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“A FEW YEARS ago the idea of Ireland winning the Eurovision would have been a joke but now we could actually say that we have a chance. We could actually be dark horses. I never thought I would actually say that.”
Irish Eurovision fans who spoke to The Journal after the dress rehearsal for the first semi-final were in ecstatic form. Staged in front of a full crowd at the Malmö Arena, the two-and-a-half hour show – sans the actual voting – was filmed ‘as live’ last night.
Chants of ‘crown the witch’ – essentially the campaign slogan of the Irish act, Bambie Thug – rang out as young Irish fans made their way back to their hotels through the nearby Hyllie Train Station.
The heavy police presence didn’t dampen their spirits. There’s high security at the arena and other venues where Eurovision events are taking place amid increased tensions due to the debate over Israel’s inclusion in the contest.
That security presence is likely to be ramped up further still later in the week when Israel perform in Thursday’s show.
Tonight, Croatia and Ukraine – both among the favourites to win – will compete against Ireland and twelve other nations for a place in Saturday’s final.
Ireland and Croatia got the loudest reception from the crowd during last night’s run through. There were dozens of Irish fans in the venue, but the raucous cheers for Bambie Thug’s turn came from all quarters of the arena.
With one exception in 2018, Ireland now has a decade-long run of not progressing beyond the two weekday shows.
The Cork-born ‘witch’ is hotly-tipped to break that spell. Surrounded by a ring of candles and accompanied by choreographer Matt Williams in the guise of a mythic half-man, half-monster, their performance builds to an intense crescendo replete with pyrotechnics and a surprise costume change.
“They topped the night,” one Irish fan, Killian, told The Journal. His friend, David, reckoned it wouldn’t be unreasonable now to believe the Macroom singer could win the entire thing.
Nodding beside him another friend, Matthew, agreed and said the whole performance was “very different for Ireland”.
Across the street, two generations of an extended Dublin family were also enthusing about the night.
“Amazing, incredible,” Lorna O’Neill said. Her mum, Georgina, agreed. Her dad, Declan, said the Germans and Lithuanians who were around them in the arena had joined in with the Irish chanting.
“I actually think it got the best reaction tonight – that and Croatia,” Georgina’s cousin, Jimmy Kempson, reckoned.
His sons Ronan and Daragh were equally won over. “The staging was breaktaking,” Daragh said. Ronan said he’d started to entertain the prospect that Ireland could win the actual final but didn’t particularly want to say it out loud.
“I don’t want to jinx it.”
The Irish team will have another chance to iron out any final kinks in the performance in yet another full rehearsal of the semi-final show this afternoon before the live televised show kicks off tonight and the competitors throw themselves at the mercy of the world’s Eurovision viewers.
Bambie Thug – who is also recovering from a health scare at the weekend – won’t be doing any further press ahead of the show today.
The singer – speaking at the contest’s launch event – conceded that there is a “massive cloud” hanging over this year’s Eurovision, but insisted they would be focused on “giving the performance of a lifetime”.
They have come in for criticism in recent months over their decision not to boycott due to Israel’s presence.
However, as that debate has intensified in recent weeks, pro-Gaza voices within the Irish music scene have also criticised other campaigners for unfairly heaping pressure on the singer instead of on RTÉ, which manages Ireland’s entry, or song contest organisers the European Broadcasting Union.
Speaking on the Late Late Show in recent weeks Bambie Thug said they stood with those supporting a boycott, but still intended to take part in the contest. At Sunday’s Eurovision launch they argued the competition’s entrants could be regarded as “easy targets” and that critics “should be contacting” the national broadcaster or the EBU.
The singer has also been subjected to hateful comments online in response to their performance and because of their identity as a non-binary person.
Speaking yesterday, they said some of those online comments had been intense and hurtful. “I was expecting to get hate regardless. Unfortunately if you are queer in the world, it just comes on a day-to-day whether you’re in the spotlight or not.”
They added, however, that they were feeling “very safe” at Eurovision and had had “a lot of support”.
Two large-scale pro-Gaza protests have been planned for the city later in the week – one on Thursday to coincide with Israel’s first appearance and another on Saturday when the Grand Final takes place.
“We don’t think a state that is carrying out genocide in Gaza should be taking part – we want Israel stopped from taking part,” Yomn Kadoura, a Palestinian woman living in Malmö and one of the organisers of the protests told The Journal.
A large turnout is expected for the demonstrations. The majority of Sweden’s population of Palestinian origin lives in the port city, and it’s expected many Eurovision fans will also join them.
Organisers have said the protests, which have been given the official green light to go ahead, will be peaceful. However, as a precaution, jail cells in the city have been emptied and detainees sent elsewhere in Sweden to make room in case of a surge in arrests.
We’ll get a sense of whether Israel will be met with any kind of negative reaction within the arena when singer Eden Golan makes her debut in front of a live audience in tomorrow night’s dress rehearsal.
There’s been some talk among Eurovision fans of a “targeted boycott” that could include fans refusing to wave their LED wristbands in the air or even leaving their seats during Israel’s performances. Security experts have also warned of possible stage invasions.
Back to today’s events, and the only campaigning activity occupying the minds of the Irish fans already in Malmö primarily involves sharing the #crownthewitch hashtag on social media.
We may yet hear from Bambie Thug again at the press conference for the ten acts qualifying from tonight’s contest, in the very early hours of the morning.
- Videos edited by Sadbh Cox
The Journal’s Daragh Brophy is in Malmö covering the contest and surrounding events – you can follow him here on Twitter/X
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