I always get excited at the prospect of the forthcoming Eurovision at about this time every year. I usually try to suppress it, but it never works! It’s hard not to get excited when you hear that Diane Warren will pen the UK entry.
I can’t exactly pin it down, but there’s a very 90s feel to the contest so far, probably a lot to do with the return of the jury. From an Irish perspective I can only hope 2009 ends up somewhat like 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 or 1997. The perceptive among you will quickly cop what I mean. Actually just writing those six years down really hits home what an amazing height we fell from. Talking to a few people in RTÉ didn’t give me too much hope for this year’s selection either. Even the choosing of a date seems to be giving them awful trouble. It’s changed from February 20th to March 6th and back again, and I think there was another date mentioned as well.
There seems to be a wish among the general fan population in Ireland that Leona Daly should go to Moscow for us this year. I’m not so sure I’m of that school of thought. I think she performed well last year, but I think Dustin saved her from an embarrassment in Belgrade.
I think we’ve fallen into a situation where were delighted with below par entries. I don’t think that great songs require well-known names, but they sure do provide some guarantee that their song will be a good one. I can only hope for someone with a fantastic pair of lungs and a ballad to match manages to get into Eurosong 2009 and win.
The news that RTÉ wouldn’t be able to manage another high quality outside broadcast for the 2009 final didn’t come as a surprise, but is nonetheless regrettable. The quality of this year’s show will rely fully on the quality of the songs, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. The time between the closing date for entries and the final itself is only about three weeks which could mean that the entries don’t get mangled by RTÉ like they normally do when they have the time to mess around with perfectly good work.
What I’m really hoping for at this stage is that the British public has the sense to pick Jade and that the UK win the contest in May. And I’ll finally get to experience a Eurovision on home turf, well… it’s near enough!
