The Late Late Show Eurosong 2014 Special (February 28th)

grey_so_what

Skid X wrote: »

"It was like driving a car with no brakes going down a hill. I quite like that. It's live.

And that's what everyone wants. They should take it back to its roots, and have an LLS with the audience heard as well as seen.

Says the man who nearly has a palpitation when his cue cards are out of order.

He'd want to do a couple of "audience participation" classes in the local tech. first...

1700+ posts Skid!....:eek:

Go Harvey Go

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

If all the Irish entry into the Eurovision seems to create in recent years is fighting and animosity and with the prospect of us winning it very remote anyway, would it be better off not to enter it at all?

I myself asked that question at first - but then I thought, "RTE might not want to win it, but they clearly still want to take part."

And I suppose we can't really fault them for the latter.

If only they'd take their lips away from the buttocks of L. Walsh, L. Martin, H. Kaneswaran, M. Farrell etc etc etc...

(Mods, feel free to edit that if you feel I overstepped the mark. )

First off, there was controversy over the 1995 song 'Dreaming' by Eddie Friel as being a copy of a 1970s song called 'Moonlight' and it also very like a 1950s song called 'My love'. In the end, Friel finished 'poorly for Ireland' (if only we did as well as he did now!!!).

Finishing 14th would no doubt have felt like a massive disappointment for many people - but then I'm pretty sure that RTE did not want to host the Eurovision for the fourth year running...

And the winning act was still half-Irish - although Fionnuala Sherry seemed perfectly happy to represent Norway.

MJH scored better the next time (Ireland missed a year from it in 2002) in 2003 with a mid ranking position and it justified the You're a Star (Eurostar?) machine. However, Chris Doran and Donna & Joe fared worse, up against a strong crop of Eastern Europeans in 2004 and 2005.

Some people were disappointed by Mickey Joe's 11th-place finish in '03, although in all fairness he stood no chance against Sertab Erener.

And in '04, we really should have sent George Murphy with his Luke Kelly voice, or Jean Elliott and her fast-paced summery song. While neither would have fared much better against Ruslana, they would have almost certainly scored more points than Chris did with his run-of-the-mill ballad...

Brian Kennedy revived us in 2006 for sure, but in subsequent years, it was all downhill with Dustin the canvas bag being our nadir of the tournament.

Dustin the Canvas Bag! I like that.

Jedward did us proud by cracking the top 10 in 2011, our best showing since 2006.

Brian Kennedy only came 10th - which meant that the Grimes' 8th-place finish was in fact Ireland's best showing since 2000, when Eamonn Toal came 6th.

They hadn't a hope in hell against Loreen the following year, however.

The present belongs to Eastern Europe, the future to a moderate Iran and a greater Eastern Europe encompassing much of a post-war Middle East.

Well, the present belongs to Eastern Europe and Scandinavia - Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark all having won it in the last eight years.

And there's still hope for the Western nations - Lena took Germany to victory in 2010, of course, and Italy finished second the following year having not taken part at all for over a decade beforehand.

Iran is only an associate member country of the EBU - only if it becomes a full member country will it be allowed to take part in the Eurovision. And at the moment, that's a pretty big 'if'.

The same can be said for Oman, Qatar and Syria.

Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, meanwhile, aren't even associate member countries...

For Reals

We must remember......The Eurovision doesn't belong to RTE. They are merely charged with broadcasting it.
The fact that RTE plays any significant roll in deciding who gets on the panels, who mentors, (or even the copy cat talent show format as it stands) based on other RTE shows, who writes the songs based on connections with all of the above, is wrong. We've just gotten use to it.
RTE are the national broadcaster not the nation.
Just sayin'.....

LynnGrace

grey_so_what wrote: »

Says the man who nearly has a palpitation when his cue cards are out of order.

He'd want to do a couple of "audience participation" classes in the local tech. first...

1700+ posts Skid!....:eek:

Exactly. He stirred things up then hadn't a clue what to do.

grey_so_what

LynnGrace wrote: »

Exactly. He stirred things up then hadn't a clue what to do.

I think I did see him stick his tongue out whilst looking at Linda's bottom though!...

Bless him, I'd say he run the fastest mile since Ronnie Delaney if Billy had roared at him!

Skid X

grey_so_what wrote: »

I think I did see him stick his tongue out whilst looking at Linda's bottom though!...

Bless him, I'd say he run the fastest mile since Ronnie Delaney if Billy had roared at him!

Maybe that's why Marty Whelan was backstage.

