Ireland: Eurosong 2025 Preview
The overall quality in this year's edition of Ireland's selection feels higher than ever and there’s not a bad song in the bunch with Bambie Thug’s high finish of 6th last year giving a renewed enthusiasm - not enough to move out of the corner of the Late Late show studio but still, this is a good step forward for RTE.
Bobbi Arlo starts as favourite and is heavily odds on in some places. Powerplay is the most distinctive song and the natural successor to Doomsday Blue. A large part of the favouritism is the belief Ireland will go for the closest entry possible to last year’s having cracked the code that being different can be just as important as being exceptional. The fact Bambi herself is on the studio jury is a further reminder and likely nudge to the audience, as well as jury scoring positive in theory. Much like Bobbi is the combative type to come across this preview and throw it back in my face for a slight, I am also the type to do my research and a tweet from her admitting poor vocals in rehearsals was interesting. I wouldn't hang up on that because, rehearsals, but there was the implication improving them is not on the cards. In fact, today her voice has “gone” apparently. Trolling? Will all be well on the night, or will a 66% jury final find too much to punish.
Samantha Mumba has been in the rumour mill for years and is finally present bringing the most name recognition and status albeit from quite a while back. Again, this is why we have another real test on the demographics voting here. Her entry My Way is a muddled song that feels like a vocal from one track has been placed over two seperate ones. It is a production disaster frankly and on some metrics the lowest rated in the fan community. The saving grace here is that this could be far better with live setting audio mixing and Samantha is by far the most experienced performer who should elevate this. Sometimes nice production intricacies are lost when you don’t listen through headphones to the studio song - but it’s the opposite here. This theory of mine considerably narrows the gap between the top 2 in my mind.
I don't really see the other 4 threatening here. Emmy has a fun silly Eurovision song but will surely be hampered the most by the expected lack of big staging and less vocal protection than she was afforded with her Witch Woods at mgp 2011. Not being Irish might also count against her.
Niyl's Growth is a strong ballad but one that could use a revamp and I’m not entirely vocally sold even in studio. It’s last in views and just seems lacking in hype and potential for a really misjudged fashion statement… Reylta's Fire feels the most out of date here and I just don’t see this picking up big points from th televote even if the juries appreciate it. Finally Adgy is back after two years and has gone to the effort of dying his hair and drafting in Eurovision winning producer Ivan Klymenko. He will surely be dissapointed to see his position in the odds. 26s might be a little harsh but I’m not going to make that case.
So overall, a tight battle between Bobbi Arlo and Samantha Mumba is expected with the live performances key and what I believe swings it to Samantha, whilst the Irish televote and domestic jury may still try to replicate last year's result and look over any performance issue more. Personally I’ve backed Samantha at 7.7 avg odds with 1.75~ taken on Bobbi to make her break even.
Prediction:
Samantha Mumba 34
Bobbi Arlo 30
Emmy 20
Niyl 18
Adgy 16
Reylta 8