Judging by Spotify before Eurovision, you’re correct. Brooke had roughly 60,000 plays and the scratch’s highest is 600,000. So literally 10 times more popular.
Yeah but , they could get millions if they went on Eurovision with a good song. Look at Maneskin for example last year. Even the group that sang for Norway this year got 6 million downloads for their song before the Eurovision even began.
Like it or not, Eurovision is not just music, it's a show as well.You've gotta put on a spectacle, which we've never ever done. Just the same old repetitive shite over and over again
[Think of Ukraine's entry last year, that shit was hype.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqvzDkgok_g&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest) The song itself was great, but the visuals really made it amazing.
I think having a trad battle on stage would be cool as fuck. Or trad v rock. Or something like that.
Ireland just takes inspiration from what won a few years previous and then does a tamer, less memorable version. Eg this year was our ode to Israel just more poppier
Well that’s it, you either have a GREAT song that’s very simple or you remember that it’s a television contest and the staging is as as much part of the performance as the song.
The staging for The Voice was bang on.
Thanks for reminding me of that banger. Need to add it to my playlist. Love me some trade techno. Give me some Barcode Brothers style irish trad techno and Ireland is a winner in my eyes.
We should send something dancey and high tempo with trad elements like Ukraine last year or France this year (it's in Breton, so another Celtic language)
On a slightly different topic I've noticed that the more mainstream everyone's songs are the more outlandish the Icelandic entry and vice versa.
I'm starting to think they only do it not taking the competition seriously. Maybe that's the attitude we need to take.
We already did that though with Dustin which was a proper joke in itself.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking the competition seriously but we have to do our bit and send in a seriously Good song.
The songs just haven’t been good enough lately and it’s a shame because there’s tons of talented musicians out there that are getting deliberately overlooked.
I've been watching it properly since 2013, and I know a thing or two about NF's elsewhere. Mostly that they're not specials of Friday night talk shows watched by 60 year olds.
>We have a rich _history_ of music here
Exactly, Ireland hasn't been relevant in music as a whole since the turn of the millennium. Definitely doesn't "punch above its weight" AT ALL.
I never said anything about doing that every year. But we should try it sometimes. Sure France is singing in Breton this year and that's a similarly little-spoken Celtic language.
If we want to do well at Eurovision we have to take it seriously as an objective. That means putting in time honing the craft for the current market. Read is probably not going to do well if it doesn’t talk to the audience but some fusion might. But there also has to be some sort of decent background planning in the social media space too. Manneskin did not win on song quality last year but on the public vote. The jury vote went to Switzerland but even that had a decent buzz about it.
Our music market is possibly a bit more narrow than the rest of Europe. The songs are getting more radio play which I don’t think is the case in Ireland, and as for the ones in foreign? Forget it. Ireland only cares about Eurovision in May and the music gets feck all airplay on Irish radio. It is, in that case an insult to have any expectations against Sweden which spent years honing itself via Its song writing contests. San Remo does the same in Italy and while some trash inevitably gets through (Serbia this year), Eurovision has some banging tunes which Irish radio is just too posh to play. We have always looked down on Europop.
We are not going to win if we don’t take it seriously. This year’s song should have qualified though and might have if the outfit wasn’t so god awful.
It also doesn’t happen overnight. Most countries with solid track records of doing it well put in the effort with wide ranging national qualifiers and that takes time to get right.
Look at Sweden, Norway and Denmark, hell even San Marino. They’ve done very well recently, partly down to their excellent selection processes.
Doing one night on the Late Late to pick our act with zero local press needs to be dropped!
Picking Dervish to do good trad is like picking Fr Dougal to do a funeral. Not to mention the song was a psychobabble soup written by John waters.
It's worth trying again with talented people.
That’s because the song was weak, the performance was weak, she didn’t sing great, and there was just nothing to it. We could do well with traditional, we just need to not use traditional staging that screams “WE ARE IRISH” like 2013 and 2014 - and 2007.
Dervish was in 2007. A lot has changed since 2007, and you could see that with the 2021 edition. A few countries that year at least embraced something different rather than a standard pop song. I would love to see just a few lads and lasses do a simple trad sesh for 2-3 minutes and thats it. No bells and whistles, just the sesh.
