Brian Kennedy, who represented Ireland at Eurovision 2006, has branded the contest as “a waste of time”.
No more involvement in Eurovision
The singer-songwriter spoke to The Irish Daily Star, declaring his thoughts on the song contest. He represented his home country in 2006 with the song ‘Every Song Is a Cry for Love’, finishing 10th in the final.
Despite his previous involvement, Kennedy says that – like Serbia this year – he has “washed his hands of the Eurovision Song Contest”.
“I think because of how it’s gone, it’s a waste of time because you know the way that it’s structured now. God love us, we don’t seem to have a chance.”
Brian Kennedy on Eurovision to The Irish Daily Star
Furthermore, Kennedy says he is asked “every year” to get involved in the contest, either to sing at a party or judge songs.
In contrary to his comment on Eurovision being a waste of time, he still believes that Ireland should carry on taking part.
“No, I think we’re a country that never gives up on anything, so I think we should restructure ourselves. I got us into the final and Ryan (O’Shaughnessy, Eurovision 2018 participant) did. It is possible.”
This year’s song “wasn’t Irish enough”
Brian Kennedy also commented on Ireland’s attempt at this year’s Eurovision. He described Brooke Scullion as “so much better than most of the other people”, however, believed that her song “wasn’t Irish enough”.
“I think culturally, everything has become very watered down. Everything has become very homogenised. Years ago, we knew it was Ireland representing us. You could hear the accent, there was something Irish about the song. I think it’s dangerous to just sound like everybody else and clearly it didn’t work.”
Brooke’s song ‘That’s Rich’ failed to qualify from the semi-final. As a result, Kennedy feels that Ireland should return to what the country does best, “a great ballad and a great vocal performance”.
In order to culturally make a stamp in Eurovision, Brian Kennedy said it might be “clever” to mix English and Irish in their future entries.
“A bit of Irish and English would be the way to go but I think culturally we need to make a stamp and say this Ireland because I don’t think we had this for a while.”
Ireland in Eurovision 2022
Brooke won Eurosong 2022 to represent Ireland with her song ‘That’s Rich’, which was written by herself alongside Izzy Warner and Karl Zine. She failed to qualify from the second semi-final in Turin, finishing in 15th place.
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Go away Brian. You know nothing about Eurovision!
From an Irish person.
i agree with him he was amazing when he did it ireland needs to send more ballads and not dated pop songs go back to the 90s powerballads they were amazing