Ireland 2018 • Ryan O’Shaughnessy - "Together"

The complete lack of interest in this thread just goes to show the absolute state Ireland's Eurovision participation is in. Dire. Dead. RTÉ's obsession with the past and lack of invention is disappointing beyond belief. What's another year seems to be the motto the broadcaster is going by, where mediocrity has become the norm. This season itself has shown how terrible RTÉ is at participating in the contest. A supposed huge (private) forum taking place to see what we can do to improve our performance, yet we've settled for another ballad (not to say this ballad will be bad, but RTÉ's notion of a ballad certainly doesn't pique any interest). 

I attended the forum held in the Irish university last year, and whilst the talks were interesting from an academic perspective, not much insight was given into how songs are selected. I do recall Linda Martin saying the song quality can be awful, from hymns to lyrics on tissue (I don't really want to go in to her opinions - cuz god they're bad). We get rumours of the Heathers not participating due to not being allowed to sing a self-penned song (although idk if this is to be believed considering Ryan's part in his song). It's obvious RTÉ believes we should be able to waltz into the contest and qualify based on the merit of songs sent over 20 years ago. Even when we do get a half-decent song (2014, 15), the production and staging is abysmal. Today, the latest artist two radio presenters could recall was Jedward, and even then 8th wasn't seen as being a respectful position for an uptempo pop song. You can't shake a culture of music snobbery if all the people you have in charge of choosing our act remain stagnant. We get told we can't afford a national final, not that the ones we hosted were any good. Calling garbage on that one. Our fellow small countries throughout Europe can put together competent selections, and even our Irish channel broadcaster can put together a proper stage for a selection. RTÉ radio played just Irish artists today celebrating the choice awards. Some incredible songs were played, from pop, to rock, to R&B, to Hip-hop. Yet we get more of the same. Do the artists not want to participate? Is RTÉ just not interested in trying hard enough to get an artist to try something new? We're tired of Celtic. We're tired of ballads. We have so many talented singers and song writers. No offence to Brendan, but who on earth thought that song was in anyway interesting or modern? Nicky Byrne was just an RTÉ baby. 

Ireland is currently (I think) on the worst non-qualification streak of all countries. I think Ryan could be a good choice, and of course there is no point in writing it off before the song is heard. But IF the song is another dated and drab ballad, surely after 5 NQs in a row heads should roll in the delegation. Times have moved on, and the Irish music scene has moved with it, a quick glance at a Spotify playlist of fresh Irish artists would tell you that in minutes. It is just RTÉ that is stuck in this pathetic loop of mediocrity and false sense of superiority that we should be rewarded for this mediocrity. Eurovision is a huge platform for these artists, but giving them shit songs isn't going to get them remotely interested. If a song is shit, why isn't there some honesty within the delegation to just say it. They just love to keep everything shrouded in secrecy. I feel sorry for upcoming artists who haven't been properly supported by RTÉ.

Anyway that's an end to my rant. Probably poorly written.

I will hope that Ryan's song will be good, and naively hope that this will be the beginning of a turning point for Ireland. 

It's not bad but it's not 'jaw-dropping' at the same time.