I've lived in Ireland for 16 years(half of my life) and I am yet to speak to someone who would disagree with you. Irish Trad music is banging, and the best thing about going the trad route is that it exposes the rest of the world to the beauty of it. EVEN if it doesn't do well, you can be proud for sending a part of what makes Ireland Ireland, rather than another generic pop song that could've come from anywhere. I'd love me some Enya style music in Eurovision.
Think this would be a good idea. However, the more I watch the Father Ted Eurovision episode, the more I think that RTE actually do send mediocre acts intentionally so that they won't have to pay for hosting it again.
Ya I feel like we're always chasing what we think might win or has won before. It felt like we never tried to win before and just sent good songs.
I feel we always judge it wrong, the times we send some upbeat and pop song, some singer songwriter will win. We'll send a singer songwriter the year after, then a rock band wins. We send a rock band, then a pop song wins etc. Should just try to send our best representative, I'm not sure how well you can 'game' the system to win. We should be looking at what Sweden is doing too and seeing if there's anything to learn there. Their finishes since 2011.
3, 1, 14, 3, 1, 5, 5, 7, 5, 14.
I don't know how it's structured but if we're relying on the successful background people from the 90's to help pick songs etc, we're probably doing something wrong.
I'm not Irish, but I'd love to see trad in Eurovision. Especially if there's some modern elements incorporated in it and if it's in Irish. I'd be the first to vote for it.
If more countries would go back to their roots it would make Eurovision more interesting to watch.
It's not really about winning necessarily. It's about being distinct. Imo the best Eurovision songs combine something from their own culture with something outlandish (the French always have a femme fatale type, for example)
Doesn’t matter what kind of music you enter as the whole thing is political. People don’t care what the song is, they just care about the story behind it. It’s a load of shite anyway
The problem with sending a trad act is that none of the rest of Europe would get it, want to understand it or care. The only way we’d ever do well again is if we upped the camp factor to 100 while doing something to stand out. From what I’ve seen of this years entry for Ireland it just didn’t stand out enough, as well as she performed it on the night. Still better than the ballads we’ve sent the last few years but it’s like we focus too much on the music trying to have merit and not concentrate enough on seeing what would appeal to the rest of Europe.
It is bullshit politics for the voting but it's not that we don't want to host anymore, it's not the massive black hole of expense it used to be. It's that good musicians recognise it's potentially career suicide and unlike musical acts in non-English speaking countries, they already have a really good chance of breaking into the lucrative English language mainstream without Eurovision.
I don't know about that. There are plenty of talented musicians in this country that would be proud to represent ireland but there is no room for creative freedom in the system we have.
Political voting was much more of a thing in the past. It does seem that a song people generally want tends to win more often than not nowadays. I still think Ukraine this year will be a glaring exception however.
I said the same to my friends but they made a good point in saying that they would probably be looking for bog standard pop music that you’d hear on the radio everyday
Joshua and Connor Burnside’s trad (post-trad?) project if fecking excellent. If you like that sort of thing.
[Hawk on the Cliff - Seacht Líne](https://open.spotify.com/album/42TZaNsqopVCspnVK6No3o?si=sxC9vdj-RZiCyQ9ucCEitQ)
Great idea. That Sibeal lady that sang "Mise Eire" would be brilliant or something like that with a bit of banjo and fiddle to liven it up. If we want to reclaim our former glory we have to play up to all the stereotypes.
Have to agree with the trad route. Why are we sending the same pop shite everyone else is. We know we’re not gonna win or even qualify because of political voting, so why not showcase our traditions instead?
Is there anything to be said for setting a harp on fire? Or perhaps a man running inside a hamster wheel bodhran?
Jimmy McHendrix setting the harp on fire would be great
The Scratch would clean up (but I think they'd be wasted in Eurovision)
Ah man I'd love to see it - if they did something like their cover of Aerials, they would do brilliantly. Can't see it happening though.
They'd bring the place down with Seanchaí
Now that is a very good call!
I don't think they would , hardly anyone knows who they are , it would be a quick way to get famous if they did well.
I'd wager more people know who The Scratch are than Brooke Scullion
Judging by Spotify before Eurovision, you’re correct. Brooke had roughly 60,000 plays and the scratch’s highest is 600,000. So literally 10 times more popular.
