Latest news with #EMMY
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
M*A*S*H stars pay heartfelt tribute to Loretta Swit after TV star's death
Stars of the iconic TV show M*A*S*H including Alan Alda paid tribute to Loretta Swit after news confirmed the TV star had died at the age of 87 Following news of Loretta Swit's death, tributes have poured in from her co-stars of the iconic TV show M*A*S*H. Leading the tributes was Alan Alda, who played her love interest Hawkeye Pierce. Loretta became a fan favourite for playing Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan. Taking to X to pay his heartfelt respects, Alan, who is now 89 years of age wrote: "Loretta was a supremely talented actor. She deserved all her 10 EMMY nominations and her 2 wins. But more than acting her part, she created it." He added: "She worked hard in showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one-joke sexist stereotype into a real person -- with real feelings and ambitions. Alan continued: "We celebrated the day the script came out listing her character not as Hot Lips, but as Margaret. Loretta made the most of her time here." In 1983, their 35 second on-screen kiss became one of the most legendary scenes in TV history as it was viewed by nearly 106 million people. Loretta's housekeeper reportedly found her dead at the star's New York apartment, according to US news outlet TMZ. And her publicist reportedly told the publication that she died from natural causes. However, an official cause of death is yet to be released. Next to share their grief with fans was Jamie Farr, who played Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger. He once referred to the actress as his "adopted sister." In a statement released to USA Today, Jamie said: "I dearly loved Loretta! As close as family can get." The star added: "From the first time I met her, on what was supposed to be a one-day appearance on "M*A*S*H," we embraced each other. That became a lifetime friendship. I can't begin to express how much she will be missed." Meanwhile, Mike Farrell, who joined the cast in season four of eleven as B.J Hunnicutt, posted a black and white picture of Loretta on social media. He captioned the post simply saying: "Loretta … 1937-2025." In response to Alan Alda's post on X, fans rushed to comment. One person wrote: "It's because of you guys I became a nurse and learned that showing your human to your patients isn't a bad thing." They added: "Thanks, to both of you. My most sincere condolences." Another person said: "She held her own with you guys in a time where that was not always easy. Helped create on of the greatest shows of all time. Rest in peace."
RTÉ News
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
5 talking points from Eurovision 2025
After four hours of music, performances, entertainment and excitement, the winner of the 69th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 crowned its winner. The nail-biting finale saw Austria's JJ taking home the trophy with 436 points being awarded to his song Wasted Love, while Israel's Yuval Raphael finished in second place with 357 points. As 26 acts took to the stage, viewers saw everything from men dancing in towels to a woman soaring skyward on a giant microphone! But what were the big talking points from this year's Eurovision? 1. The winner takes it all Last night JJ from Austria reigned supreme at the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, the birthplace of the competition in 1956. His extraordinary vocal skills in the song Wasted love saw him beat off competition from the 25 rival countries who performed on the St. Jakobshalle stage in Basel. The line up comprised of 20 qualifiers from the two semi-finals, the so-called 'Big Five' of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, along with last year's winners, Switzerland - who all automatically qualified for the final. While Sweden had been strongly favoured all week, their quirky tune Bada Bada Bastu failed to get the votes and from early on the voting results pattern were hard to predict. Many countries scored top 12 votes from the juries so as the competition headed into the final stretches, the televotes at home were clearly going to have a significant impact. Then, the result. Austria won and a delighted JJ (real name Johnannes Pietsch) who is a classically trained counter tenor in Vienna told a packed media briefing after the show that it was a dream come true. He is an Austrian-Filipino and he spoke in four languages to journalists expressing his delight at being the first filipino to take the prize. His rise has been hugely supported in his family's home country. He said that "love is the strongest force we have in the world" to loud cheers and then he made a pitch on camera for himself and former winner and supporter Conchita who was Austria's previous winner in 2014. The Austrian TV producer sat beside him at the press conference laughed and said that "we will have to start having discussions on many of these kinds of issues now.." Rumours abound that the contest may be headed to the city of Linz in Upper Austria. 