Ireland tenth to a Eurovision klingon
They’re countries oft frequented by the fun-loving Irish, but delivered the ultimate snub with ‘nul points’ for Brian Kennedy on Saturday night for what was our best Eurovision performance in years.
Monaco was most generous, giving Brian Kennedy’s own composition ‘Every Song Is A Cry For Love’ ten points. Britain gave us eight, a score which we matched. But Belgium, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovnia and Albania were among the handful to snub our entry. France threw us a few crumbs, and just one point. In typical Eurovision style, the Baltic countries stuck together, as did the Balkans.
“I feel so privileged to have been a part of it,” Brian Kennedy said yesterday. “The voting was the worst part. Performing in front of 18,500 people should be the nerve-racking part, but it was really enjoyable. I had most butterflies when we were sitting in front of the big voting screen.
“Thank goodness most countries gave us a vote which was positive. It was clear about half way through though how the voting was going to go,” he said yesterday as he prepared to leave Greece.
Our tenth position amid the circus of performances from Orcs and Klingons, Latvians with robots, Germans in cowboy hats and a Russian woman stuck in a piano means Ireland is guaranteed a place in the final next year.
Britain finished in 18th position with just over a quarter of our points tally.
Terry Wogan’s closing remarks after hard rock horror band, Lordi, in their monster outfits representing Finland won, summed it all up.
“Every year I expect it to be less foolish, and every year it’s more so,” the king of Eurovision remarked. In typical Eurovision style, controversy is already raging, just hours after the event.
The video-clip for the winning song, ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’ shows the band storming into a school gym, striking dead a group of cheerleaders and raising them again as zombies.
“We have nothing to do with Satan worship,” lead singer, Mr Lordi has said. “This (act) is as serious as horror movies, this is entertainment.”
The win means Helsinki will host next year’s show — an event Lordi predicts will have a much wider range of musical styles as a result of the group’s victory.
God help us!
