Eurovision 2025 second semi-final live updates: Can Ireland's Emmy qualify with Laika Party?
18 minutes ago
Grüezi mitenand, this is Dublin calling with all the glittering action from the second semi-final in the 69th
Eurovision Song Contest
. Tonight in Basle,
Emmy
will be vying on behalf of Ireland to make it through to Saturday's grand final with her cosmic bop Laika Party.
Will Europe save its kisses for Ireland? Will Saturday night be a party under the
Swiss
sky for Emmy? Or will this semi-final be our Waterloo?
In the countdown to the show, I'll be recapping some of the rules and controversies, weighing up Emmy's chances and wondering how exactly to phrase the trigger warning I fear might be necessary for Australia's effort.
Then, as the competition shimmies into life at 8pm, I'll have a snap analysis of the 16 countries contending for 10 grand final spots, as well as the performances of pre-qualified entries from the UK, France and Germany. Expect dry ice and costume changes.
So, if you're home and willing, practise your best simultaneous toe-taps and eye-rolls, plate up your Euro-snacks and prepare to indulge in Eurovision 2025. Note: space helmets are optional, but recommended.
Boom-bang-a-banging reads:
'RTÉ said we don't have any problem with Emmy. We have an Irish writer on the team': Ireland's Eurovision singer from Norway
Eurovision 2025: When is Ireland's semi-final on, what are Emmy's chances and how does voting work?
Eurovision 2025 first semi-final: the 10 countries advancing to the final
3 minutes ago
Ireland is third in the running order tonight, a spot deemed unfavourable. This is because the results of the semi-finals depend entirely on the public vote, and the voting public are generally regarded as being a fickle lot who will be swayed by the last good thing(s) they heard.
Voting will open after the last song has been performed and it will stay open for around 18 minutes. You can vote up to 20 times, if you are so inclined, and I'll leave it to
Marty Whelan
on the
RTÉ
commentary tonight to explain how. But – and it's a drag, I know – you can't vote for your own country.
Ireland's qualification for Saturday night hangs in the balance. According to the aggregated bookmaker odds, we are the 13th most likely to qualify, having slipped in recent days from 11th. As there are only 10 qualifying spots, if this holds true, it will mean we won't get through.
Some fingers may need to be crossed.
13 minutes ago
Israel
's Yuval Raphael is fourteenth in the competition running order tonight with her balled New Day Will Rise.
She is a survivor of the Nova music festival near Gaza on October 7th, 2023, where Hamas attackers killed 360 people and took 40 people hostage. The singer, who was wounded by shrapnel, says she survived by hiding under dead bodies in a bomb shelter.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel's offensive began in the wake of the October 7th attacks.
The UN said on Tuesday that almost 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months as a result of Israel's aid blockade.
An analysis by UN-backed food security experts IPC has found that one in five people in Gaza, or 500,000 people, face starvation, with
2.1 million people across Gaza
likely to experience high levels of food insecurity by the end of September.
This is just part of the backdrop that has informed protests against Israel's inclusion in Eurovision, both in 2024 and this year. A
silent protest was held in Basle
on Wednesday. Last year, protestors in Malmö held signs reading 'Eurovision Genocide Contest'.
RTÉ is among the members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the contest, to have
asked for a 'wider discussion'
about Israel's participation – or, to be more accurate, the participation of Israeli broadcaster Kan. A group called Artists for Palestine wants the EBU to
expel Kan
.
The official EBU position is that, unlike its suspended Russian broadcaster members, Kan has not breached any of its membership rules.
However, no one is under any illusions. Although fractious international relations have regularly surfaced throughout Eurovision's 69-year history, the past two years have been the most tense and uncomfortable for the EBU – and for many Eurovision viewers, too.
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Regulations due this year to enable mandatory drug testing for gardaí
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It is not the first time that the GAA president has been asked about his plans as President Michael D Higgins' second seven-year term in office draws to a close. Earlier this year, Burns told a press briefing that a presidential bid is 'not on my radar'. "My plan is when I finish this job to go back to St Paul's, Bessbrook to be principal [the job he left to take over the three-year role as GAA president],' he said. '[It's] the place I love, the place I miss, even though this is the best job you could possibly have, that's where I belong anyway. So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to rule that out very clearly.' A recent Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll showed former European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness came out on top when voters were presented with a list of right-leaning candidates, with 24pc of respondents selecting the Fine Gael politician. 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A number of other figures, who have previously been considered potential candidates or frontrunners in a presidential race, have also ruled themselves out of the contest in recent months, including former Social Protection minister Heather Humphreys, broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill. Meanwhile, Burns addressed several other topical GAA issues, ranging from Gaelic football's 'radical' new rules to the long-running saga of the proposed redevelopment of Casement Park in Belfast, and the potential appetite for a third-tier football championship. On the new rules being trialled throughout this year, he said: 'Very, very pleased with it. Jim Gavin deserves so much credit, along with his committee, for what they have done. 'It was very rad ical. It was disruptive. But I think that if you look at the games, it has opened the game out incredibly. 'The one big fear that we had was how it would translate to club level. And now that the club leagues around the country are in full swing, I think it has gone really, really well at club level. 'I'm talking to club referees all the time. They love the fact that the discipline has improved,' he expanded. 'If you just look at a statistic from that. We played the U-20 All-Ireland final two weeks ago between Louth and Tyrone. No red cards. No black cards. No yellow cards. Not even a tick. 'So one of the big advantages from this has been the increase and the improvement in the discipline of the players. We are gradually changing our culture. 'Handing the ball over after you give a free, it doesn't allow for anybody who is in the mood to be disruptive … there is no benefit in doing that any more.' Burns indicated that there should be greater clarity this week on the future of Antrim's long-derelict 'home' in Casement Park. 'The Irish Government have been really supportive,' he said, 'and right behind us on this and extremely focussed on it, and deserve great credit for the fact that they've already pledged 40 million to it. 'This is the big week because of the June monitoring round, we will know on Wednesday exactly how much if anything that the British government are going to pledge to it. 'We have a (GAA) management meeting on Friday, we are going to discuss then our options, because at that stage we will be in a better position to speculate on exactly what we can build. 'But we are still focussed on building this stadium in Belfast that can hold Ulster finals,' he stressed. On the subject of a third-tier SFC for counties who might be struggling in the Tailteann Cup, he said they would 'certainly consider' one if there was an appetite around the country. 'We do consultations all the time in the provinces. When we went to the provinces (last year), we found that there was an appetite in Munster for it – but not in Leinster,' the former Armagh player outlined. 'So we're not just ready for that yet. We don't want it to become a glorified Division 4 of the National League, because those teams already see each other. "And there is a big novelty if a team rocks up against Kildare, let's say, and beats them – or Fermanagh, or some of the teams that you might raise eyebrows at for being in it. 'But these competitions don't lie down, and if you're in the Tailteann Cup you're in it for a reason.'
