On this page you can keep track of the Eurovision related news stories from Ireland. You can find older news stories here.

2nd November

After weeks of speculation RTÉ has finalised its plans for the selection process of Ireland's Eurovision entry for 2008. RTÉ will be selecting the Irish 2008 entry by means of a national competition, to be called "Eurosong 2008". This approach will not be unlike the National Song Contest of previous years, but will encourage innovation not only in music but also in visual presentation, in keeping with the Eurovision contests we've seen in recent years.

Following the disasterous result for Ireland in Helsinki this year, RTÉ decided to look again at the strategy for selecting the country's entry and for that purpose RTÉ assembled a consultative committee of interested parties from the music writing, music performance and dance arts, to assist RTÉ in the review. The committe which included 1992 Eurovision winner Linda Martin (left) discussed the trends in the contest in recent years, and how Irish entries needed to change for Ireland to launch a serious challenge for victory.

The key findings of the committee were that the contest has changed to incorporate bigger and bigger productions, that the growth in the number of Eastern European countries participating has made the contest even more competitive, and that it has become, as at TV phenomenon, more and more elaborate. The view of the committee is that it has become a performance contest, as much as a song contest.

With that in mind, there will be a very strong emphasis on visual impact and stage performance. Consequently songwriters are being encouraged to enter not only songs, but also DVDs which will demonstrate the potential stage performance of the songs.

As in previous years, a preliminary judging panel, consisting of five people (a previous Eurovision stand-by jury member, a performer, a songwriter, a TV director and a Eurovision fan) assembled by RTÉ, will select from all the entries received a shortlist of entries to go to the final judging committee. he composition of the final judging committee selecting the six finalists will reflect songwriting, performance arts and television production and will be chaired by Bill Hughes, who has extensive experience of television and stage production in both music and dance and is a keen follower of the Eurovision Song Contest. This final judging committee will then select from the shortlist six entries to compete in Eurosong, to be broadcast as a television special by RTÉ in February 2008. The closing date for entries is Monday January 21st and once again foreign songwriters or performers can compete as long as they can travel to Serbia.

The final selection; "Eurosong 2008" with six songs will be staged in late February and unlike the last two years, the songs will all be performed by different singers or groups, but once again it is believed that the public will have a final say in the selection of the winning entry, that will represent Ireland in Belgrade, Serbia in May 2008.

You can find more information and all the rules for entry on RTE's website.

5th October

RTÉ is expected to announce its plans for the selection of Ireland's 2008 Eurovision Song Contest entry within the next two weeks, and it looks like it will be a case of "back to the future", with a multi artist Eurosong show in the spring, with the public selecting the song that will represent Ireland in Belgrade. It the rumours prove correct, there will be an open competition for songs, with no limit on songwriters having to come from Ireland. Once the finalists have been chosen, it is likely that the songwriters to recruit the singers. A new twist however may see internet voting, allowing Eurovision fans from all over the World to have a say  in the selection of the Irish entry.

In other news, you can wait years for an autobiography by a former Irish Eurovision entrant, and then within a few weeks a second one comes along. Hot on the heels of Dickie Rock's "Always Me", Dana (Rosemary Scallon) Ireland's first Eurovision winner is about to have her autobiography published and fitingly, it takes its title from her winning entry "All Kinfds Of Everything". The win stunned Ireland and an extraordinary career had been born. Dana became a household name, but rather than disappearing forever from view as so many before her and since, she continued to develop her career as a popular artist and gained particular recognition in the U.K., Europe and in the US.

