Introduction

• Participant(s): Brooke
• Song : That’s Rich
  
• Writer(s): Brooke Scullion, Izzy Warner, Karl Zine
• Composer(s): Brooke Scullion, Izzy Warner, Karl Zine
• Broadcaster: RTÉ
• Social media:    
  
• Team review: 

Luckily the Irish broadcaster RTE has decided to bring back a kind of national final. In the popular TV show “Eurovision 2022 Late Late Show Special” hosted by Ryan Tubridy. Out of five entries a national jury, an international jury and the Irish public have been able to determine the Irish representative for Turin. Last year’s entry “Maps” by Leslie Roy came last in the semi-final.

Brooke has been given the highest votes from the international jury and public, while the national jury put her song “That’s Rich” on the second last place. At the end it was enough for Brooke to win the ticket to Italy.

Brooke Scullion was born in Bellaghy, county Derry, Northern Ireland in 1999. During her school time she has performed in various musicals like Fame, Mama Mia! and Sister Act. Later she studied drama at the Ulster University at Magee. And she has always been a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest.

In 2020 she took part in The Voice UK, where she was the first candidate, who has received the first four-chair turn in the blind audition, the jurors have been fascinated by her great voice . At the end she could achieve the third place and became well-known in the UK and in Ireland.

Then she has been invited to take part in this year’s national final in the RTE Late Late show, among four other candidates to represent Ireland in Turin. With “That’s Rich”, Brooke is emphasizing not being satisfied with a person, who does not fulfil your needs. The optimistic and cheeky song will dig up this year’s ESC.



History

• Debut: 1965
• Participations: 55
• Victories: 7
• Finals: 45 (8 since 2004)
• Top 10: 31

For Ireland it’s going to be 55th time participating in the Eurovision Song Contest this year in Turin 2022. Ireland is still the most successful country in the ESC with seven victories, closely followed by Sweden with 6 victories. Additionally, Ireland still has the record of three successive victories 1992, 1993 and 1994. These 1990’s were the golden years of Ireland in the ESC history.

Unfortunately, the jaunty times of the top positions and victories 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, also the UK entries did not shape up that well anymore. 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 and it happens here and there that Ireland is not in the Grand Final anymore. Maybe it’s a mix of several reasons, a lack of good songs, contemporary compositions and the competition has become harder as well. Many people believe that the bad luck is also due to the opening to the Eastern European countries.

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. He could also 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 still relatively high with 56%. Ireland and the music from Ireland is mostly connected with ethnic 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). In recent years Ireland was mostly unsuccessful and did not pass the Semi Finals five times in a row. Beside of Ryan O’Shaughnessy with “Together” in Lisbon 2018, it was not possible anymore to reach the Grand Final.

Biggest success

• 7x 1st place
  “All Kinds Of Everything” | Dana (Amsterdam 1970) 
  “What's Another Year” |Johnny Logan (The Hague 1980)
  “Hold Me Now” | Johnny Logan (Brussels 1987)
  “Why Me” |Linda Martin (Malmö 1992)
  “In Your Eyes” | Niamh Kavanagh (Millstreet 1993)
  “Rock 'n' Roll Kids” |Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan (Dublin 1994)
  “The Voice” |Eimear Quinn (Oslo 1996)
• 4x 2nd place
  “If I Could Choose” |Sean Dunphy (Vienna 1967)
  “Terminal '3'” |Linda Martin (Luxembourg 1984)
  “Somewhere In Europe” |Liam Reilly (Zagreb 1990)
  “Mysterious Woman” |Marc Roberts (Dublin 1997)
• 1x 3rd place
  “It's Nice To Be In Love Again” |The Swarbriggs Plus Two (London 1977)

Video Nostalgia

• “Born To Sing” | Colm T. Wilkinson
  Rank 5, Paris 1978
• “You Can Count On Me” | Luv Bug
  Rank 4, Bergen 1986
• “We've Got The World” | Mickey Harte
  Rank 11, Riga 2003
  
  

First Rehearsal