‘This is what I do for a living', rages RTE star reigniting Samantha Mumba Eurovision row & defending ‘honest' actions

The Irish Sun

16-05-2025

DANCING With The Stars judge Arthur Gourounlian has hit back at Samantha Mumba after she blasted him and other Eurosong judges for their "unnecessarily rude and vile" comments.
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Arthur Gourounlian has reignited the Eurovision row with Samantha Mumba
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Samantha Mumba raged about comments made on her performance during the RTE Eurosong
Credit: RTE
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The Eurosong judging panel consisted of Arthur, Laura Fox , Donal Skehan and Bambi Thug
The Irish panel, made of TV chef
judge
and last year's Irish Eurovision entrant
Mumba lost out on a chance to represent
In an online rant, unhappy
Sam insisted the judges — apart from Bambie — weren't 'factually qualified for the job' and were 'a bunch of absolute bozos'.
Irate Samantha also branded them 'unnecessarily rude and vile' and said she hoped they 'choke on a bag of gone off d****.'
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Singling out choreographer Arthur, she said he was 'a dancer with no formal training critiquing a song/songwriting contest is laughable at best'.
But Arthur told The Irish Sun: 'My CV speaks for itself. I am not going to boast about it.
'I'm a nice person and what happened with Samantha wasn't nice. If you go on a show like Eurosong, you expect to be criticised, and if you don't want to be criticised, don't go on.
'No one forced Samantha in that competition. I am judge on TV. This is what I do for a living and I have to be honest.
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'But I had nothing against Sam. It was the song she sang and we were judging a song for the Eurovision Song Contest.'
Despite the flak, Arthur, 44, said he would judge on Eurosong again because he feels part of the legacy of the competition having worked with Eurovision winners.
Judge's blown away by Emmy's performance
He said: 'If RTE asked me to come back and judge on Eurosong. I would do it in a shot'.
Arthur was speaking at a promotional event for Newbridge Silverware launching their brand-new Legendary Blue Box campaign — a tribute to timeless style and craftsmanship.
His husband
Brian said: 'Arthur trained himself. He was living in
"So he trained himself. It didn't stop him touring the world with so many amazing people.'
SUPPORT SHOWN
Following the row, some of the other Eurosong ­contestants came out in support of Mumba after her tirade at the panel.
In the aftermath of the contest, songwriter Reylta, 25, likened the panel to a bunch of mean girls 'trying to outdo each other' with their put-downs.
'HAD TO CONSOLE PEOPLE'
She told
'We were telling each other, 'Don't listen to them, what they're saying is not true.'
'I had to console people and other people tried to console me.'
Unhappy Reylta said the judges could have given their comments 'with a bit more dignity'.
NO REGRETS
She added: 'It felt like a couple of girls talking away to each other in a bar, like the people weren't right behind the curtain listening.'
But rising star Reylta — dubbed ­
Alt-Folk Queen — said she had no regrets about taking part in Eurosong and had been well treated by
RTE.
And Ireland's Eurovision Song Contest rep Emmy also said she was 'scared' of the Irish judges.
Emmy said: 'I love
'And because we are humans with feelings. . . we have feelings, even though we put ourselves out there so panels – when music is what we do – make comments, it can be really scary, yeah, because we have feelings.'
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Emmy was selected to represent Ireland at the Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland
Credit: Splash News
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Some Eurosong contestant backed Samantha Mumba after the row
Credit: Andres Poveda LTD