Throughout the 70’s and 80’s she had a string of hits, was voted best female artist, best TV artist, hosted series on BBC and ITV and appeared on Top of the Pops with stars such as David Bowie, Queen and Marc Bolan as well as at several royal command performances. In the 1990’s she moved to the US and hosted a television series on the EWTN cable network to over 75 million homes. She has met with Presidents Ford, Reagan Clinton and Bush and met and sung for the Pope on five occasions. In 1997 Dana was the first-ever independent candidate nominated to contest Ireland’s presidential election. She shocked the political establishment by gaining 15% of the popular vote. Two years later, however, she was successful in being elected, against all the odds, as a Member of the European Parliament for Connacht / Ulster. From a childhood in the Bogside of Derry, through the maelstrom of international showbusiness, to the White House and the Vatican, to the European Parliament and all its political intrigue, Dana’s story is truly astonishing. Indeed another chapter of Dana's career may have yet to be written, as there are rumours that she may contest the European elections in two years time.

Meanwhile the man who brought Ireland its second and third Eurovision victories is making a long overdue return to this country and for the first time in almost twenty years Johnny Logan (left) will be performing live on stage, as he plays dates in Dublin and Cork. On Sunday Ocober 21st Johnny plays Dublin's Vicar Street and three days later it's onto the Cork Opera House. Johnny will of course be performing his two Eurovision winners and also some classic Irish songs from his current "Irish Collection" album. The collection of well known Irish songs has gone Platinum in Denmark and Double Platinum in Norway, where it has topped the album chart.

Unfortunatly there is still no official release date for the album in Ireland, however in can be downloaded from the Norwegian ITunes store and it's likely that the CD may be available sale at the two Iroish gigs. 

Johnny will be doing a "X-mas Tour" in Scandinavia thoughout the months of November and December and the "Irish Collection" will be in music shops in Sweden at the end of December. Johnny has of course continued his interest in the Eurovision Song Contest, and is a regular guest at National Finals throughout Europe. There were rumours in the Irish press in 2006 that Johnny might return to the contest and with the potential change in the selection process in Ireland, we might just see "Mr. Eurovision" make a comeback in 2008. 

28th September

The latest rumours circulating in Irish Euovision circles suggest that RTÉ may be looking at the option of returning to an old style National Song Contest to select Ireland's entry for the 2008 coompetition, to be staged in Belgrade in May of next year. There may however be some signifiicant differences from the last time a National Song Contest chose the Irish entry in 2001, with internet voting and specially commissioned songs from prominent songwriters supposedly being discussed for 2008.

However the soon to be officially announced news that next year's Eurovision Song Contest will have two semi-finals, which undoubtedly benefits Ireland, may mean other options are still in play for the decision makers in RTÉ. One way or another, expect the national broadcaster to announce its plans for the 2008 contest, within the next few weeks.

While we're still to discover who will represent Ireland in Serbia, two former Irish Eurovision representatives have new albums in the shops over the next few weeks. When the new album by Dervish "Travelling Show", finally hits the shops on October 26th, it may disappoint many Eurovision fans. It appears that the Sligo based group wish to put as much space as possible between themselves and their disappointing Eurovision performance.

The album which was originally scheduled for release in May, has undergone  changes to the initial track listing, and not only has the Eurovision entry "They Can't Stop The Spring" failed to make it to the album, but there is also no room for any of the other songs which featured in the Irish selection. Instead Dervish have chosen to return to their Irish traditional niche, with the band also doing an Irish tradional musically inspired cover version of Cher's 1971 hit "Gypsies Tramps & Thieves".  You can find more information on the Dervish album on the band's website.  

An Irish Eurovision entrant from a different era, is making a well publicised comeback at the moment. Dickie Rock (left) was Ireland's second Eurovision singer, coming a creditable 4th in Luxembourg in 1966 with "Come Back To Stay". Dickie who originally hails from the Northside Dublin suburb of Carba came to fame in the early 1960s as the lead singer of the Miami Showband. He scored twenty five Irish hits in the 1960s and 70s as has been a constant face on the Irish entertainment scene for almost fify years.

Despite his success, Dickie has not had the easiest of personal lives, and he tells his own life story in his newly published autobiography "Always Me". You can read a recently publish interview with Dickie, which gives an outline of the book here. 

