Revealed: Ireland received just 28 points in Eurovision semi-final and Irish televoters gave Israel maximum points

Irish Independent

18-05-2025

Austria won the competition last night for the third time with classically-trained singer JJ and his pop-opera song Wasted Love, while Israel's Yuval Raphael's came second with her song New Day Will Rise.
The details of the televoting and jury voting can now be revealed, with the Irish entry failing to break into the top ten in the second semi-final on Thursday night.
Ireland finished in 13th place and received 28 points in total – drawing with both the Serbian and Georgian entries – with a country having needed at least more than 51 votes to surpass Armenia's entry Survivor to make the grand final.
Israel qualified in first place with 203 points, having received the maximum 12 points from multiple country's televoters, including in Ireland.
Irish voters gave Israel 12 points in the second semi-final and 10 points in the final, while the Irish jury, which is made up of five industry professionals, gave Israel seven points in the Eurovision grand final.
Qualifiers are revealed in no particular order on the night of the semi-final, with detailed voting results later showing how viewers and juries voted.
Latvia earned the number two spot in the second semi-final, followed by Finland, Greece and Austria.
Australian entry Milkshake Man by Go-Jo also failed to qualify on Thursday night in what was seen as a shock twist in the competition, with detailed voting results showing the song ranked 11 out of 16.
Just ten songs were able to advance to the next stage of the competition.
The Irish entry about the Russian space dog having a 'party in the sky' did not resonate with viewers as had been hoped, with Ireland receiving seven points from the UK, six from Malta, four from Latvia, two from five countries, including Australia, and one point from the rest of the world.
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In the second semi-final, Irish televoters gave 12 points to Israel, 10 points to Lithuania, eight to Latvia, seven to Finland, six to Austria, five to Denmark, four to Malta, three to Australia and Czechia, two to Luxembourg and one point to Greece.
In the final, Irish televoters gave the Polish entry its coveted 12 points, while Israel received 10 points.
They gave eight to Lithuania, seven to Ukraine, six to Estonia, five to Finland, four to Austria, three to Latvia, two to Sweden and one point to Spain.
The Irish jury voters, which included Dermot McEvoy, Edward Porter, Kofi Appiah, Helen Jordan Guthrie and Tara Murray, gave winners Austria 12 points.
The Netherlands received 10 points, France received eight and Israel received seven points from the Irish jury vote, the results of which were announced by Westlife's Nicky Byrne.
Malta received six points from the Irish jury, Sweden received five and Finland received four.
Three points went to Greece, two points went to the UK and one point went to Armenia.
It was a dramatic final in Switzerland, with just 79 points separating the Austrian and Israeli entries.
There had been calls for Israel to be excluded from the competition, with protests taking place in Basel throughout the week – including on the streets last night.
A small number of protesters attempted to disrupt the Israeli singer's final performance but were blocked by security officials.
RTÉ director-general Kevin Bakhurst met with the European Broadcasting Union last week to raise concerns about Israel's inclusion in the contest.