Eurovision 1976- Ireland - May 9th 2025

Hiya and welcome to Eurovision Histories where today we are going pretty far back in time to 1976. A time of Smash Martians, blackouts and flares! And today we are hopping over the Irish Sea to talk about their entry from that year ! 

The 21st Eurovision Song Contest was held in The Hauge, Netherlands on April 3rd. It was hosted by 1957 Eurovision Winner Corry Brokken and 18 participating countries fought it out to claim the Eurovision title ! We had some pre contest drama with Sweden's withdrawal due to money issues ( they couldn't afford to host another contest if they won) as well as public demonstrations. 

But we are here to get the facts before we dive in so here they are. A link to the Performance is also here if you've never seen it or it's escaped your memory. 

Song: When
Artist: Red Hurley 
Place : 10th
Points : 54 


Ireland performed 7th in the evening, after Belgium and before The Netherlands. It was conducted by vetran conductor , Noel Kelehan.Their entry this year is a ballad,  such in English,  where Red is singing to a lost love, wanting them to come back to him and reminiscing about their time together. Hence the title, he's thinking of when they were together. 

Red who is dressed all in green with 3 female backing singers also all dressed in green, with green lighting behind him gives quite a static performance, which suits the song. He goves good facial expressions and it is a pretty solid vocal performance as well. The song builds , starting softly building to the 2nd chorus where he belts and then diminishes to a slightly quieter melody and then builds to the big finish at the end. Musically it's a little predictable but the strong vocal helps to sell it.  

Ireland received 54 points with 1 set of 12  points from Italy and a set of 10 from the UK. They received points from 11 countries out of the 17. They reciprocated their 12 which went to Italy. 

So to sum this one up in 3 words then... let's go for competent, passionate and classic. Ireland does a ballad well... well at least that used to be the case back in these days. 

Until the next time, remember history is important especially if it's Eurovision History !!!

Ellie x 

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