Thank you Albania
(IRMA, is there anything you can do here, it might be a better use of your time?)
Albania’s tastes must be as bad as our own, they were the only country to vote for Ireland (five points) on Saturday night’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Ireland first participated in 1965, and of the 40 appearances between then and now, our previous worst outing was in 2005, when we came a lowly 14th. Last night we managed 24th and last position.
The once proud music tradition of Ireland’s Eurovision entries, seven-times-winners, lies in tatters. Damn-it, we won it three-times-in-a-row between 1992 and 1994!
With the Balkan-bloc, the Baltic-bloc and the Russian-bloc, it’s hard to imagine another western-European winning this competition again. Serbia won this year: they were awarded the competition’s maximum score by five of its eight neighbours. Political back-scratching was thinly disguised.
Dervish, who I admire (in a non-Eurovision setting), were one of the few acts on the night to brandish more than one music instrument on stage. Perhaps it’s time for a rethink on a number of issues:
1. Should we let the Irish public vote for our Eurovision representative each year, a democratic vote is evidently a poor selector.
2. The voting procedure: it needs to change. Croatia giving Serbia, who gave Croatia in return, 12 points. Come on! Do you not remember the war!?
3. Do we really need to endure such insult at all? Only because Albania’s tastes are so… dated… compared to the rest of Europe did we get any points at all.
Bah-humbug.
Declan
I wouldn’t be so hard on Albania. They are an enlightened people with an indigenous music scene similar to our trad’ music (which is why they probably liked Dervish). Coming last in Eurovision shows us how revered (not) we are in Europe. Traditionally we were poor and likeable and we yearned to be liked. Now we are a wealthy nation that doesn’t care what people think about us……. and it shows.
p.s. What about those ungrateful Poles, Latvians and Lithuanians? Not one miserly vote between them for us.