IT’S A LONG time ago at this stage – but Ireland was once the undisputed champion of the Eurovision Song Contest.
We claimed the Eurovision crown for three years in a row back in the 1990s – sealing our title as the most successful country ever at the contest.
We won an astounding seven times between 1970 and 1996. One man, Johnny Logan, had a hand in three of those victories – either as singer of composer.
It may be 21 years since we last had a winner (that was Eimear Quinn with The Voice) – but that impressive record still stands.
Right behind us in the all-time league table is Sweden with six wins – ABBA claimed the Scandinavian country’s first victory in 1974.
After that, the UK, France and Luxembourg have five each, the Netherlands have four, and Israel and Denmark each have three.
And if you’re wondering why we don’t win the damn thing anymore – here’s what Eurovision expert and Irish jury coordinator Paul G Sheridan told us last year:
“What happened is that the year after we last won it in Oslo they introduced televoting for five countries.
After that experiment, in 1998 they decided to go fully-fledged. So with the televote and the loss of influence of members of the jury, it just goes to show that the members of the public thought differently to the panel of ‘experts’ if you like.
The change benefited countries in Eastern Europe most – Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine all won during the first few years of tele-voting.
Sheridan said the size of the population in Eastern countries, combined with the fact that many of those nations had a high volume of emigrants across the continent in those years, meant the balance of power swung away from the west.
The voting system was altered again in 2009 as national juries were brought back (they now account for 50% of the total vote).
We’ve had seven contests since then, and while power may have swung back to the west slightly, the title still hasn’t gone to any country this side of Norway since the UK claimed it, the year after our last triumph (tele-voting was still only in its infancy that year).
If you want to know more about why we don’t win the Eurovision anymore (glutton for punishment?) check out the full article from last May here.
Brendan Murray will represent Ireland at this year’s contest in Kiev, with the song Dying to Try.
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