Six singers are set to compete for the public’s vote to be Ireland’s next Eurovision Song Contest entry tonight during a special Late Late Show.
Patrick O’Sullivan, Janet Grogan, Rachel Goode, Brendan Murray, Brooke Scullion and Miles Graham will take to the stage live on The Late Late Show Eurosong 2022 Special tonight, vying for the chance to represent the nation at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Italy in May.
And for the first time in several years, viewers at home will have the opportunity to cast their vote to decide who will fly the Irish flag at Eurovision. The winner will be chosen by the combined votes awarded by the public vote, an international jury and a studio jury.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s show, host Ryan Tubridy said: “We’re doing something that we wanted to do for a long time which was bring the Eurovision national song contest back into the hands of the people of Ireland.
“It’s something that I’ve had close to my heart that would be lovely to do, and it means that people feel more ownership and feel more pride maybe and certainly feel more entertained, because tomorrow night people at home will be sitting back, drinking whatever they’re drinking, and totally invested.
“I drifted a bit from the Eurovision because when you weren’t looking at the scoreboard it was hard to feel invested in the whole shebang – tomorrow night we have our very own scoreboard, and we are totally invested.
“The singers we’re about to meet have produced beautiful music, really excellent songs to their credit and to the writers involved.
“If I wasn’t here, I would be at home, getting involved like everyone else.
“It’s about time that Irish people went to the Euro ballot box and said, ‘that one’.”
Meanwhile, Eurovision stalwart Marty Whelan said it is really important that the Irish public has a shout this year on who to send to the song contest. He joked: “I think what’s great about the plan this year is we have an international jury, we’ve a national jury and we also have the people, so everyone can blame each other at the end of this.
“I just think it’s really important that everybody has a shout on this one because for years and years RTE have tried to figure out what would be the best way to make it.”
And Marty admitted that getting to the final is not easy: “The song that brought us to Italy is not what you would expect for an Irish song, therein lies the story. It isn’t necessarily about being very Irish or being very anything, it is a moment that just captures audiences across Europe.”
And Marty understood how heart-breaking it was for artists who couldn’t make it to the final.
He said: “If you don’t get out of the semi-final, it is very hard, your heart is broken because your mammy is watching, everyone you’ve ever met, they’re all watching and rooting
for you.”
And the advice he had for those who didn’t make it this far was to “keep going”.
He added: “You got this far with the talent, so surely to god there is still talent there and another moment could come in another sphere and sometimes the Eurovision comes more than once.”
Among the contestants vying to win the public’s vote tonight is Brendan Murray, who is having a second shot at Eurovision glory with a song he co-wrote with Darrell Coyle called Real Love.
Brendan, who was part of Louis Walsh’s Hometown, represented Ireland back in 2017 with his song Dying To Try.
This time around, Brendan has penned his own tune from the comfort of his own bedroom while in lockdown .
He told us: “I wrote it a year ago in my bedroom over Zoom. The song was about not realising what was in front of you the whole time and coming to that realisation that you should’ve said what you thought a long time ago. It’s a beautiful song.”
Speaking about the disappointment of his last crack at the Eurovision back in 2017, Brendan is convinced he has more to bring to the table this time around.
He said: “To be honest I didn’t have any intention of ever doing it again, not that I didn’t want to, it just never popped into my head.”
“But I always followed it. I felt I was hard done by. I thought we were good enough to get through but unfortunately, we didn’t, we were a few points short.
“This time around, it is my own song. I was part of writing it so this time around it’s more special. This time I’m in the driver’s seat so I can take a bit more control.”
Meanwhile another Eurovision hopeful, Patrick O’Sullivan, 27, has played down talk of having an edge because of his Westlife connection.
His song, One Night, One Kiss, One Promise, was penned by the band’s Nicky Byrne, The Coronas Danny O’Reilly and All Tvvins musician Lar Kaye.
The Cork man is being tipped to score highly with Westlife fans, but he’s having none of it.
He said: “I don’t know really, we have spoken about this. We’re trying as best we can not to have it be about that because it doesn’t do me any favours really.
“I think the best endorsement is the calibre of the songwriter so the fact that Nicky obviously has huge success with Westlife, Danny O’Reilly, Lar Kaye, having that behind you is incredible and it puts pressure on me in a way to try and deliver a performance that matches the quality of the song.
“They are incredibly supportive and they really want me to kind of make it my own. They wanted me to go away and sit with it a few weeks and add in and make it mine and add my quirks and stylings to it.
“It’s been really great working and learning with them.”
Another contestant and veteran of reality talent shows, Janet Grogan, is also hoping to be centre stage this time, having been backing singer at the song contest twice before.
Janet will be hoping she impresses audiences tonight with her song, Ashes of Yesterday, which was co-written with Aidan O’Connor, John Emil and Sandra Wikstrom.
She said: “It was a great honour to go twice as a backing singer. I didn’t realise I was going up against Nicky’s song but things like this come full circle. It would be the honour of a lifetime to represent my country as the main artist, the same as it was to be a backing singer.”
- The Late Late Eurosong Special, RTE One, tonight at 9.35pm.
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