Johnny Logan – Eurovision Legend – blames RTE for Ireland coming 26th in the contest. Photograph Wikipedia

“RTE are to blame for Ireland’s Eurovision Flop” according to 3 time Eurovision Winning Legend Johnny Logan. Speaking to the Irish newspaper The Herald – Logan said that “”I would tell Ryan to hold his head up because he pulled off a brilliant performance. He did us proud.” This is a sentiment that we here at Eurovision Ireland agree with. Ryan and team were sensational throughout the 2 weeks in Sweden.

Where it all went wrong according to Logan was with RTE. The blame lies, Logan believes, with RTE for their sidelining of the Irish Eurosong competition into The Late Late Show. “I like Ryan Tubridy and the Late Late Show, but I don’t think it’s the correct setting to pick our Eurovision song. They had an interview with Danny DeVito in the middle of this year’s contest. How can that be right?”

Logan then drew a contrast with the Danish Final that selected the ultimate Eurovision Winner “Only Teardrops” where he was part of the interval act. “It was a huge live TV show in front of 15,000 fans at an indoor arena in Herning, Denmark. You get a much better idea of how a song is going to translate to a massive audience at an event like that.”

The one factor that Johnny forgets is that a show the size of the Danish National costs a serious amount of money and their economy is not constrained like that of the Irish. We actually discussed this exact topic last year with the then Head of Irish Delegation Mr Julian Vignoles and he explained why the Late Late Show is used to showcase the Irish National Finalists.

We will agree on one thing with Johnny (whom we love) and that is that Ryan and the team were amazing at Eurovision and that this is the start of a career for Ryan that we sure will grow!

Author/Website co-founder and Editor in Chief Garrett Mulhall

Source – Herald.ie and Eurovision Ireland.