Introduction

Like in former years Ireland had a small and cosy national selection which is a special dedicated episode of the popular Late Late Show hosted by Ryan Tubridy on RTE. The show normally also has some special guests like the Irish commentator  and some show act, this time it was a quite unusual contribution: Lordi, the hard rock winner 2006 for Finland. The five competing songs have all been pop songs, nothing really special or outstanding, beside one song half Turkish, half English called “Son Kez”. Among this contest there was one candidate with the majority of fans: Ryan Dolan with the song “Only Love Survives”. He has been the clear winner of the night. The votes have been a combination of jury votes and televotes by the Irish public.

Ryan was born in the county Tyrone (Northern Ireland) and has been already supporting Jedward and has been discovered by Wez Devine, with whom he co-wrote the song “Only Love Survives”. The song has immediately reached the Top 20 iTunes pop charts in Ireland. Unfortunately, there has been a negative campaign from competitor’s fans on Ryan’s YouTube channel, which has received a lot of media attention. At the end this negative campaign has transformed to something positive for him and the Irish people wanted Ryan to go to Malmö.

Judged by the video clip, the Irish entry has a great potential, a cool sound and a great melody, if this can be transferred on stage it will be strong entry. A young charismatic singer with a positive message “Only Love Survives” will definitely convince the younger crowd.

History

Participations: 47

Debut: 1965

Biggest success: 7x 1st place “All Kinds Of Everything” by Dana in 1970, “What’s Another Year” by Johnny Logan in 1980, “Hold Me Now” by Johnny Logan in  1987, “Why Me” by Linda Martin in 1992, “In Your Eyes” by Niamh Kavanagh in 1993, “Rock’n’Roll Kids” by Paul Harrington & Charlie Mc Gettigan in 1994, “The Voice” by Eimaer Quinn in 1996, 4x 2nd place “If I Could Choose” by Sean Dunphy in 1967, “Terminal 3” by Linda Martin in 1984, “Somewhere In Europe” by Liam Reilly in 1990 and “Mysterious Woman” by Marc Roberts in 1997,  1x 3rd place “It’s Nice To Be In Love Again” by The Swarbriggs Plus Two, 3x 4th place, 3x 5th place, 3x 6th place, 2x 7th place, 2x 8th place, 2x 9th place, 4x 10th place

For 47th time Ireland is participating in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Ireland is still the most successful countries in the ESC with seven victories since 1970. The absolute record could be achieved in the 90’s when Ireland won three times after another, and when Norway won in 1995, Ireland could win another time after that in 1996. The winning songs were: “All Kinds Of Everything” by Dana in 1970, “What's Another Year” by Johnny Logan in 1980, “Hold Me Now” by Johnny Logan in 1987, “Why Me” by Linda Martin in 1992, “In Your Eyes” by Niamh Kavanagh in 1993, “Rock 'n' Roll Kids” by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan in 1994 and “The voice” by Eimear Quinn in 1996. The other Irish record is named Johnny Logan; he won the ESC twice as a singer and once as a composer. 

On the top of that there were quite good rankings, four second places one third and many more top 10 places. Since the semi finals have been introduced, Ireland made it six times out of 9 into the grand final. It also shows that traditional ballads and pop from Ireland has the highest chance to qualify. The big passion for music can particularly be found in Ireland, where music can be heard everywhere on the streets and in the local pubs.