They should have a substitute host ready every Friday, for when Tubs is particularly weak. The Director could walk on set and give him his marching orders. That would be fun.

LynnGrace

grey_so_what wrote: »

Bless him, I'd say he run the fastest mile since Ronnie Delaney if Billy had roared at him!

That would be worth seeing.

orangesoda

Mr Quigg has got his share of abuse on social media some even bringing politics into it saying he should go back up north and represent GB, as arrogant as he is he doesn't deserve that abuse. It was the same with Dolan last year with some fools joking that it was really the UK who came last

SarahBM

Can we not just send Colaiste Lurgan?

Skid X

SarahBM wrote: »

Can we not just send Colaiste Lurgan?

Níl

Eurovision wrote:

Current rules state that countries are allowed to have up to six performers on stage.

Performers must be aged 16 or older, on the day of the semi-final in the year of the Contest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

SarahBM

boo hiss

edit

Can we send the Muinteoirí ? Im sure there is only about 6 of em.

grey_so_what

SarahBM wrote: »

Can we not just send Colaiste Lurgan?

Normally I'd agree but I'd be afraid of what final image the "Mentors" would come up with!

Baby oil, celtic tattoos and bodhrán's?......(not to mention the inevitable troop of Riverdance lookalikes in mini micro skirts....:eek:)

The Irish Mammies would have a fit!....;):D:D:D

SarahBM

they dont need mentors. they a brilliant just the way they are!

It should be taken away from RTE altogether! They have completely hyjacked the whole eurosong process for them greedy selves.
Ah hell, next year they will want to send Sinead O'Connor!

briany

grey_so_what wrote: »

Normally I'd agree but I'd be afraid of what final image the "Mentors" would come up with!

Baby oil, celtic tattoos and bodhrán's?......(not to mention the inevitable troop of Riverdance lookalikes in mini micro skirts....:eek:)

The Irish Mammies would have a fit!....;):D:D:D

Dulaman, dulaman gaelach

Baby oil, celtic tattoos and bodhrans, you say? Celtic Woman have it covered already. Well, not so much the Celtic tattoos maybe, but they do a fine line in skimpy waistcoats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH7sg3UjVIQ

grey_so_what

briany wrote: »

Dulaman, dulaman gaelach

Baby oil, celtic tattoos and bodhrans, you say? Celtic Woman have it covered already. Well, not so much the Celtic tattoos maybe, but they do a fine line in skimpy waistcoats.

I have a vision of a Buck Fizz's scenario of skirts being whipped off.....:D

Mind you, that might go down a treat......:eek:

SarahBM

2 words people!


[Bc]CRYSTAL SWING!!!![/B]

coolhull

grey_so_what wrote: »

I have a vision of a Buck Fizz's scenario of skirts being whipped off.....:D

Mind you, that might go down a treat......:eek:

But who wants to see Owen Quigg whipping off his skirt?:D

grey_so_what

coolhull wrote: »

But who wants to see Owen Quigg whipping off his skirt?:D

Poor little fella..

I don't even feel right reading that.......:o:eek:

Skid X

grey_so_what wrote: »

I have a vision of a Buck Fizz's scenario of skirts being whipped off.....:D

Mind you, that might go down a treat......:eek:

Sounds good to me!

grey_so_what

Skid X wrote: »

Sounds good to me!

Only if it's done tastefully Skid.........:P:P:P

briany

grey_so_what wrote: »

Poor little fella..

grey_so_what

Young Owen was certainly on the Berocca as a child......;)

briany

SarahBM wrote: »

2 words people!


CRYSTAL SHWING!!!!

^^^^ Have to add that h in there for authenticity. If we're speaking facetious about acts who've a significant following beyond the Pale, could I put Richie Kavanagh's name forward?

grey_so_what

briany wrote: »

acts who've a significant following beyond the Pale, could I put Richie Kavanagh's name forward?

Ah you couldn't go wrong with a bit of Richie...:):):)

briany

grey_so_what wrote: »

Ah you couldn't go wrong with a bit of Richie...:):):)

"By d'weh, before I finish this song, I'd just like to point out that 'fanny' can be the name for a lovely girl but it can also be the name for her down belows, like, so just keep it in mind when you're dishin' out the points."

Skid X

I just remembered a very funny comedy RTE did years ago about the National Song Contest. It was a spinoff from Nighthawks featuring Blathín, the continuity announcer.

