Saturday, February 21, 2009

Eurosong 2009 What a night!!







What an unforgettable night! Ireland has selected Sinead Mulvey as our 2009 representative in Moscow!! Check out her performance here.



Schlagerqueen had a fantastic night at Eurosong 2009! The whole show was very impressive with an entry I will be very proud of in Moscow!
The panel consisted of chairperson of the jury that selected the final 6 songs and Eurovision royalty Linda Martin, Irish commentator Marty Whelan and American T.V. star Jerry Springer who really got into the spirit of Eurovision!




M.N.A - Flying


Written by Riverdance performer Ronan McCormack, 'Flying' provided an upbeat start to the show.
The girls impressed me with their performance. I thought their choreography was quirky and fun but I still felt they would be an outsider when it came to the results.


Laura-Jayne Hunter - Out of control




I dubbed Laura Jayne 'The Voice on speed'! I like the mix of tribal, haunting and celtic elements of this song. If this entry had gone to Moscow it would have needed some tigthening but had a lot of potential and appealed to the tele voters more so than juries.







Lee Bradshaw - So what

Pre contest I thought Lee was one of the biggest sources of competition for Sinead but watching his performance I felt he looked nervous and and a little uneasy!
The song is a nice ballad but I was unimpressed overall and would worry about Lee's performance in a big arena.
Johnny Brady - Amazing

Johnny's performance was confident and colourful with a song that is catchy and reminiscent of Eurovision in the 90s. it would probably have been lost in Moscow but the chorus had a feel good factor about it.



Kristina Zaharova - I wish I could pretend
Kristina looked stunning in a beautiful dress. A beautiful song with that was over complicated and overshadowed by busy staging.




Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy - Et Cetera


From the outset Sinead rocked RTE! The atmosphere in the studio was dynamic throughout her performance. It was 3 minutes full of energy!
Sinead's vocal was strong and her use of the camera was very professional. All the girls looked great and the black and pink styling was very edgy.
The audience reaction was intense! My absolute favourite out of the 6 songs.

Overall I felt we had a strong line up of songs that were diverse and contemporary. Unlike last year there were no 'big' names that were guaranteed victory so that made the voting very exciting!


Then it was time for Eurovision guru Paul G to treat us to some 'special' Eurovision moments.


When the voting lines had closed the panel gave their predictions

Pat & Marty: Out of Control

Linda, Jerry, & Paul: Et Cetera
The phone lines opened and we were treated to a beautiful performance from 1994 Eurovision winners Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. What a nice surprise!



As the juries gave their votes it became apparent that Et Cetera was a clear favourite. At the time I was surprised Lee was scoring so low but it makes sense looking back on it.

Et Cetera received top marks from 3 juries Cork, Limerick and Sligo with I Wish I Could Pretend scoring the maximum from the Dublin jury.
It looked like a 2 horse race heading into the public televote but I was absolutely thrilled when Sinead scored the maximum 40 points and won Eurosong 2009!!!
After all the votes were counted the scoreboard looked like this:
1st Et Cetera 38+40=78
2nd I Wish I Could Pretend 32+24=56

3rd Out of Control 09+32=41

4th So What 10+16=26

5th Amazing 20+04=24

6th Flying 15+08=23
I think this pop/rock style will hopefully appeal to Europe and book us a place in the final. The entry is modern and catchy, looks good live and will stand out from other countries particularly if our semi is ballad heavy.
I was thrilled to meet everyone afterwards. Sinead is a sweetheart! I also met the wonderful songwriting team Niall, Christina and Jonas who were very satisfied with the win! It is always great to meet people with an incredible passion for music and Eurovision.
I also got to chat to Ms. Martin who was really lovely!


















Oh and I met Gerry Ryan aswell..;) (He was a bit wooden!)





















We then headed to the Eurosong Extravaganza Party!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, looks like a great time was had by all! I liked "Out of Control" from the studio track, but in the performance I thought it lost a lot once the Celtic opening was finished and it turned into a typical Eurovision ethno percussive dance track with shaky vocals. No doubts that Ireland chose well.

Linda Martin sometimes seemed like Lena Philipsson's stern Irish aunt...

Anonymous said...

Sinead for President!

Schlager Queen said...

@Len W
I agree about 'Out of Control'
and what a great observation about Linda!!!

@Micko
Love it!