World keeps turning as Chris wins You’re a Star

CHRIS DORAN has been given odds of 33/1 to win the Eurovision Song Contest in Turkey next May after winning the You’re A Star competition last night.

The 23-year-old from Waterford pipped his Mayo rival James Kilbane after both performed their songs in the live televised final on Saturday night.

But the pair had to wait almost 24 hours before hearing the result on the stage of the Helix theatre in Dublin.

The winning ballad If the World Stops Turning was penned by Westlife member Bryan McFadden. Doran will bring the song and Irish hopes to this year's Eurovision which takes place in Istanbul on May 15.

For McFadden, it will be a chance to steal back some of the limelight recently garnered by wife Kerry for her celebrity antics in the jungle.

A song he wrote also made it to last year's You're A Star final, but the singer, Simon Casey, lost out to Mickey Joe Harte.

Up to one million people are believed to have watched Saturday night's final performances, although official figures were not available from RTÉ last night.

Doran had topped the viewers' polls each of the previous three weeks but there was no way of telling the final result until Ray D'Arcy opened the envelope last night.

Although there was disappointment for James Kilbane 10 years his fellow finalist's senior he has gained huge popularity throughout the series.

The celebrity judges have likened him to Daniel O'Donnell and Phil Coulter told him after last night's defeat that he had brought great credit to his family and his community.

The father-of-two from Achill Island sang Losing You, written by Sinéad McNally, in Saturday night's final.

The pair reached the last stage of the competition as the final two out of more than 5,000 hopefuls who attended nationwide auditions almost six months ago.

All but five of the 36 countries entered for this year's contest have yet to choose a song to represent them.

While Chris Doran and 13 other artistes are guaranteed a place in the Eurovision, the singers chosen by 22 other nations are not yet certain of making it to the big event.

Only 10 of them will be chosen from a qualifier round on the Wednesday before the final, which will have 24 songs vying for the title.

Ireland has not won the contest since Eimear Quinn topped the voting in Oslo in 1996. Her success was the country's seventh at the Eurovision, since the title first came to Irish shores when Dana won with All Kinds of Everything in 1970.