Four acts remained in the penultimate weekend of ” You�re a Star”. The three acts that would make it through to the final weekend would get the opportunity to perform their Eurovision song so the pressure was definitely high this week.
Host Ray D�Arcy said that the viewers should vote for the act that they thought “would give Ireland the best chance in Eurovision in May and not to vote on a regional basis as �National pride was at stake�”.
The three resident judges Dave Fanning, Hazel Kaneswaran and Barbara Galavan were in attendance along with this week�s guest judge , Maxi, who has represented Ireland twice, in 1973 as a solo artist singing Do I Dream and as part of Sheeba in 1981 with Horoscopes. Her advice was that each act should be focussed and take it seriously as �it was an honour to get the opportunity to represent your country.�
The theme of the show was �Music from the movies� to coincide with Oscar night in the United States of America. First on stage were The Henry Girls who performed an acapella version of Down in the River from the movie “O Brother, Where art thou?. Barbara said it was not their best performance but she would hate to see them go, and Maxi thought that it was a risk to sing acapella and she thought it did not quite work as the harmonies did not blend but “� ten out of ten for courage.
Pete Fagan was next singing Bon Jovi�s Song Livin on a prayer from “Charlie�s Angels 2” . Dave did not think it was his best performance and thought the backing track was weak . Judge Hazel Kaneswaran agreed with Dave. Maxi said that he was“a great entertainer and said that everyone in the hall loved him!”
Having survived the final vote last week, Jade were back singing the song Just like Jessie James from the film “Outlaws”. Hazel thought it was not their best song and performance but really wanted them back next week. Barbara thought the performance “too slow, very dragged”.
Last to perform were Donna & Joseph McCaul who sang The time of my life from “Dirty Dancing”. Joseph had a bit of a problem at the start when he started the song too early but soon recovered. Maxi said that their voices were amazing and blended very well. Dave thought that they performed very well compared to their performance the previous week. Barbara said that it was a very “ropey” start.
Overall, Barbara could not understand why ALL of tonight�s performances were so below par as she felt that they should be improving. Ray thought that it was probably due to the huge pressure all acts were under to get to the final weekend.
As an extra bonus, each of the four acts performed one of their favourite Eurovision songs. The judges did not comment on these performances. The Henry Girls sang A Little Peace, Pete Fagan sang Somewhere in Europe stumbling slightly through the lyrics, Jade sang a rock version of Hold Me Now and Donna and Joseph McCaul finished with Rock �n� Roll Kids.
The voting lines were opened and two hours later everyone waited for the all important results. This time, it was the turn of Donna & Joseph McCaul to top the poll, Jade finished second leaving The Henry Girls and Pete Fagan to battle for the last place in next weekend�s final and Pete Fagan was the act who was
eliminated.
So, for the first time since 1999, Ireland will NOT be represented by a solo male singer at the Eurovision Song Contest. Next Saturday, the remaining three acts will sing their Eurovision songs with one act eliminated that night, leaving two acts and two songs to go forward to next Sunday�s show which will decide Ireland�s representative to the Eurovision Song Contest semifinal on 19th May in Kiev.