Dickie has released many successful albums and his new collection of cover versions of well known Irish songs is in the shops today. Among the tracks which Dickie has recorded for the album are Van Morrison's "Moondance" (the first single from the album), U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and perhaps most bizarrly Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars". Dickie Rock plays Dublin's Vicar St. on October 2nd .  Tickets are priced at €30.00 and are available from Ticketmaster and usual outlets nationwide. Booking Line: 0818 719 390. Dickie will also be planning several gigs outside Dublin, promoting his new album.

3rd September

Last Saturday September 1st saw the first ever Eurovision Dance Contest, organised by the BBC, staged in London and co-hosted by Irish presenter Graham Norton. Sixteen countries competed and the competition was won by the Finnish duo Jussi Väänänen & Katja Koukkola, who had been selected as that country's representatives only a week earlier. The couple scored a clear win, gaining points from every other country with the Ukrainian duo finishing as the runners-up.  

The Irish representatives Nicola Byrne & Mick Donegan finished in a surprisingly high third place, given their lack of experience in ballroom dancing. You can watch the couple's two performances on the left. Unlike this year's Eurovision Song Contest, where the neighbourly and diaspora voting gained more coverage than the actual songs, the Eurovision Dance Contest had far less obvious partially in the voting, although once again Ireland's immigrant community played a big part in the televote, with Lithuania gaining the 12 points and Poland the 10.

Despite disappointing ratings in some countries (including hosts United Kingdom) the contest is likely to be repeated again next year and once again the BBC is likely to host the event. Unlike this year, when entry was by invitation only and limited to Eurovision's biggest financial contributors, next year's competition may be open to all members of the EBU. After this year's good result (Ireland's first Top 3 Eurovision result in a decade) , RTÉ is likely to enter once again.

In other Eurovision related news, the Irish branch of OGAE (the international Eurovision fan club) has chosen its entry for the annual "Second Chance" competition, organised by the fanclub. The competition is designed to give more exposure to songs which missed out in the national Eurovision pre-selections and members of OGAE choose their favourite using Eurovision style voting. The 2007 Irish entry is "Until We Meet Again" which was the public's second choice to represent Ireland in Helsinki. The song which was written by Malachi Cush, Don Mescall, Pam Sheyne and Martin Sutton was the only uptempo entry in the four song selection.  You can watch the videos of the 21 songs competing in this year's "Second Chance" contest here. Meanwhile in a second song contest for non Eurovision related songs, also organised by OGAE the Irish entry is "So Far Away" sung by Ronan Keating, a ex-Boyzone singer who co-cost the Eurovision Song Contest ten years ago, and who many believe may one day represent Ireland in the competition. Details of that OGAEL Song Contest 2007, can be found here. 

Most Irish fans might want to forget this year's Eurovision Song Contest, given the fact that it was the country's worst ever result, but one journalist has decided to remind us all of the humiliation of May. A tongue in cheek article in yesterday's Sunday Independent drew a parallel between the last place achieved by the Irish entry and other recent failures by the country in various sporting and artistic endeavours. It did however make some very valid comments onwhy Irish Eurovision entries may not be doing so well recently and how we may need to revert to how we did things in the past, if we are to repeat out former achievements. You can read that article here. 

18th August

Late summer is typically the quietest time of the year for Eurovision related news, and this year is no exception. Following Ireland's worst ever Eurovision result in Helsinki in May, media attention was predictably negative, with both RTÉ's decision to selection Irish traditional band Dervish, and neighbourly voting by Eastern European countries gaining most column inches and airtime. Indeed in the aftermath of the result, Ireland's future participation in the Eurovision Song Contest was questioned by many journalists and fans, but it now appears that the competition's most successful country will be back in 2008, but the selection process may be different from the past couple of years.

Among those most loudly critical of RTÉ was Louis Walsh (left), former manager of Eurovision winners Johnny Logan and Linda Martin who appears to believe that the national bradcaster needs to invest more money in the Eurovision selection, and believes that the recent choices have been old fashioned and outdated. How much coinsideration will be given to Walsh's opinion is unclear, but early rumours suggest next year may possibly see the return of an old style multi artist National Song Contest, in a new format with the possibility of specially commissioned songs by prominent songwriters. If this is to happen we can expect an announcement within the next couple of months.

