Since Ireland won the Eurovision Song Contest four times in a five-year period, it has embraced the title of ‘Most Successful Eurovision Country Ever,’ with an impressive seven wins in total. Since the most recent win in 1996, however, the Song Contest has rarely been kind. The once proud Eurovision nation has become one of the poorest performers with only one Grand Final appearance in the last decade. In Liverpool,, Ireland’s poor performance was thrown into sharp relief with Loreen’s win for Sweden resulting in Ireland no longer sitting alone at the top of the gold medal table
This, coupled with Wild Youth’s failure to qualify and a frustrating response from the Head of Delegation not addressing the fundamental issues behind the result, leads to a simple thought…
What went wrong?
Top Of The World
To fully understand why Ireland is where it is now, it is first important to understand how it managed to be so successful. Irish national broadcaster RTE debuted at Eurovision in 1965, where the country finished sixth. Between 1965 and 1998, Ireland only failed to reach the top ten on five occasions. Throughout the same period, the only broadcaster with a more successful track record was the United Kingdom’s BBC, who during these years only finished outside the top ten twice. It’s no surprise that these two supremely successful countries predominantly performed in English (along with Malta). On the one occasion Ireland sent a song in Irish, ‘Ceol an Ghrá’ in 1972, it finished fifteenth.
The style of music that Ireland sent throughout these years is also important. Although there was the occasional upbeat entry, ballads featured heavily, with little in the way of lighter material. In short, Ireland was entering songs which very much appealed to national juries when there was no public vote at all.
As the Twentieth Century drew to a close, it was clear that the Irish had a winning formula. Contestants sang ballads in English and the various juries found these types of entries irresistible.
Three Major Changes
Everything started to change in 1997 with the dawn of televoting. In this year, only five countries used this new system, but the following year it became the norm, with jury voters being the backup option if a country was unable to have a successful televote.
In 1999 another significant change hit the Song Contest which would have a more obvious impact on Ireland… the lifting of the language rule that stated that contestants must sing in one of the national languages of their country. The Contest had dabbled with lifting this restriction in the mid-1970s, which is likely to have helped both ABBA and Teach-In storm to victory with their English language pop hits, before reverting back to artists needing to sing in one of their national languages from 1977.
In 1999, twelve out of the 23 participating artists sang solely in English, with a further two in a mixture of English and another language. Only nine stuck to a national language. Ireland finished seventeenth; the lowest-scoring song in English and Ireland’s second-lowest placing ever at that time.
Singing in English around the turn of the Millennium proved to be a successful formula for everyone. In 1999, the average number of points given to a song purely in English was 68.1, and to songs not in English, 31.6.
The pattern continued. In 2000 English-only songs scored an average of 77.4 points, compared to 17.7 for songs with no English. It was 53.9 to 39.7 in 2001 and 64.7 to 51.6 in 2002. After this point, things did even out and songs sung in a language other than English did start to become more competitive, although it wasn’t until 2007 that the first non-English language song would win since the lifting of the restriction. By this time, however, the damage to Ireland’s linguistic advantage was done.
The third and final major change to the contest was more gradual, but maybe the most significant, and that was the expansion into Eastern Europe.
The Eurovision Song Contest had been very central-west European-centric. From 1956 until 1997, of the 45 winners, 27 of them (sixty percent) had come from the UK, Ireland, France or the Low Countries. The Scandinavian countries, apart from arguably Sweden, had failed to make a significant impact to the top of leaderboards, and the few eastern European countries: Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Yugoslavia brought local flavour to the Song Contest but seldom did well, although Israel proved an exception here.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of communism, and the disintegration of both Yugoslavia and the USSR changed all of that. From 1993 the number of countries eligible for Eurovision rocketed, and Eurovision became a real chance to showcase talent from ‘New Europe’ to the world. For eight consecutive years, from 2001 to 2008, a country won Eurovision that had never won before, including four times by a country from the former Soviet Union. In the 2007 Grand Final, not a single country from Western Europe finished in the Top 16.
