Donal Skehan will compete in Ireland's Eurosong on Saturday night, one of six acts looking to win the ticket to represent the record Eurovision Song Contest winning country in Belgrade this May. This evening, he took time out of rehearsals to talk to esctoday.com about the big night and his love of the Eurovision Song Contest.
How did your entry come about?
"I've been watching Eurovision for a few years and Ireland but Ireland's not done so well. I was going to try to enter for another country this year, but when I heard that RTE were opening up the selection this year, I had to enter. It's great to have a chance to represent your own country.
I called Charlie Mason, who wrote Monrose's song for the German final last year. He went away for a couple of weeks, then I got an email from Charlie Oscar and Joel with Double cross my heart attached, I heard it straight away and I loved it. It's Eurovision by numbers – there's a great chorus and a key change.
We recorded the song in Stockholm, Oscar and Joel have worked with Dani and he's a massive star in Sweden. He's heard the song and really likes it. Oscar's also written the LoveShy song in the UK final, so I'm in good company. We went there because the songwriters are based there and offered to record everything for us. We did it in two or three hours, it all just worked".
How did you get the act and stage performance.
"It's a bit different, but I hope it's what Ireland will want. I spoke to Urban Hagglund in Sweden, a great performer. We went through the song and put together a routine. We recorded something on video and sent it with the submission to RTE."
What do you think your chances are?
"I think we have the most Eurovision suited song of all six. It's all geared towards Eurovision and the performance is based around the Eurovision stage. I'm thrilled with it and I hope we have a strong song that the people will want to win."
What about the turkey?
"It's funny, I laugh at it, I grew up with the turkey, but it's wrong for Eurovision. I think people in Europe would miss the joke completely."
Does it devalue the competition to have a puppet involved?
"RTE wanted to get attention for the show, and it's done that. Dustin is great to get the public interested in the contest and great for the contestants, but I really hope they choose the song to represent Ireland best in Europe. There's a good selection of songs."
What's gone wrong for Ireland in the last few years?
"The difference is the contest is a different ball game. The contest, the number of countries, it's all expanded. I think Ireland needs to send a song that fits the new set-up. We've worked to get the whole package together to compete in the modern competition and I hope that comes across well on stage."
What's your favourite Irish winner?
"It has to be rock n' roll kids, but Terminal Three is my favourite Irish entry, along with Horoscope."
What's your all-time favourite Eurovision song?
"That's impossible to answer. I'm a huge fan and it changes every moment. I can jump from the 1994 contest to 2006. Right now, it's Carola's Evighet. But last week, I was sitting with Maya waiting for RTE and we were blasting out a duet of Mr Nobody with full key change. We watch the contest on big screen every year in Ireland. I'm actually gutted to be busy on Saturday night because I'll be missing Melodifestivalen, I love that too. We're hoping for wireless access in the Greenroom so we can watch on the internet. It'll calm our nerves too."
How do you follow the shows?
"I normally watch online through esctoday.com, and I read all kinds of everything and the famous Schlagerblog too. I've not met the Schlagerboys but they interviewed me and it was brilliant, they're so funny." (Check out the schlager blog in the esctoday.com blog directory).
What are hoping for from all of this?
"I'm hoping to win. That's what anyone wants when they put themselves up for this. I want to do everyone proud, everyone that's helped me and everyone in Ireland. I get such a rush from it, it's amazing.
esctoday.com would like to thank Donal and wish him all the best for Saturday night.