2. Ireland's drought During the build up to the contest, EMMY spoke about the support she had enjoyed from the Irish fans, and on Friday morning she posted a heartfelt message on her social media writing: "I'm SO sorry ireland. We will forever love you and be grateful and honoured to represent you." Watch: EMMY performs Laika Party during the second Eurovision semi-final on Thursday Her result has reactivated questions over Ireland's selection process as last year's entry Bambie Thug was the first entry to make it through to the Eurovision final since 2018. Michael Kealy, head of the RTÉ Delegation, said on Thursday night that it is a competition that is "getting harder and harder to do well in." Pointing to the constraints in RTÉ compared to fellow broadcasters, he said that resources are an issue. Eurovision super fan and analyst ESC Tom told RTÉ News that most countries have a dedicated Eurovision song contest series where the public gets really involved in the choice of the song. He said it is needed here, and that this is a call Eurovision fans have been making for years. What is clear is that despite Ireland's qualification difficulties, Eurovision fans are as enthusiastic about the competition as ever. 3. Israel's participation Israel has been part of the Eurovision since 1973 when it became the first participant not to be geographically located in Europe. This year's Israeli Eurovision entry New Day Will Rise was performed by 24-year-old Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the 7 October 2023 attack on the Nova music festival. Israel's participation took place against the ongoing questions over their appearance in the contest. The competition organised by the EBU, with 37 broadcasters taking part include RTÉ, Spain's RTVE and Slovenia's RTV who are asking for a debate on Israel's involvement in the festival. The EBU's position has always been that it is an association of broadcasters, not governments, and as such Israel's Kan has a right to take part. The most visible signs of protest at the contest were on the streets of Basel on Saturday evening, when a few hundred protesters marched carrying banners and chanting "free, free Palestine". Later that night it was confirmed that a Eurovision Song Contest crew member was hit with paint after two people tried to rush on stage to disrupt Raphael's performance during the live show. A Swiss TV broadcaster spokesperson said that "the man and woman were taken out of the venue and handed over to the police." The police subsequently released the pair, and a statement from the Israeli delegation said that Ms Raphael had been badly shaken by the incident. Where and when any discussions around Israel's participation will carry on after the contest is unclear. 4. The voting Lots of fans were left scratching their heads last night as the multi-layered points system kicked in. Eurovision voting is a combination of jury votes and public televotes from each participating country. Each of the 37 participating countries gives two sets of points, comprising the jury vote (from a panel of music industry professionals) and the televote (from the public via phone, app, or SMS). Each country jury awards points to their top 10 songs (excluding their own country) from 1point to the iconic douze points. This system means each country gives a total of 116 points (58 from the jury and 58 from the televote, excluding their own country). The winner is the act with the highest combined total of jury and televote points wins. Additionally, viewers from non-participating countries can cast their votes online called the 'rest of the world' vote. These international votes are aggregated and counted as a single set of points, equivalent to the input of one participating country. Therefore, the total number of voting entities in Eurovision 2025 was 38: the 37 participating countries plus the aggregated "Rest of the World" vote. Last night Austria scored a total of 436 points with Israel in second place on 357 and Estonia third on 356. The jury results were announced first on camera. Ireland's jury results as announced by Nicky Byrne confirmed that our national jury awarded Austria the top 12 points. The jury will be pleased to have vindication of their choice. Then the public votes were announced which changed the results board significantly. Announced in the order of bottom to top, there was much head scratching in the media centre though when it came to those results. The top three countries after the jury vote were Austria, Switzerland and France but the public vote yielded null points for a shocked Swiss fan base. Israel which had been in the bottom half of the score board, bounced to the top with 297 points viewer votes out of a possible 444, and led the leaderboard for a period of time. Irelands vote gave 10 points to the Israeli entry. It was a nail-biting finish with the final revelation that Austria had topped the competition with 436 points being awarded to his song Wasted Love. As the dust settles in the coming weeks, expect to see much commentary on the voting systems. 5. 70 more years of Eurovision? Next year sees Eurovision celebrating its 70th platinum anniversary, decades after the original contest took to the stage back in Switzerland in 1956. It is an incredible achievement that a show with such a simple concept at its heart has endured. Not only has it grown from the original line up of 7 countries, but it has developed an unshakeable fan base across the world. There has only been one missed year in 2020 for Covid, and TV ratings tell the story, with a whopping 163 million viewers tuning in for last year's show. With Austria starting the planning already today for the 70th Eurovision next year, is it possible that singers will still be fighting it out to be crowned Eurovision winner in 2095? Someone tell Marty Whelan to keep the jokes coming!