The Eurovision Song Contest had changed for good.
An Irish Lament
There were new challenges for some of the older and more established broadcasters. Ireland’s RTE lost the competitive advantage that it had treasured previously. Why has RTE performed poorly in the Contest since its now unthinkable four wins in five years?
Denial (1999-2006)
Ireland, as discussed previously, had a lot of success with ballads, and despite the Song Contest significantly changing, RTE continued to send the type of song that had served i well before. ‘Millennium Of Love’ finished a respectable sixth in 2000, but the following year ‘Without Your Love’ saw Ireland fail to make the Top 20 for the first time ever…which led to the country needing to miss 2002 due to the pre-Semi Finals relegation rule to control the number of broadcasters taking part on the Saturday night.
In 2003, Ireland moved to a new selection show, You’re A Star, where viewers were given a selection of songs to pick from. Every one of the songs available in this selection process was a ballad. Mickey Jo Harte’s ‘We’ve Got The World’ was selected. Undeterred, another male ballad was sent in 2004, before ‘Love?’, yet another ballad (albeit a slightly questionable brother/sister ballad) crashed out in the Semi Finals in 2005.
In 2006, Ireland abandoned You’re A Star, and internally selected Bryan Kennedy. The public were, however, given a choice of song for him to sing. Yet again, the three options were all ballads. ‘Every Song Is A Cry For Love’ did manage to finish tenth at that year’s Eurovision Song Contest, but it felt like a song from a different era. A change was needed. Ireland was playing 2000s Eurovision with a 1990s strategy, and it was not working.
The trouble was, there was no strategy to move on to.
Panic (2007-2013)
In some ways, 2007 is one of Ireland’s bravest entries. Again, RTE went internal but this time selected Dervish, a well-established traditional Irish group. ‘They Can’t Stop The Spring’ unfortunately finished last in the Grand Final in Helsinki. As mentioned earlier, 2007 was a difficult year for Western European countries, and it’s interesting to consider what would have happened in later years if Dervish had done better. Ireland had ditched the ballads for something traditional, but this had not worked either.
What happened the following year, however, no one was expecting.
Largely unknown outside of Ireland, Dustin the Turkey was a puppet with a long history of subversive comedy and hit singles in his home country. ‘Irelande Douze Points’ is a fascinating entry into Ireland’s Eurovision history. It’s a high-energy dance number (although it starts with all the hallmarks of a traditional Irish ballad), that comes across like a joke entry. Behind the silliness, it’s a song full of desperation and bitterness asking ‘Oh Europe, where did it all go wrong?’ and lyrics about block voting. It ends with with Dustin rattling off a list of Eastern European countries, and asking where did it all go wrong indeed?
The bravado associated with ‘Irelande Douze Points’ doesn’t ring true. Often with entries from Portugal, or Georgia, or Albania, it feels as if songs have been sent because they are popular domestically, and whereas these countries don’t want to do badly at Eurovision, they are more interested in sending something authentic to their national music scene. Ireland is not one of these countries. The Irish are immensely proud of their Eurovision history and Dustin the Turkey has always felt like a shriek of desperation rather than comic satire.
This is evident two years later. After trying satire, it was back to the 90s ballads and another disappointing result with Niamh Kavanagh. You don’t send a former Eurovision winner if you don’t care about doing well in the Content. Niamh finished twenty-third.
Yet another approach came in 2011 when Jedward entered and won Eurosong, the selection show that is used today. They were hugely popular in Dusseldorf and finished eighth, Ireland’s best result since 2000. Jedward wanted to compete the following year, but rather than giving them the gig, they had to go through Eurosong again.
For a second time they won and made the final in Baku. Jedward were perfect for the Eurovision of the early 2010s: a bit camp, full of character, with a catchy song and a confident performance. Far from being joke entries, particularly ‘Lipstick’ has become an iconic entry. Lessons weren’t learnt, however, and in 2013 Ireland sent a generic dance entry. It finished last in the Grand Final.
