At the start of April, Eurovision Ireland entered its 10th anniversary year. Now that the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest and its aftermath is over, we thought it was about time we got around to celebrating. Some of the current team, along with some of our contributors, have put their thoughts together.

Today, we are looking at our favourite Eurovision Song Contest from the first ten years of Eurovision Ireland.

John

My favourite contest in 10 years probably has to be 2012. Baku put on an excellent show, having thrown plenty of money at it. The venue was shiny, the entertainment during the fortnight was very good. Song wise my favourite didn’t win, in fact I still find the winner a little bit ordinary. But it was a good crop of songs. 

Richard

One of my favourite Contests in the last ten years would be 2013. Yes it was probably one of the most predictable winners for a Contest, but it was also the Contest that Mum came and shared the whole experience. While Mum hasn’t been back to the Contest, with the exception of two Melodifestivalen finals (2019 & 2020), I now have a member of the family who appreciates the spectacle that the Contest is – inside and out of the host venue. 2013 also was one of the few occasions when the host city wasn’t in a capital city.

Sarah

Rotterdam 2021, an emotional year as Eurovision had been cancelled the year before because of Covid  and having Eurovision back  the following year, albeit with some restrictions still in place was what I and other fans of the contest needed after one of the most difficult years every experienced in life so far.

Phil (OnEurope)

Eurovision 2018. I’d always wanted to go to Lisbon but with Portugal’s dismal record in the contest I never expected it to ever happen.  For me, it did not disappoint.  Lovely weather, great press facilities – apart from the lack of air conditioning in the heat – and copious amounts of food and drink at reasonable prices.  Oh, and the contest was held there as well!

Roy (Eurovision Apocalypse)

My usual glib answer to this question is whatever the most recent one was. But there was just something about Kyiv in 2017 that made it a bit special. It was already one of my favourite cities on Earth, but they really pushed out the boat with their friendly welcome that year, which was enhanced all the more by the faces of my Portuguese friends when Salvador’s points began to roll in. Bloody magical! So it’s absolutely devastating to see what’s happening there now.

Let us know what you think about Eurovision Ireland’s 10th Anniversary – either in the comments below or on our FACEBOOK and TWITTER pages.

Author: Richard Taylor

Source: Eurovision Ireland