Extra.ie
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
EMMY gets emotional as she discusses post-Eurovision plans
It's been an emotional few days for EMMY, who is hopeful to reunite with her family following her Eurovision defeat. The Norwegian singer-songwriter took to the stage for the second round of semi-finals with her song, Laika Party, which sadly didn't make the cut with Ireland bowing out ahead of the grand final on Saturday. Speaking with the press following her loss, EMMY got teary-eyed as she praised her team, discussing her plans for life after Eurovision. It's been an emotional few days for EMMY, who is hopeful to reunite with her family following her Eurovision defeat. Pic: Andres Poveda Discussing her performance with she said: ' I couldn't be happier with the staging, the costumes, the team at all. I think it was perfect, exactly my vision and beyond.' Going deeper into how she felt on the night, she added: ' I was very, very excited and nervous. But it was this moment that I knew that like, okay, this is the moment you have been dreaming about since you were seven years old, so I was just so grateful to be there.' ' I danced more than I usually do. This song is like, it's not much time to breathe. I sing basically all the time and even though I did that. I danced. So yeah, if people were expecting more than that, then maybe it was a bit high expectations.' The Norwegian singer-songwriter took to the stage for the second round of semi-finals with her song, Laika Party, which sadly didn't make the cut with Ireland bowing out ahead of the grand final on Saturday. Pic: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images With emotions running high, it's only natural that the young star would get a little teary-eyed, with EMMY finding herself in floods as she discussed reuniting with her family. ' I think we have a family trip planned and I'm very looking forward to seeing my grandparents again,' she remarked, misty-eyed. The stacked semi-finals ended in heartbreak for five other countries alongside Ireland as Armenia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Malta advanced to Saturday's finals. Despite holding the joint record of the most wins throughout the history of the competition, Ireland has only managed to advance to the finals twice in the last ten years. Last year, Bambie Thug finished in sixth place — our best placing in more than 20 years — with Doomsday Blue.
RTÉ News
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
EMMY on Eurovision: 'I was so grateful to be there'
EMMY has been reflecting on her semi-final exit from the Eurovision Song Contest, admitting her disappointment but also the joy she felt as she got to 'fulfil my childhood dream'. The 24-year-old Norwegian represented Ireland in last Thursday's second semi-finall with her song Laika Party and the feeling was that she had an excellent chance of making it through to Saturday's Grand Final in Basel - but it wasn't to be. When Greece was announced as the final qualifier, it meant the end of the Eurovision road for Irish hopes this year - but EMMY had mixed emotions in the aftermath when she spoke to RTÉ Entertainment a day later. "There's so many emotions! I'll be disappointed - but very happy as I got to fulfil my childhood dream," she said, acknowledging the fact that performing at the Eurovision had been something of a lifelong goal. "We were very happy with the performance,," she added, before notiung that, in the days leading up to Thursday's wemi-final, she had been getting very positive reactions to Laika Party. "It's a bit weird," ahe admitted, "because we had been told that – at the pre parties and performances – we had the song that most people sang along to, and stuff like that. So I don't know [what went wrong] and will never know if we would've qualified if we were in the first semi-final. "We had an extra country to compete against – and it was a very, very strong semi-final. I thought the first semi-final was very strong too, but we'll never know what might have happened." It's never fun to lose out on occasions such as this, but EMMY is far from embittered by her experience. It was emotional, but the tears only came when she realised that her Eurovision experience had ended. "At first I didn't [cry]," she recalled. "Because, even though the people around me and the team said we would qualify, I am never – I'm not that confident about myself or what I do. "'Oh, we're gonna go through!' I'm not like that. I was always unsure. But then, when I realised it was all over, I cried. There