Enter the UK’s nearest neighbours in my rankings countdown and Ireland are bringing an uptempo fun dance bop sung by the irrepressible Brooke. Brooke has already had her fair share of incident and excitement in her pre-party season (not least losing her passport between the plane and border control and having to show Spanish border police her music video!) Can her Eurovision journey continue and bring Ireland back to the final?

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Ireland held a national final for the first time in several years, and while it was pretty mediocre selection, “That’s Rich” really stood apart from the others and was a very deserving winner – indeed it really was the only song that could have won and had a hope of doing something at the contest. We’ve got an uptempo female dance pop track, that has a very Anglospheric feel to it – maybe not super up-to-date, but it’s got a familiar (in a good way) feel.

This has had quite a curious reaction from the fandom in some ways – when you look at various online polls, Ireland is doing pretty well, often placing within the top 20. However, when looking at the results of the more formal fan club votes, it’s a different picture and Brooke has not been picking up points. I suspect that this is because she’s not quite getting into people’s personal top 10s.

Brooke will not be unknown to UK audiences at least as she was former contender on the UK’s The Voice and with UK voting in Ireland’s semi-final for once, there may be a chance of getting some points there. It’s a tough ask though and I will be hoping this won’t be the third last place (in semis) for Ireland as it just would feel very rough. Brooke’s been having a ball at the pre-parties and is so enthusiastic and this is a very enjoyable slice of up tempo pop.

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Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest