Eurovision 2018

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Without meaning to be disrespectful, I was more shocked when Stephen Hawking and Jim Bowen died. But that's just me.

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We have the Semi Final running orders

Ireland's entry Ryan O'Shaugnessy is having his live interview & about to perform his entry on RTE's The Late Late Show right now.

I watched his performance tonight on the show, it looks like a performance which will get buried in the semi-finals and will not get through. Sitting on a stool with his guitar, two backing singers on stools and a woman on a piano. Boring and bland.

Ireland in Eurovision, coming soon:
- Fail to qualify from the semi-final
- Commentator complains that "our song was better than some of the rubbish that went through" as if he's a new music expert and not a presenter on Lyric FM, RTE's version of Radio 3.
- Ireland's interest in the contest falls another notch.
- Sweden eventually overtakes them for most wins.

At least the BBC is trying to turn things around.

Two points here. First of all he shouldn't be a presenter on Lyric FM either, he's not exactly a classical Music expert.

Secondly, RTE has no interest in trying to turn things around. Winning it would be a disaster as far as they're concerned. As viewers leave RTE so does advertising revenue, Staging Eurovision would only make matters much worse.

Who was the commentator mentioned here? Forgive me, I have never heard of him.

Sorry, is it Marty Whelan who is the commentator for RTE One Eurovision coverage?

I don't mean to be brutal about Marty, he is an entertaining listen with his commentary. But the denial about why Ireland does badly is Wogan circa 00s.

In fairness, I suppose he can't go on air and say RTE have f***ed up.

You ever watch BBC One and Graham's commentary?

It's probably fair to say that Marty remains faithful to Old Eurovision and hasn't fully embraced New Eurovision - rather like Wogan and rather unlike Graham.

And his grumbling when Ireland doesn't make the final has, unfortunately, started to irritate more than entertain...

I am a frequent contributor to the Eurovision threads over on Boards.ie, and one of the things I keep bringing up is who would be a good replacement for Marty. Personally, I'm tickled by the idea of Dáithí Ó Sé doing it, if only because he's from the Dingle Gaeltacht (like the legendary Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh). It's probably more likely to be Ryan bleeding Tubridy, though (rolls eyes), or a woman like Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh or Sinéad Kennedy.

I too have to be fair to Marty. He's actually a decent broadcaster who RTE have shoehorned into Lyric FM and to a lesser extent the Eurovision. He certainly can't say that RTE has made a mess of things once again when the Irish entry almost certainly disappoints.

RTE also have an issue with coverage of the Eurovision as a lot of Irish Eurovision fans watch the BBC coverage with Graham rather than with Marty. Any big fans that I know don't bother with RTE coverage. The fall off over the last 5 years in viewing figures has been dramatic with more than half the 2012 RTE audience disappearing by 2017.