Ireland: Louis Walsh encourages Eurovision participation

by Stratos Agadellis 976 views

Having been responsible for the Irish representation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, the judge of the British X-Factor Louis Walsh gave an interview to the TV host Miriam O’Callaghan on her night show Saturday Night with Miriam.

When asked about how Ireland should go on with the competition despite the recent disappointing results, Louis stated that the nation should ‘stick at’ and continue sending songs and representatives at Eurovision.

Louis’ statements

This year, RTÉ requested for the experienced manager Louis Walsh to take on his own the project of selecting the artist and song that would represent them on the stage of Kyiv. About his choice to try it with a ballad, he stated:

I picked a ballad, because Ireland always enjoyed victories with ballads; as with Johnny Logan, Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh etc. Thus, I believed that we could do really well. And I still believe that RTÉ should do it.

Here’s a small part of Louis’ interview uploaded on the official Facebook page of RTÉ:

Should Ireland continue to take part in the Eurovision? Louis Walsh looked back on this year's disappointment on Saturday Night with Miriam.

Опубліковано Entertainment on RTÉ 20 серпня 2017 р.

When it comes to Brendan Murray, he expressed his aspirations that he wouldn’t struggle to progress to the Grand Final. About his elimination in the semi-final stage, Walsh stated that he can’t still explain why this happened, after a strong performance of his song Dying to try.

Here’s Brendan’s performance at the second semi-final on 11 May:

Among his words, he also said that there are several artists and songwriters that aren’t desirous of taking part in the contest, being afraid of a possible bad result.

However and concluding, Louis Walsh stated that the Irish nation should go on participating at the Eurovision Song Contest and to exploit the young new talents that the country has. In that way, he believes that the old glories of the country at Eurovision will return.

Ireland at Eurovision

Ireland is characterized as the “Queen of Eurovision”, having won it 7 times. There isn’t any other country that has done so and is the only nation to have achieved three victories in a row. The victories for the island state came in 1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996.

However, the impressive results of Ireland in the contest have ceased to be a reality in recent years. Over the last two decades, Ireland has reached the Top 10 only twice; in 2006 and in 2011. Moreover since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, the country has managed to qualify to the Final 6 times out of 12 attempts, the last being in 2013 with Ryan Dolan and Only love survives.

Ireland has already confirmed to ESCToday its participation at the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest next May. However, RTÉ is yet to officially announce the selection method that they will use to pick up their next Eurovision representative.

How could Ireland meet the success after a long time in 2018? Should they go once more internally or hold a national final? Let us know!