It's very entertaining, and it finishes with

a controversial mistake with the voting

Spooky! Worth a look

am i bovvered

I just came up with a great system to solve the biggest challenge facing this country.... How to win the eurovision....

We need to get a gay- polish - drag queen "singer"
They can even sing in their native tongue (we can tell the rest of Europe it's Gaelic...... Only us and the poles will know the truth )

We'll all vote for us as well as every polish person around Europe ... Happy days ... WE WIN !!!!!! and with the economy booming again we have no worries paying for it all.

Ash.J.Williams

am i bovvered wrote: »

I just came up with a great system to solve the biggest challenge facing this country.... How to win the eurovision....

We need to get a gay- polish - drag queen "singer"
They can even sing in their native tongue (we can tell the rest of Europe it's Gaelic...... Only us and the poles will know the truth )

We'll all vote for us as well as every polish person around Europe ... Happy days ... WE WIN !!!!!! and with the economy booming again we have no worries paying for it all.

the only problem with your plan is the gross under estimation of the Polish intellect.

am i bovvered

Not at all.... All we need is for them to give us their number 2 vote
It's the Irish intellect I'm worrying about, and that's from a Mayo man !

Ally Dick

Was that kid in The Snowman cartoon?

goat2

basemann wrote: »

It's all about who you know in Ireland it seems. One of them picked her sister as both writer and singer and two of the other Mentors wrote or co-wrote the song themselves. Isin't that an amazing co - incidence? They searched the land to find the best writer to find it was .. themselves! I know it's a bit of fluff but you the tax payer pays to fund RTE who in turn funds the campain which costs up to €250,000 in travel,hotels to get to the event so shouldn't it be all above board and be fair considering the perks for those involved? If a government minister decided to bring his sister to Paddy's day in New York courtesy of the taxpayers there would be war so whats the difference?

The good bit though is that with all their connections they can't write a song that is up to standard. You can't buy talent so watch this years effort crash and burn.

crash and burn, your words came to pass

BuilderPlumber

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

the only problem with your plan is the gross under estimation of the Polish intellect.

Another problem is that Poland may be an Eastern European country but it is of the non-winning group of them that also includes Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, etc. The ones that win are ones further east or southeast.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

BuilderPlumber

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

If anything could win it for Ireland, this would !!!!

Go Harvey Go

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

Another problem is that Poland may be an Eastern European country but it is of the non-winning group of them that also includes Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, etc. The ones that win are ones further east or southeast.

Poland came second on its debut in 1994, despite Edyta Gorniak singing part of her song in English (violating the national-language rule that applied back then) during dress rehearsals.

It has only managed one top-ten finish since, however (seventh in 2003).

Hungary also debuted in 1994, and picked up 12 points from each of the first three juries before falling back to fourth. It didn't take part at all between 1999 and 2004, but since then has managed two top-ten finishes (ninth in 2007 and tenth last year).

Neither country of the former Czechoslovakia is taking part this year, and indeed they only have ten entries between them. Slovakia, another '94 debutant, has made seven of those entries and finished no higher than 18th, while the Czech Republic only made its debut in 2007 and is yet to make it out of the semis.

Just for the record.

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

LOL, excellent spoof!

Ash.J.Williams

RTÉ will plant some hostile audience members very soon in attempt to recreate this.

Skid X

The Irish Sun says Aslan guitarist Billy McGuinness has invited fellow Eurosong judge Linda Martin out to dinner since their clash on the Late Late Show, to try and make amends. Billy claims he wants to bury the hatchet

... in Linda's back? That sounds like a reality show waiting to happen. The Restaurant might want to supply plastic cutlery and non-breakable plates.


http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/what-it-says-in-the-papers-30292608.html

grey_so_what

Skid X wrote: »

... in Linda's back? That sounds like a reality show waiting to happen. The Restaurant might want to supply plastic cutlery and non-breakable plates.

My thoughts exactly Skid, go Greek or else....:pac:

or else he just wants to remind her how Ireland did at the Semi's......;)

or they just need a little boost for their flagging careers.....:eek:

chughes

Billy and Linda out for dinner??? It certainly is a crazy world........

cofy

Some one will surely have to get that dinner on camera:D:D:D

I hope Christy is doing well.

chughes

Apparently when Billy rang Linda up to ask her out for dinner she was amazed by his request.


If fact she asked him "why me???"

Are I Mad

chughes wrote: »

Apparently when Billy rang Linda up to ask her out for dinner she was amazed by his request.


If fact she asked him "why me???"

I heard "she was up all night to get lucky"................ Shudder