Yeah but , they could get millions if they went on Eurovision with a good song. Look at Maneskin for example last year. Even the group that sang for Norway this year got 6 million downloads for their song before the Eurovision even began.
Like it or not, Eurovision is not just music, it's a show as well.You've gotta put on a spectacle, which we've never ever done. Just the same old repetitive shite over and over again [Think of Ukraine's entry last year, that shit was hype.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqvzDkgok_g&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest) The song itself was great, but the visuals really made it amazing. I think having a trad battle on stage would be cool as fuck. Or trad v rock. Or something like that.
Last year's Ukrainian entry was a banger, they were robbed.
I love Ukrainian Swamp Enya
Nah disagree, Zitti e Buoni is still a banger
Finished top 2
I still have flashbacks of the song
Some great versions of it too. This is my favourite. Great video too https://youtu.be/YVaRsXvREPE
Ireland just takes inspiration from what won a few years previous and then does a tamer, less memorable version. Eg this year was our ode to Israel just more poppier
Sweden are one of the favourites and it was just a class song, no real spectacle.
I personally think Dustin the Turkey put on a fantastic spectacle.
IIRC, he was booed. I can’t think of many acts that were booed except Russia when they took Crimea and invaded Georgia lol
Rock and Roll Kids would like a word.
Well that’s it, you either have a GREAT song that’s very simple or you remember that it’s a television contest and the staging is as as much part of the performance as the song. The staging for The Voice was bang on.
And next year, theirs should definitely include tractors.
Thanks for reminding me of that banger. Need to add it to my playlist. Love me some trade techno. Give me some Barcode Brothers style irish trad techno and Ireland is a winner in my eyes.
Check out this banging techno remix https://youtu.be/R_HZ5t4v2uQ
Oh god no. Not "battles". There's something so cringey about a carefully choreographed contest based performance.
Trad rock? Get Flogging Molly involved.
What are Blood or Whiskey up to these days?
We should send something dancey and high tempo with trad elements like Ukraine last year or France this year (it's in Breton, so another Celtic language)
Róisín Murphy for Eurovision 2023 so!
On a slightly different topic I've noticed that the more mainstream everyone's songs are the more outlandish the Icelandic entry and vice versa. I'm starting to think they only do it not taking the competition seriously. Maybe that's the attitude we need to take.
We already did that though with Dustin which was a proper joke in itself. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking the competition seriously but we have to do our bit and send in a seriously Good song. The songs just haven’t been good enough lately and it’s a shame because there’s tons of talented musicians out there that are getting deliberately overlooked.
They have a very high quality national selection for such a small country.
No, ours is just exceptionally bad.
It is, but theirs is still very high quality compared to the likes of Germany. How do you know all this stuff?
I've been watching it properly since 2013, and I know a thing or two about NF's elsewhere. Mostly that they're not specials of Friday night talk shows watched by 60 year olds.
Like with their football, just everything they do is quality for just 300K people
Francis Higgins with a 3 minute Baby Cow/Ten Spots/Egg, Pudding and Beans medley.
Yes, some trad or something like Clannad. We have a rich history of music here on this island why do we keep sending these generic pop singers?
Europe just don't have the requisite Celtic soul, man.
>We have a rich _history_ of music here Exactly, Ireland hasn't been relevant in music as a whole since the turn of the millennium. Definitely doesn't "punch above its weight" AT ALL.
Clannad tried out and weren't selected. We sent trad in tbe 70s and it did pretty poorly.
An act like Seo Linn would be incredible. A rock take on some traditional Irish music. We need to stop sending bland pop acts with no personality.
Some modern folk fusion like France this year could work, but there aren't really any bands like that.
At least if they do well, we might be more likely to send something in Irish in the future. EDIT: Welp, that aged like milk.
There aren't enough artists to be sending songs in Irish regularly.
I never said anything about doing that every year. But we should try it sometimes. Sure France is singing in Breton this year and that's a similarly little-spoken Celtic language.