It’s difficult to understand what the strategy was during this period. From taking the Contest as a joke one minute, to sending former winners the next, none of it makes any sense. The straightforward conclusion to make is that there was no strategy or long-term plan.
Nothing Left But Fear (2014-2023)
By 2014, Eurosong was well established as the selection process and 2014 and 2015 both resulted in very safe entries being sent to the contest. There is nothing offensive about ‘Heartbeat’ or ‘Playing with Numbers’, but nothing that makes either entry stand out. Neither reached the Grand Final.
Another change of approach was needed, and in 2016 Nicky Byrne was selected. Formerly of Westlife he would be one of the biggest stars on the Eurovision stage, and the thinking was surely that the name recognition would give Ireland a boost. However, the approach actually hadn’t really changed. An inoffensive entry, ‘Sunlight’ failed to qualify, and since this point, this has been Ireland’s approach. Too scared to send anything that might generate negative views in voters, and this has led to poor results year after year.
Fast-forward to today. In February 2023 Wild Youth were selected to perform in Liverpool, a city with a large Irish community. ‘We Are One’ was a vaguely anthemic, but totally generic pop song that failed to stand out. The act was given a one-in-six chance of getting through the Semi Final and when Ireland failed to qualify it came as a shock to nobody other than Wild Youth themselves.
The band reacted emotionally, sharing a story on social media blaming political voting on their failure to progress. It’s hard to believe that neither the band, nor RTE saw this coming: from the lacklustre song, to the bizarre styling choices, and the very shaky performance, the truth was that this song was never going to gain the support it needed in what was undoubtedly a strong Semi Final.
A Glimmer Of Hope
Things look bad for Ireland currently, and there is very little evidence to suggest that RTE is being honest about where it currently is. Yet there are two entries from recent years that give some hope for the future.
The first, unsurprisingly, is Ryan O’Shaughnessy who performed in 2018 with an authentic, self-composed ballad. ‘Together’ is Ireland’s sole qualifier since 2013 and deservedly so, demonstrating that if your song and performance is good enough then you will succeed.
The second is Brooke in 2022. Although she didn’t qualify through to Saturday night, ‘That’s Rich’ is an unspectacular but fun song, her personality and performance made her a fan favourite and the song did feel true to the artist. With a stronger song and more experience, qualification would not have been off the table for Brooke.
Ireland is a country with a rich and varied musical heritage, and the suggestion that there is a widespread dislike for Ireland is nowhere close to being true. The Eurovision Song Contest community want Ireland to do well, and it is frustrating to see a country with such great history at the contest struggle to do perform. What RTE need to do is think very carefully about the kind of country that they want to be in the Contest and plan for success.
With the right approach and commitment, there is no reason why they cannot win for an eighth time and reclaim the top spot on the Eurovision table.
Fire Michael Kealy for starters, if they don’t do that then just withdraw for our own self respect.
I cant get over how there are people out there with (presumably) a working brain actually trying to suggest that Ireland are disliked, taking delusion to a whole new level.
My favorite part about when broadcasters/heads of delegations make excuses and lay blame for poor showings is that they NEVER EVER say “yep, we need to look internally–WE are to blame”…every good coach always takes the blame after a hard defeat, but the list of who Ireland blames is often long and never includes RTÉ or the HoD himself.
Here is the reality:
–Wild Youth’s song peaked at #93 in Ireland so if Ireland is not supporting the song–why would the rest of Europe
–The Late Late Show being the platform to present the songs is not an excuse–even Czechia studios looked worse and they managed a qualifier
–at this year’s national final The international jury identified another song as the winner but both the local jury and the Irish televote went with the more known act and not the best song
–Even the local jury in Ireland bent themselves into a pretzel to compliment their performance at the national final and eventually awarded them top marks for them being ‘a proper band’
–The song did not have USP–it felt broad and generic versus trying to appeal to a certain listener–who was their target audience? how were they charting their own lane in the contest? who would pick up the phone for this?
