Ireland’s dark decade continued last night – so how can we turn things around for next year?
THE WRITING WAS on the wall for Ireland as countries like Switzerland and Czechia were added to the list of ten countries progressing from last night’s Eurovision Song Contest semi-final at the Liverpool Arena.
She’ll have stiff competition from Finland’s Käärijä, who, with his distinctive costume, trademark snarl and a mesmerising, nightmarish stage show has been capturing the imagination of fans both here in Liverpool and online . “It was a lovely song – it just felt a bit kind-of generic, but they really did a great job in the arena and got a really great reception,” Cian O’Mahony, from Bandon, said as he exited the venue.
A dramatic re-think Philly McMahon is a co-director with theatre production company THISISPOPBABY. In addition to being a longtime Eurovision fan, he also worked as creative director for Ireland’s act in 2020, Lesley Roy, before the Covid-related cancellation of that year’s contest. McMahon is keen to make clear he’s not arguing for RTÉ’s longstanding head of delegation, Michael Kealy, to be be replaced.
“What you’re seeing is that nothing feels grounded or authentic as to what’s happening in the music scene in Ireland because we have this raucous, brilliant, fun musical history – and present. “What I believe will start to happen then is that actually Eurovision will become part of the bedrock of the Irish music calendar. What you’re not getting currently is buy-in from our sophisticated songwriters and I think what we’ve done wrong in the past is trying to find something that is packaged and ready to go.
Over eight million tweets were sent in the week of the contest last year, and posts on the contest’s official Instagram account were seen 255 million times. Tiktok, now in its second year as the official ‘entertainment partner’ for the contest, is reporting a staggering three billion views for its #Eurovision2022 hashtag.
“Staging is about creativity and what we often do with Eurovision – and I’m thinking of this year and last year – is that we create a pop music TV arena moment. Many of the Irish fans who’ve made the short hop across the Irish Sea are sticking around for the entire week, some to reconnect with friends from other countries that they’ve met at contests in previous years.
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