Introduction

The Irish entry has been chosen in Ireland’s most popular and prestigious TV show called “The Late Late Show” hosted by Ryan Tubridy. Like in the years before this entertainment show has “Eurovision” as topic once a year and the Irish pre selection takes place.

There were five contestants in the run, the nationwide juries as well as the TV viewers were able to vote for the Irish representative in Vienna. The show itself is always very nice to watch with a lot of music and live singing. At the end the mood went out of bend, which has turned the watchers attention away from the average music quality of the songs in the contest. The choice of majority of the songs was not the best, but one outstanding song could convince the audience the most, which seems to be the best choice for Ireland this year within the given borders.

The 16 year’s old Molly Sterling, who was born in Puckane, County Tipperary, Ireland (south west centre) in 1999. In the moment she is going to the St. Andrew’s College in Dublin. Since 2012 she was involved in the Irish music scene, won several awards and prices. Her first song “Strands Of Hearts” has been released in 2014.

With her victory at the Irish national final, a dream for Molly comes true to sing and play in front of a huge audience at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. Her natural and unpretentious attitude will grant her a lot of attention.

Her self-composed love song “Playing With Numbers” is a wonderful pop ballad with a great harmony and approach – very sophisticated though. With this song Ireland is back to its old successful roots of success. Due to the fact that there is an overhang of ballads this year, the best melody and arrangement will make the difference at the end. This an Irish entry the Irish can be proud of.

History

Debut: 1965
Participations: 49
Finals: 44
Top 10: 31
Chance for Top 10: 63%

It the 49th time for Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest this year in Vienna. Ireland is still the most successful countries in the ESC with 7 victories. A record of three victories year after year (1992 – 1994) is still unbroken.

Unfortunately, the golden times of the top positions is over. This is due to several reasons e.g. the language rule was tilt in 1999, so from that year every participating country was able to sing in English or a language of preference. The unique advantage of the English speaking countries has gone. Furthermore the general interest has decreased dramatically thanks to the launch of the Semi Finals in 2004. Now Ireland has to go through the qualification process every year.

In the track record there is of course Johnny Logan, who could win two times as a singer with “What's Another Year” in 1980 and “Hold Me Now” in 1987. In 1992 he could win another time as a composer of “Why Me” sung by Linda Martin in 1992.

The chances for Ireland to be in the Top10 are relatively high with 63%. Ireland and the music from Ireland is mostly connect with Folk music and ballads. There were several attempts over the years to bring modern pop music. Best example here is Jedward who could bring new spirit into the contest with “Lipstick” in 2011 (8th place) and “Waterline” in 2012 (19th place).