Cool Chris takes off to Turkey

EUROVISION hopeful Chris Doran was as cool, calm and collected as ever as he left Dublin for Istanbul at the weekend for a week of rehearsals ahead of Saturday night’s final.

But the same could certainly not be said for backing singer, Lee Kearney, one of the lads from Final Four. It was Lee’s first flight and though fellow band members, Martin Cosgrave, Peter O’Shaughnessy, Alan Foran, were all looking forward to the flight, he wasn’t.

“I’m grand, I just want to get out there now, get rehearsing and get up on that stage and do my best on Saturday night,” said Doran, whose song If The World Stops Turning has topped the charts.

“The build-up has been incredible, people have been so, so good.

And it’s great to be in the charts and at number one two weeks in a row. It’s the fans who have put me there and I am very thankful to them. People have been fantastic. I could fill my case ten times over with all the cards and good luck messages people have been sending.”

The only thing the lads were short of was a suitcase full of cash. “We’ve brought absolutely everything with us. But about €10,000 wouldn’t go astray. It’s going to be expensive week.”

As many as 600 Irish fans are making their way to Istanbul for the final.

Travel agents in Waterford, Strand Travel, still has a limited number of seats available on its direct flight to Istanbul out of Dublin on Thursday at €659 per person. In Istanbul, the preparations have begun in earnest. This year’s Eurovision will be held at Istanbul’s Abdi Ipekci Stadium.

The stadium can hold 9,000 people and is halfway between the city centre and the airport and easily reached by public transport.

Doran is second favourite with Irish bookmakers, Paddy Power. It has Sweden and Greece in joint favourites position, at 7-1, followed by Doran at 8-1.