Business as usual in Ireland

So, the Irish released their entry for Lisbon this week and it’s every bit of disappointing as we expected it to be.

When talent show regular Ryan O’Shaughnessy was announced as the Irish entrant earlier this winter it caused nothing more than a collective shoulder shrug across Europe. Most fans have given up on the former Eurovision champion years ago. One would think that the current miserable state they’re in and four non-qualifications in a row would solicit a bit of serious soul searching on the green island, but we guess not!

This year’s schmaltzy old-fashioned ballad Together makes last year’s schmaltzy old-fashioned ballad Dying To Try sound like a masterpiece. And it doesn’t help that they’re trying to be all modern and cutting edge with that promo video. It would have been groundbreaking some 20 years ago, now it’s just flogging a dead horse. At the very least that’s something to be happy about, there’s progress in the world! Well, elsewhere but in Ireland, so it seem.

There are surprisingly few ballads in the line-up this year, which might be favorable for the Irish if they manage to stage the entry similar to the likes of Tom Dice and Paradise Oscar. It also requires on point vocals and no distracting gimmicks, like let’s say a dancing gay couple on stage. Last year they threw an air balloon on stage for no good reason, so we’re sure they will find a way to mess it up in Lisbon too.

We sure hope Ryan and his crew will stock up on sunscreen and update their summer wardrobe before leaving for sunny Portugal, cause we assume they will have plenty of spare time to kill after Tuesday night in the finals week.

Ryan couldn’t find his bodhrán, so he borrowed a guitar from the photographer instead (photo credit: eurovision.tv)

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