Eimear Quinn: ‘They said you sang Norwegian Wood with him. It's on YouTube! I have no recollection. I was a massive A-ha fan and singing with Morten Harket must have blown my mind'
The Voice: title and repeated lyric of the song that made Eimear Quinn an unexpected star – both to the wider world and, even more so, to herself – and, amazingly in retrospect, marked the last time Ireland won the Eurovision Song Contest.
'I am the voice' was an appropriate refrain for this young woman (aged just 23 in 1996), a classically trained soprano who'd specialised in early and choral music, performing on the biggest stage of her life. Clad in Galadriel white and backed by trad musicians, Quinn trounced all opposition with Brendan Graham's composition: Ireland's fourth victory in five years and seventh in all.
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Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
RTE Eurovision bill shows staggering cost of sending act that missed the final
RTE splashed out just over €385,000 for two weeks in Basel, sending Norwegian singer Emmy to the Eurovision Song Contest. The national broadcaster splurged €50,785 for a hotel for 19 people who were part of the delegation who travelled to Switzerland in May. Emmy failed to secure a place for Ireland in the final with her tune Laika Party. A Freedom of Information request revealed production costs amounted to €79,242, transportation costs totalled €1,407, while €7,503 was spent on economy flights Basel. A spokesman for RTE said: 'Regarding travel and accommodation costs for Basel, it's important to note, the delegation decreased by 2 people (9.5%) from 2024 and the corresponding average travel cost per delegation member decreased from €4,069 to € 3,778 (7%).' According to the figures , the total spend for Ireland's flop at the Eurovision amounted to €385,761, which included €100,270 for our fee to the European Broadcasting Union and included licence to broadcast over nine hours of television across three nights. A spokesman for RTE said: 'Subtracting the European Broadcasting Union fee of €100,270 the remaining figure of €285,491 includes artist and designer fees, the cost of staging the performance including full dress rehearsals, graphics production, props, pyrotechnics, costumes, choreography, postcard filming, photography, attendance at pre-Eurovision promotional events and song recording and production among other elements.' A total of nineteen people travelled to Basel as part of the Irish Eurovision team. This grouping comprised seven RTÉ staff, the six Artists (performers) and technical/support people. The FOI showed a total of €2,538 was spent on 'representation', while 'subsistence costs' were €12,079. RTE said: 'The cost associated with Eurovision is two fold; one is to produce an act to represent Ireland in the biggest entertainment show in the world, to a standard that we can be proud of in front of an audience of 166 million viewers, the other is to provide over nine hours of live entertainment to an Irish audience who watch the competition in large numbers. 'The Eurovision Song Contest provided over eight and a half hours of live entertainment content - broken down the cost per hour was €42,860 - which by TV production standards represents very good value for money.' This year's Eurovision cost was €4,238 less than last year's spend, but €45,761 more than 2023. A consolidated 167,000 viewers watched the first semi-final on RTE2 on May 13, while a consolidated 299,000 watched the second semi-final, which Ireland performed in on May 15. On May 17, a consolidated 262,000 viewers watched the grand final on RTE One, despite Ireland not being in the final. In May, RTE requested a breakdown of this year's Eurovision Song Contest's public votes, despite the contest organiser stressing that its voting system is the 'most advanced in the world'. It comes after Spain's public broadcaster, Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), called for a "complete review" of the voting system to "avoid external interference and manipulation", referencing votes received by Israel in the public vote. RTVE President José Pablo López said he had "expressed great concern about Israel's participation, transparency, legitimacy and perceived integrity of the current voting system". Flemish public broadcaster VRT also said it was "demanding full transparency" from the EBU in relation to the televoting during Saturday's final. Televoters in both Spain and Belgium awarded Israel 12 points, while their juries gave the country zero points. Ireland, meanwhile, awarded Israel 10 points in the televote and seven points from the Irish jury. In a statement, Director of the Eurovision Song Contest Martin Green, said it took the concerns raised by the broadcasters "seriously" and that the EBU had contacted several broadcasters since the final regarding voting in the competition. He said: "Now the event has concluded we will have a broad discussion with participating broadcasters, to reflect and obtain feedback on all aspects of this year's event as part of our planning process for the 70th Eurovision Song Contest next year. "It is important to emphasise that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country's result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns. An independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result." A spokesperson for RTÉ said the broadcaster was looking forward to participating in the discussions and review outlined by Mr Green. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Irish Independent
5 days ago
- Irish Independent
Eimear Quinn: ‘They said you sang Norwegian Wood with him. It's on YouTube! I have no recollection. I was a massive A-ha fan and singing with Morten Harket must have blown my mind'
The soprano won Eurovision in 1996 when she was just 23 The Voice: title and repeated lyric of the song that made Eimear Quinn an unexpected star – both to the wider world and, even more so, to herself – and, amazingly in retrospect, marked the last time Ireland won the Eurovision Song Contest. 'I am the voice' was an appropriate refrain for this young woman (aged just 23 in 1996), a classically trained soprano who'd specialised in early and choral music, performing on the biggest stage of her life. Clad in Galadriel white and backed by trad musicians, Quinn trounced all opposition with Brendan Graham's composition: Ireland's fourth victory in five years and seventh in all.
