Today, RT� announced the six finalists that will compete for the ticket to represent Ireland at the 54th Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in May.
RTÉ today announced the six Eurosong 2009 finalists, as selected from the public competition. The song contest was open to songwriters from outside of Ireland and a jury chaired by Eurovision Song Contest 1992 winner Linda Martin, chose six songs from almost 300 entries received from both home and abroad.
They are:
- “Flying” performed by M.N.A and composed by Ronan McCormack.
- “Out of Control” performed by Laura-Jayne Hunter and composed by Derry O’Donovan.
- “So What” performed by Lee Bradshaw and composed by Billy Larkin and Kevin Breathnach.
- “Amazing” performed by Johnny Brady and composed by Tony Adams Rosa
- “I Wish I Could Pretend” performed by Kristina Zaharova and composed by Lauris Reiniks.
- “Et Cetera” performed by Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy.Composed by Niall Mooney, Jonas Gladnikoff, Daniele Moretti & Christina Schilling.
The songs will be performed in the order above as drawn by independent auditor Michael O’Neill of PriceWaterhouse Coopers.
The winner will be decided by 50% regional jury vote and 50% public televote which replicates the change to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest Final in Moscow, when national juries will once again have a say in the outcome of the contest, sharing the decision equally with the televote.
The final six songs were chosen by a judging panel chaired by Eurovision winner Linda Martin and included MD, Universal Music Ireland, Mark Crossingham, showbiz agent/choreographer Julian Benson, RTÉ 2FM DJ and Eurovision Commentator, Larry Gogan, and Diarmuid Furlong head of the Official Eurovision Fan Club of Ireland.
The Late Late Show: Eurosong Special will be broadcast on Friday 20th February at 22:35 CET (21:35 local time) with the winner announced at the end of the show.
Two Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals will take place on – Tuesday 12th and Thursday 14th May. All countries barring the UK, Spain, Germany, France, and last year’s winner Russia, must compete in one of them in order to win a place at the final which takes place on Saturday 16th May, 2009. Ireland will compete in the second semi-final on Thursday 14th May. The semi-final and the final will be televised live on RTÉ Television.
More news to follow shortly, stay with esctoday.com forthe latestinformation.