Ireland 2024: Bambie Thug with ‘Doomsday Blue’

The good news is the only way is up in national final season with Ireland’s Late Late show Eurosong special resulting in Bambie Thug winning the ticket:

After plodding along with years of 'safe' entries Ireland have rebounded the other way and hard. You know that boring middle aged teacher you had at school? Well this is like catching him 2 months after the divorce in a gutter outside a Dublin tattoo parlour drenched in Guinness - it sure is an interesting and novel sight but also an embarrassing one. 

Ireland, RTE - you guys are not on to something here, if a Eurovision fairy appeared and offered qualification snap their hand off. I'm not going to address why this isn't like entries that have done well in the past, but I will give some examples of recent entries this probably shares a fate with namely 'Telemovies' (Por 2019), 'The Moon Is Rising' (LAT 2021) 'Stripper' (SM 2022). I know we have some shockingly uncompetitive entries in the semi finals already, but the standard will be higher than Eurosong and being different is unlikely to be enough. This is a less coherent or rythmic song than all of those.

That the Irish public went with it and that parts of the fandom love this does not convince me 'Doomsday Blue' has the needed appeal to make audiences across Europe pick up the phone and vote for this. 

In its plus column, it should at least stand out (though being zany is fast becoming the norm and this may also find competition from Slovenia and Norway should ‘Ulveham’ come through). There is staging potential though drastic changes are needed and that national final display was not it. It's also not particularly vulnerable to a running order or even semi split, a historic issue for Ireland, but less conservative minded countries in their semi would be a +. 

Overall, for me it's unquestionably the worst 'song' Ireland had in their selection, and their worst ever entry but there is at least a path for qualification which only would have applied to 'Go Tobann' and the two I was tipping were to be wrote off much harder. Qualification is ultimately not a path I expect this to take and the most likely outcome is a collective wtf that results in 5-20 pts and second last in the semi. 

Personal Rating: 0/10

Competitive Rating: 3/10

Early Prediction: NQ - 12th-16th in the semi final