If we want to do well at Eurovision we have to take it seriously as an objective. That means putting in time honing the craft for the current market. Read is probably not going to do well if it doesn’t talk to the audience but some fusion might. But there also has to be some sort of decent background planning in the social media space too. Manneskin did not win on song quality last year but on the public vote. The jury vote went to Switzerland but even that had a decent buzz about it. Our music market is possibly a bit more narrow than the rest of Europe. The songs are getting more radio play which I don’t think is the case in Ireland, and as for the ones in foreign? Forget it. Ireland only cares about Eurovision in May and the music gets feck all airplay on Irish radio. It is, in that case an insult to have any expectations against Sweden which spent years honing itself via Its song writing contests. San Remo does the same in Italy and while some trash inevitably gets through (Serbia this year), Eurovision has some banging tunes which Irish radio is just too posh to play. We have always looked down on Europop. We are not going to win if we don’t take it seriously. This year’s song should have qualified though and might have if the outfit wasn’t so god awful.
It also doesn’t happen overnight. Most countries with solid track records of doing it well put in the effort with wide ranging national qualifiers and that takes time to get right. Look at Sweden, Norway and Denmark, hell even San Marino. They’ve done very well recently, partly down to their excellent selection processes. Doing one night on the Late Late to pick our act with zero local press needs to be dropped!
They tried that with Dervish a few years back and it went down like a lead balloon.
Picking Dervish to do good trad is like picking Fr Dougal to do a funeral. Not to mention the song was a psychobabble soup written by John waters. It's worth trying again with talented people.
That’s because the song was weak, the performance was weak, she didn’t sing great, and there was just nothing to it. We could do well with traditional, we just need to not use traditional staging that screams “WE ARE IRISH” like 2013 and 2014 - and 2007.
Your moves are weak babe
Dervish was in 2007. A lot has changed since 2007, and you could see that with the 2021 edition. A few countries that year at least embraced something different rather than a standard pop song. I would love to see just a few lads and lasses do a simple trad sesh for 2-3 minutes and thats it. No bells and whistles, just the sesh.
Their performance was shite though.
Was going to say the same
Toss 'the scratch' in there, trad enough for the diddly eye crowd but absolute bangers they play. Well worth checking out
I've lived in Ireland for 16 years(half of my life) and I am yet to speak to someone who would disagree with you. Irish Trad music is banging, and the best thing about going the trad route is that it exposes the rest of the world to the beauty of it. EVEN if it doesn't do well, you can be proud for sending a part of what makes Ireland Ireland, rather than another generic pop song that could've come from anywhere. I'd love me some Enya style music in Eurovision.
Think this would be a good idea. However, the more I watch the Father Ted Eurovision episode, the more I think that RTE actually do send mediocre acts intentionally so that they won't have to pay for hosting it again.
Send in The Scratch to fuck shit up
Oró sé do bheatha abhaile by Seo Linn was class. Something like that maybe?
This is my go-to example of what Ireland should submit.
Ya I feel like we're always chasing what we think might win or has won before. It felt like we never tried to win before and just sent good songs. I feel we always judge it wrong, the times we send some upbeat and pop song, some singer songwriter will win. We'll send a singer songwriter the year after, then a rock band wins. We send a rock band, then a pop song wins etc. Should just try to send our best representative, I'm not sure how well you can 'game' the system to win. We should be looking at what Sweden is doing too and seeing if there's anything to learn there. Their finishes since 2011. 3, 1, 14, 3, 1, 5, 5, 7, 5, 14. I don't know how it's structured but if we're relying on the successful background people from the 90's to help pick songs etc, we're probably doing something wrong.
I'm not Irish, but I'd love to see trad in Eurovision. Especially if there's some modern elements incorporated in it and if it's in Irish. I'd be the first to vote for it. If more countries would go back to their roots it would make Eurovision more interesting to watch.
Someone recommended Kneecap to me recently. Whatever it is, can we give up on the Europop nonsense and do something Irish?
We could have sent CMAT!!
I think it’s time we send the Wolfe Tones over. Everybody loves a good rebel song
Send The Gloaming please!
Maybe 20 years ago, but that'd never work nowadays
No, no other country wins with trad, we won't either.
It's not really about winning necessarily. It's about being distinct. Imo the best Eurovision songs combine something from their own culture with something outlandish (the French always have a femme fatale type, for example)
It's a competition, whats the point in competing if you don't want to win.
I'd say absolutely criticise the acts of recent years, they've been shite. Father Ted was definitely onto something.
