which also topped the charts in Ireland.

Previous Eurovision winner Linda Martin has chosen Jedward as her act for this year’s contest. Jedward are hoping for the opportunity to repeat their success at last year’s contest in Düsseldorf when they came eighth in the contest. Jedward will be performing Waterline written by Swedish songwriter Nick Jarl. The song was produced by Dan Priddy (ManneQuin) who wrote "Lipstick" and wrote and co-produced on their 2011 album, "Victory".

Linda is, of course, no stranger to Eurovision. She has appeared in no less than nine of the National Song Contest/Eurosong competitions either with her former band Chips, or as a soloist, or with other singers (Linda Martin & Friends in 1990). In 1984, she won the national selection with Johnny Logan’s Terminal 3, and narrowly lost out to the Swedish Herrey brothers in Luxembourg in the Eurovision final. Eight years later, having won the national heat in the Cork Opera House, she went all the way to victory in Malmö, Sweden, with Why Me?, also written by Johnny Logan.

Linda said: “’Waterline’ is a fantastic European pop song. Nick uses the word Waterline as a metaphor for falling in love. I loved it straight away and so did the boys. It’s one that will appeal to every age group. It has a very modern sound and I’m confident that it’s the perfect song for Eurovision.”

Wednesday 1st February 2012

It’s the first day of the second month of 2012, and Day 1 of our Eurovision 2012 blog – and things are certainly hotting up on the Eurovision 2012 front.

Seven entries have been selected so far to represent their nation in Baku, the capital city of last year’s winners Azerbaijan. The first two countries who made their selections before 2012 even kicked in were Switzerland (10th December 2011) and Albania (29th December 2011).

Once we were into the new year, Denmark became the first country to hold their national final, known locally as Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. The Danish final took place in Ålborg on Saturday 21st January, and nine hopefuls lined up to secure a place in the Eurovision Semi-Final in Baku. Emerging victorious was 21-year-old Soluna Samay with the song Should’ve Known Better. This decision was made by a public televote plus votes by five international juries from Norway, Russia, Germany, Azerbaijan, and Denmark itself.

Three internal selections occurred in France, Montenegro (after a two-year absence) and Macedonia. This means that no national finals are held – the state broadcaster merely selects the singer(s) and the song internally.

Last Wednesday (25th January) saw two events in the Eurovision calendar. Firstly, the allocations draw took place in the Buta Palace, Baku, to determine which country goes into which semi-final, plus whether each country is in the first half or the second half of their respective semi-final. There will be 43 countries competing this year, and 37 of them will have to go through the semi-final rounds on 22nd and 24th May, where ten countries from each of them will go through to the Final, joining the six already qualified countries, namely Azerbaijan, who won the contest last year and are this year’s hosts, plus the ‘Big 5’ countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. In addition, another draw was conducted to decide which of the six finalists will broadcast and vote in which semi-final. The results were as follows (but is not the running order):

… and which direct finalist will vote in and transmit which semi-final?

* German broadcaster NDR made a request to broadcast and vote in the 2nd Semi-Final for scheduling reasons. The EBU granted their request.

And also last Wednesday, the people of Cyprus chose the song La La Love to be their entry, which will be sung by former X Factor (Greek version) contestant, 18-year-old Ivi Adamou. Ivi has already released one album and six singles to date, and she performed all three songs in the Cypriot final last week.

The next national selection happens in Malta on Saturday 4th February.

As far as Ireland is concerned, five acts and five songs will be competing in the Late Late Eurosong Special, hosted by Ryan Tubridy, on Friday 24th February. I will bring you more news about that next week.