–the days of message songs are long gone–if you want your song to say something profound, you have to be very bold or do so in a more artful way
–the staging was ill-conceived…let’s spend money on a dual staircase platform to only come down one side for the first 10 seconds and never use that again…let’s touch the floor for some cool effect that means nothing…let’s blanket the stage with pyro for the sake of pyro
–the performance was subpar–voice was acceptable, but most other time the mic was not even near his mouth and you still heard backing track so it sounded like he was mimicking
–the styling was a…choice…why would you go all glittery gold? it felt like a poor man’s Harry Styles…in fact the styling kept getting worse from national selection, to music video to Eurovision stage
–very tough semi–maybe in Semi 2, this could’ve squeaked by–maybe in another year…but the songs in this semi were too good and too unique and the winner of the contest might come from this semi and the top 10 of the year might be filled with songs from this semi
–too many bands in this semi made it hard for them to stand out
–and finally…the thing that anyone could talk about…Ireland who gave us Dustin the Turkey, now gave us Camel the Toe…did no one have a mirror?!?!?!
I think if they had picked Connolly Midnightnight Summer Night internally, had done a killer video that the Eurovision bubble would’ve supported that song wildly and Ireland would’ve qualified.
RTÉ obviously didn’t read the memo which clearly stated, in big letters – the contest has changed, significantly. It’s no longer a 3 minutes song on the stage but you have to create interest and buzz for your song, from the moment it has been anounced till the moment it has reached the stage.
If your song doesn’t have the buzz it will fail.
Placing the blame on the fact that everyone is singing in English is just ridiculous because non- English songs are doing quite well. This year 8 songs in different lunagages have qualified, with Spain and Italy we had 10 non- English songs in the final. 3 of them finished in the top 10. In the last decade we had at least 3 non-English winners. And in 2022, 4 of the top 5, were non- English songs. It seems that singing in a different language than English, gives you some kind of advantage.
Saying that ballads don’t do well, in the
contest, is just rubbish. All you have to do is look at the winners in the last decade- 3 maybe 4 songs were ballads. And through the decade we have ballads placed in the top 10. So the ballad as a genere is not the issue.
At the end it all comes down to the song. You must have a song that create interest , a song, which I as a listener would like to hear again an again.and eventually willing to spend money on it a vote for it. A song which excite me. A song which dare to be different, because safe songs don’t do well in the modern contest.
I won’t try to defend RTÉ’s risible processes in recent years. Giving the selection to TG4 and sending a few songs as gaelige would be my preference. This year’s runner-up in the Irish selection is an Irish speaking singer-songwriter and I could see her doing very well if the broadcaster would give her an chance.
As for Sweden tying Ireland with televote victories, they’ve won the GrandFinal televote exactly twice: 1999 and 2012 (and Loreen barely beat the Babushki in the televote!). Sweden’s skewed their tallies heavily toward juries “in the televote era.”
Ireland’s 4 winners in the 1990s weren’t all ballad: just because a song isn’t a banger, doesn’t make it a ballad. “Rock and Roll Kids” certainly is a ballad: it was also very different from the two pop songs that one in 92 and 92. The Voice, if anything, is the first ethnopop winner of the Eurovision: it was (like Norway the year before) the first winner obviously staged for TV rather than for the audience in the arena. And one thing Ireland should be given credit for in the 90s was not relying on a single genre: they sent a range of entries and artists, but their pool of experienced artists who saw the Eurovision as an honour and opportunity (rather than a risk) withered after 1996.
Truth be told you have to go big or go home. RTE are afraid to take risks. The second, third and even fourth placers in this years national final would have done better than the generic act they sent. The international jury and Esc fans in the audience told them to send Connolly and they are rarely wrong. I would love to be involved in the selection. I think it’s time to go fully authentic and send Irish folk singer Lisa O’Neill with a real local accented lilt to her voice. Surely RTE know they have to change and send authentic based music and no more throwaway pop