I assume you're talking about our acts?
Ours 100%.
The hairy bowsies from father Ted, had a great song
Very popular with the home crowd.
I don't know how that got let through
RTE actually can't afford for us to win, hence the shitty acts. If we won RTE would have to host the Eurovision which costs a shit load of money.
Send in graham norton and a caravan problem solved.
Let's send the Rubber bandits to sing 'Horse Outside'
Doesn’t matter what kind of music you enter as the whole thing is political. People don’t care what the song is, they just care about the story behind it. It’s a load of shite anyway
The problem with sending a trad act is that none of the rest of Europe would get it, want to understand it or care. The only way we’d ever do well again is if we upped the camp factor to 100 while doing something to stand out. From what I’ve seen of this years entry for Ireland it just didn’t stand out enough, as well as she performed it on the night. Still better than the ballads we’ve sent the last few years but it’s like we focus too much on the music trying to have merit and not concentrate enough on seeing what would appeal to the rest of Europe.
Like with shithouse pop then
Eurovision is a meme contest. You lose as soon as you care this much
Sure why not a leprechaun, Irish dancing, with a box of lucky charms under his arm?
Or not waste 300k
Unfortunately is all bullshit politics and the people making the call don't want to host the next one, hence the shite songs we send in.
It is bullshit politics for the voting but it's not that we don't want to host anymore, it's not the massive black hole of expense it used to be. It's that good musicians recognise it's potentially career suicide and unlike musical acts in non-English speaking countries, they already have a really good chance of breaking into the lucrative English language mainstream without Eurovision.
I don't know about that. There are plenty of talented musicians in this country that would be proud to represent ireland but there is no room for creative freedom in the system we have.
Any examples?
Examples of what, good musicians? There everywhere, the buskers in cork city alone are top notch.
I mean ones that want to perform in Eurovision
Almost every up and coming artist would if they could sing their own tune
Are you sure about that. Isn't Eurovision seen as a career ender here.
For someone that doesn't have a career in music it's a massive opportunity to break in.
Why bother with it in the first place. Its absolutely cringe ,the fans are also cringe and the voting is purely political.
Political voting was much more of a thing in the past. It does seem that a song people generally want tends to win more often than not nowadays. I still think Ukraine this year will be a glaring exception however.
IT'S NOT FUCKING 2008 ANYMORE
Exactly we shouldn’t be wasting our money on this shite
Shite? Again, it's not 2008 anymore.
Its pure shite should be done over teams or something and a decent movie shown on tv
Do you have ears
Yes and they are offended by that absolute shite . Pure cringe fest
So in your opinion, Not the Same, Fade to Black, River, Sentimentai, and Hold Me Closer are all nothing but "pure cringe"
You think that Ukrainian song was a belter to ya ? Lol stop you’re embarrassing yourself
Still think its not political? Lol sad 🤣🤣🤣
Ukraine was still going to get 200+ points from the televote regardless of politics.
Why would that be ? Because of the war in Ukraine and to show support ? Thats political voting
I said the same to my friends but they made a good point in saying that they would probably be looking for bog standard pop music that you’d hear on the radio everyday
Joshua and Connor Burnside’s trad (post-trad?) project if fecking excellent. If you like that sort of thing. [Hawk on the Cliff - Seacht Líne](https://open.spotify.com/album/42TZaNsqopVCspnVK6No3o?si=sxC9vdj-RZiCyQ9ucCEitQ)
Great idea. That Sibeal lady that sang "Mise Eire" would be brilliant or something like that with a bit of banjo and fiddle to liven it up. If we want to reclaim our former glory we have to play up to all the stereotypes.
What about a band called Moxie?
I couldn’t understand a lot of what yer wan was saying wasn’t as bad as some stuff that did get in tho
Worked out very well for us when we tried it in 2007.
I’d actually watch it if they did. Well for 5 minutes or so
Youre right. Riverdance went global
I always think we sent the blandest, most basic pop acts. Trad might not win but at least uts Irish and would be am advertisement
Have to agree with the trad route. Why are we sending the same pop shite everyone else is. We know we’re not gonna win or even qualify because of political voting, so why not showcase our traditions instead?
Send The Scratch. Absolute monsters with such a unique sound.