were so many emotions going on, you know? "It was a childhood dream that we've had for 16 years – and it was very strange." She also refused to play the blame game and use the fact that Ireland is a small country with a fraction of the budget some otrghere countries might have as some sort of excuse for failing to make the cut. She just doesn't do sour grapes. "I would be happy with the staging, the costumes, the team," she insisted. "I think it was perfect. Exactly my vision and beyond. On the night, she had mixed emotions before going on stage in front of a massive global audience. "I was very, very excited and nervous. But there was this moment when I knew that, okay, this is the moment you have been dreaming about since you were seven years old. "So I was just so grateful to be there." Obviously, the mental and emotional dust needs to setlle before EMMY can look at her next musical steps, or whether she would entertain competing in the Eurovision Song Contest again. But she didn't rule it out. "I think, maybe when I've landed a bit and understand that this actually happened, maybe I would try to go again in the future. "I don't know," she admits. "It's very difficult. You don't really choose to go again. People have to choose you. But I'm grateful." And as for who she's like to see win on Saturday, EMMY was emphatic: "Iceland! I really like that song." What's next for her is a trip back home to Norway to be with loved ones for a well-deserved break. "We're planning a family road trip," she said. "I'm looking forward to seeing my grandparents again."
RTÉ News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
'It's a shame' - Irish fans react to Eurovision exit
Ireland's hopes of qualifying for the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final were dashed last night, as EMMY's Laika Party failed to make it through a fiercely competitive second semi-final in Basel, Switzerland. Despite a strong performance and a warm reception from the crowd, Ireland was one of six countries eliminated in Thursday night's show. Greece took the final qualifying spot, joining 19 other acts and the six automatic finalists for Saturday's Grand Final. Longtime Eurovision commentator Marty Whelan admitted the result was disappointing, telling Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio 1: "We were very surprised because it's a decent song, it's a fun song. EMMY did a great job. She's only 24 – it's not easy when this happens." Whelan also pointed to the complexities of Eurovision voting: "Let's be honest about it – people vote for people. You're talking about Germany and Austria or Greece and Malta, and here we are, the little island sitting on the edge of Europe." He added: "It was better than many that got through – and that's often the argument. On the night you go in full of optimism. She gave it her best, but it just wasn't meant to be." Eurovision fan and broadcaster Russell Alford, who was in St. Jakobshalle Arena for the semi-final, said the Irish support was loud and proud: "The atmosphere in the crowd was electric. There were a lot of Irish fans here – the Irish always come out in big numbers for Eurovision. I think EMMY did us all very proud." He added: "It was a really hard semi-final. I think it's back to the drawing board for next year. It was worth taking the risk – it's just a shame it didn't fully pay off this time." Whelan, who will still be on duty for RTÉ during Saturday's final, kept spirits high: "All we can do is shake ourselves down, have a glass of milk and get ourselves back in gear." While Ireland won't be in the running, Eurovision fans can expect a spectacular Grand Final on Saturday night. Austria's JJ (Johannes Pietsch) is among the frontrunners with his emotional ballad Wasted Love, while Switzerland, as the reigning champion, will be hoping to make it two wins in a row. Sweden is also generating major buzz with its entry, Bara Bada Bastu, performed by the comedy trio KAJ. If they triumph, it would push Sweden ahead of Ireland with a record-breaking eighth Eurovision win. Watch: EMMY performs Laika Party during the second semi-final Saturday's final will also take place under heightened security, with Swiss authorities preparing for pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Basel. Police have ramped up their presence in the city and around the venue, with contest organisers emphasising their commitment to ensuring the safety of artists, staff, and spectators. Watch the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player from 8pm on Saturday, 17 May.