One format that is unlikely to be used is the "You're A Star", the national talent search which was used to choose Ireland's Eurovision entrants in 2003,2004 and 2005, with differeing results. The show which is about to enter its sixth season despite the fact that the three most recent winners have all failed to turn their victory in the competition into commercial sucess. This year former Eurovision winner Linda Martin has been controversially dropped from the panel and among the replacements is Brian McFadden, former member of Westlife, and co-writer of Ireland's 2004 entry "If My World Stopped Turning", sung by Chris Doran in Istanbul.  

Following the 2007 result, Ireland will have to qualify for the final in Belgrade in 2008, but a potential change in the format of next year's contest, may give whoever respresents Ireland in Serbia a slightly better chance of progressing. Following this year's controversial result, when Eastern European countries dominated the contest, due in no small part to neighbourly and emigrant voting, the EBU is considering only allowing the 2007 winners Serbia and Eurovision's "Big 4" (France, Germany, Spain and the U.K.) to take automatic places in the 2008 final, with the other twenty places coming from two semi-finals. While the change to the format is yet to be officially announced, it is likely that only those countries participating in each semi final will vote in that show, thereby lessening the impact of the block votes.

Despite the disappointing result in Helsinki, and a considerable amount of criticism, Dervish have resumed their successful careers on the folk and traditional music circuits and have recently played concerts in France and the United States. The group's new album "The Travelling Show" is scheduled to go into shops next month, having been put back from its original May release slot.

The album will include their Eurovision song "They Can't Stop The Spring" and also "The Thought Of You", another song from the Irish Eurosong selection. The album takes its title from a line from the old Cher hit "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves", which Dervish have also recorded for inclusion on the album. You can watch the band performing the song on the clip on the left.

Another former Irish Eurovision act finding success abroad is three time winner Johnny Logan. At home in Ireland Johnny has been a constant sight on television over the past few months, due to his link up with American fast food chain McDonalds, however in Scandinavia he is enjoying a resurgence in his recording career, and has had his first number one album.

"The Irish Collection" was recorded earlier this year by Johnny and a group of predominently Danish musicans. The album predominently contains traditional Irish songs such as "The Wild Rover", "Molly Malone" and "Whiskey In The Jar" but there are also some more contemporary Irish favourites like "Dirty Old Town", "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "The Town I Loved So Well", the latter written by Eurovision winner Phil Coulter. You can find more details on the album on Johnny's official website.

The album has gone gold in Denmark and platinum in Norway, where it has also topped the chart and its success there has meant that it will also be released in Sweden. At this stage there are no plans to release the album in Ireland or the U.K., although that may change as Johnny is returning to Ireland to play two gigs in October. On 21st October Johnny will play Dublin's Vicar Street and three days later he will play in Cork's Opera House.

Finally for this news update, Irish Eurovision fans may be interested in the first Eurovision Dance Contest which is being hosted by the BBC and will be staged in London on September 1st. The show is the latest attempt by the EBU to spread the Eurovision concept beyond the long established Song Contest. In 2003, the "Junior Eurovision Song Contest" was established and while that competition continues, it has made no impact in either Ireland or the U.K., with both RTÉ and BBC ignoring the show.

The competition is the first international contest reflecting the increased intrest in televised dance shows which has spread throughout Europe and beyond. Sixteen countries will compete in the first Eurovision Dance Contest, which will be co-hosted by Irishman Graham Norton and the European public will decide the winners by televoting after the couples have danced two routines.

The Irish dancers were selected on the recent series of "Celebrity Jigs & Reels". Nicola Byrne & Mick Donegan (left) are both former members of the "Riverdance" touring shows. You can read more about them and the first Eurovision Dance Contest on the official website.