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Suzanne Harrington: In an awful world, we need Liam and Pamela's love to last
At last! Some good news. These days we'll take anything. Kitten rescued from tree. Seagull befriends traffic warden. Tenner found down back of sofa. Anything at all. Anything that isn't going to trigger our adrenals, send our cortisol into orbit, or traumatise our eyeballs as we struggle towards sleep after a long day of trying to avoid the news. It is therefore with unreasonable and disproportionate levels of joy that we greet the news about Pammy and Liamo. Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson — is this the best, most straightforwardly glorious piece of news to reach our overstimulated central nervous systems since Johnny Logan won the Eurovision in 1980? I'd say yes. A surge of genuine happiness — actual endorphins — course through us as we watch them being cute together. Seeing them double-entendre-ing about her home-made muffin was a special moment in the recent media hellscape. At last. Some genuine loveliness has made the news. Not the kind of promotional power-couple fakery concocted by Turkey-teethed PRs, not some staged Instagram nobodies desperate for likes; nope. Pammy and Liamo are too old for that. And they are not nobodies. Not going to lie — when she first popped into our consciousness, slo-moing across our screens in that red swimming costume, a Glamazonian Farrah Fawcett for the '90s, my initial reaction was… meh. A human Barbie, decades before Greta Gerwig made Barbie great again. Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun Amid the acid house fliers wall-papering the side of the fridge in our shared house, a boyfriend had blu-tacked a glittery picture of Pammy, incongruous amid the Beatrice Dalle, the Riot Grrls and Tank Girls. He was being ironic, he said — Baywatch was as naff as Michael Hasselhoff's pants. The reality was that every straight male with a pulse would have crawled through broken glass for a glimpse of her. When that sex tape happened in 1996, the misogyny was off the charts. I fell in love with Pammy for a different reason; turns out she was a massive animal rights advocate. An animal lover beyond dogs and cats. My kinda lady. Then came the 2022 miniseries, Pammy & Tommy, which she hated, but which increased our respect for her even more, as we got an idea of what she'd been though. There were the friendships with Vivienne Westwood and Julian Assange. Not your average starlet. We now find ourselves in full blown Pammy Renaissance — outdoing herself in The Last Showgirl, the chic makeup-less elegance, the idyllic non-Hollywood life in Canada. The refusal to be anyone but herself. The sons she adores, who adore her back. And now Liam. As a generic car-chase movie type with a growly voice, he was never on my radar — he's not as flashy as Colin Farrell, or as actorly as Brendan Gleeson, or as Bondy as Pierce Brosnan — but then Derry Girls happened. Turns out he's funny. To meet on the set of a Naked Gun remake is adorable and hilarious and just a little bit ludicrous, which makes them all the sweeter. So thanks for brightening our day, Pammy and Liamo. Thanks for putting old school romance front and centre. The only thing I'm worried about is that she's my age and he's 73. Let's hope he's up to his tonsils in green juice and vegan Omegas — because as a symbol of love in a world full of awful, we need them to last.
