Eurovision Song Contest 2025 - Mod warning in the OP

One of my favourite pretty obscure pop acts Kai Bosch (great name) seemingly threw his cowboy hat in the ring for Eurovision for the UK but was rejected.

The song is right up my street! A bit Troye Sivan.

Some more details of tonight's Eurosong.

Another butchering of Euphoria with a fully defrosted Linda Martin...

And a "judging panel" featuring Donal Skehan (yes really) and Brian Dowlings highly irritating husband.

This is why Donal is in the panel (other than he must be literally living in the RTE canteen) he couldn't beat Dustin...deservedly so based on this sub butlins car crash. They could play it in Guantanamo...

Saw the LLS line-up last night - had to let my blood pressure drop before typing (currently on a hot-tub break in Snowdonia).

Not to sound like a broken record, but this constant wheeling-out of singers who won Eurovision OVER THIRTY YEARS AGO is both pathetic and embarrassing at this stage.

No doubt, they’ll give Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan their annual wheel-out in May to be asked the same questions.

What are RTE afraid of? Progress? Change? (God forbid!) or The Crippling Cowardice Of Wallowing In Nostalgia For A Time When Ireland Won Eurovision A Lot? Yes, all three.

And Donal Skehan hasn’t been culturally relevant for years, even in the world of cooking!!

At least Laura Fox will hopefully bring some sanity and/or a modern perspective on ESC. Why not have somebody from the always-excellent Eirevision podcast on the panel?

NEWSFLASH, RTE…IT’S NOT THE 1990’S ANYMORE. TIME TO STOP LIVING ON PAST GLORIES. MOVE ON.

Anyhoo, rant over…time for the hot tub.

Case in point…three completely out-of-touch ‘critics’ on ‘The Ray D’Arcy Show’ right now judging the six songs.

All sounding like OAP’s on the edge of the dancefloor (‘Well, it’s got a good beat’, ‘It reminds me of Nicole’s ‘A Little Peace’’) - not helped by Ray the Muppet Cheerleader (‘WE’VE WON IT SEVEN TIMES’) playing snippets of Eurovision songs from the 70s/80s. 😐

Gee, I thought the dip in the hot tub would improve my mood! 😁

Regarding Eimear Quinn…she is married to the DG of the EBU, so perhaps she feels it would be inappropriate to get involved in a country's selection process. She might also be self-aware enough to know that perhaps the winner of the 1996 contest isn't the best person to help a country win the contest in the 2020s.

Linda Martin, meanwhile, will still be popping up on TV when she's 99, insisting she knows what it takes to win Eurovision. In a shame she can't stay away from involving herself, to many she's just a laughing stock now.

I remember this happening, and (to me anyway) Dreamin' was clearly plagiarised from that Julie Felix song. RTÉ must have been thrilled, because they didn't want to win again, so sending a song with allegations surrounding it was always going to go down like a cup of cold sick with the juries.

Interesting how the EBU left it up to RTÉ whether to disqualify the song or not. The EBU is far more involved these days, and I imagine it'll be their call should something similar happen again.

From the RTÉ Archives, a behind-the-scenes look at Eurosong '89, the last time we selected an entry for a Swiss Eurovision.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21320220-euro-song-89-rehearsals/

A few weeks later in Lausanne, we had what was then our worst-ever result. Hopefully, history won't repeat itself in 2025.

Yeah, bad form from her indeed. I think 'Fire' is a decent song it just runs out of steam after 2 minutes although it might come across better live.

I think we're not looking at a serious competitor among the bunch.

The songs don't say anything. Samantha Mumba's song is all about how she's free to do/say/think what she wants, and says nothing about what she thinks of does. Just seems self indulgent nonsense.

Similar to most of them. Not specifically about any identifiable theme. Nothing you can hang your hat on.

NIYL song Growth is pure nonsense. Have you seen the lyrics? Barely a song or a tune.

Adgy probably the pick of them. At least its about a specific theme.

On record for me the Bobbi Arlo song is an obvious pick. But some posts on twitter about her losing her voice...not great...

I do think the Emmy song has something though and is catchy so looking forward to it live.

As it stands…Mumba Jumpa!

I don't think Bobbi's vocals will be an issue or that it will cost her the win. I could see her do well if she gets to Basel - the song is impactful right from the opening bars and she has a cool image.

Genuinely don't know how to call this one.

At least last year, it was blatantly obvious who the clear favourite was.

The artists are really going to have to put on a memorable performance.