Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy with the song "That's Rich" performed by Brooke. The Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) organised the national final Eurosong 2022 in order to select the Irish entry for the 2022 contest. Six songs faced the votes of an international jury, a studio jury and a public televote which ultimately resulted in the selection of the Irish Eurovision entry.

Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Country	Ireland
National selection
Selection process	Eurosong 2022
Selection date(s)	4 February 2022
Selected entrant	Brooke
Selected song	"That's Rich"
Selected songwriter(s)	Brooke Scullion Izzy Warner Karl Zine
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (15th)
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2021 • 2022 • 2023►

Ireland was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2022. Performing during the show in position 10, "That's Rich" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Ireland placed 15th out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 47 points.

Background

Main article: Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2022 contest, Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three times since its first entry in 1965.^[1] Ireland has won the contest a record seven times in total. The country's first win came in 1970, with then-18-year-old Dana winning with "All Kinds of Everything". Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter). In 2011 and 2012, Jedward represented the nation for two consecutive years, managing to qualify to the final both times and achieve Ireland's highest position in the contest since 2000, placing eighth in 2011 with the song "Lipstick". Since 2013, only two Irish entries managed to qualify for the final: Ryan Dolan's "Only Love Survives" which placed 26th (last) in the final in 2013, and Ryan O'Shaughnessy's "Together" which placed 16th in the final in 2018. The Irish entry in 2021, "Maps" performed by Lesley Roy, once again failed to qualify to the final.

The Irish national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), broadcasts the event within Ireland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTÉ confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 September 2021.^[2] From 2016 to 2021, RTÉ held an internal selection to choose the artist and song to represent Ireland at the contest. For the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, RTÉ announced on 16 September 2021 the organisation of the national final Eurosong 2022 to choose the artist and song to represent Ireland at the contest.^[3][4] This marked the first time since 2015 that RTÉ had set up a national final to select both the artist and song for the contest.

Before Eurovision

Eurosong 2022

Eurosong 2022 was the national final format developed by RTÉ in order to select Ireland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition was held on 4 February 2022 at the Studio 4 of RTÉ in Dublin, hosted by Ryan Tubridy with Marty Whelan reporting from the green room and broadcast on RTÉ One during a special edition of The Late Late Show.^[5] The show was also broadcast online via the RTÉ Player.^[6] The national final was watched by 451,000 viewers in Ireland with a market share of 40%.^[7]

Competing entries

On 16 September 2021, RTÉ opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their entries for the competition until 22 October 2021. At the closing of the deadline, 320 entries were received.^[8] The competing entries were selected through two phases involving two separate jury panels with members appointed by RTÉ; the first phase involved the first jury of 12 members reviewing all of the submissions and shortlisting 20 to 30 entries, while the second phase involved the second jury of 20 to 25 members selecting the six finalists.^[9] The finalists were presented between 17 and 21 January 2022 during The Ryan Tubridy Show broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. Among the competing artists was former contestant Brendan Murray who represented Ireland in 2017.^[10][11]

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
Brendan Murray	"Real Love"	Brendan Murray, Darrell Coyle
Brooke	"That's Rich"	Brooke Scullion, Izzy Warner, Karl Zine
Janet Grogan	"Ashes of Yesterday"	Aidan O'Connor, John Emil, Sandra Wikström
Miles Graham	"Yeah, We're Gonna Get Out of It"	Miles Graham Miley, Justin Broad, Paul Herman
Patrick O'Sullivan	"One Night, One Kiss, One Promise"	Nicky Byrne, Lar Kaye, Danny O'Reilly
Rachel Goode	"I'm Loving Me"	Joakim Övrenius [sv], Thomas Karlsson, Johan Mauritzson, Anna Engh

Final

The national final took place on 4 February 2022 and featured a guest performance from Riverdance as well as commentary from a panel that consisted of singer-songwriter Caroline Corr, singer Lucia Evans, former contest winner Paul Harrington and presenter Bláthnaid Treacy.^[12][13] Following the combination of votes from an international jury, the studio panel and public televoting, "That's Rich" performed by Brooke was selected as the winner.^[14] The international jury panel consisted of American journalist William Lee Adams, former Czech Head of Delegation Jan Bors, member of 2021 Icelandic representative Gagnamagnið Árný Fjóla Ásmundsdóttir and Russian Head of Delegation Ekaterina Orlova.^[15]

Final – 4 February 2022

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury		Televote	Total	Place
			Intl.	Studio
1	Patrick O'Sullivan	"One Night, One Kiss, One Promise"	10	6	6	22	4
2	Janet Grogan	"Ashes of Yesterday"	8	12	4	24	2
3	Brendan Murray	"Real Love"	2	8	2	12	6
4	Miles Graham	"Yeah, We're Gonna Get Out of It"	6	10	8	24	2
5	Rachel Goode	"I'm Loving Me"	4	2	10	16	5
6	Brooke	"That's Rich"	12	4	12	28	1

Promotion

Brooke made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "That's Rich" as the Irish Eurovision entry. On 26 March, Brooke performed during the Barcelona Eurovision Party, which was held at the Sala Apolo venue in Barcelona, Spain and hosted by Sharonne and Giuseppe Di Bella.^[16] On 3 April, Brooke performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Hard Rock Hotel in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Paddy O'Connell and SuRie.^[17][18] On 7 April, Brooke performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, Israel.^[19] On 9 April, Brooke performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Edsilia Rombley.^[20] On 16 April, Brooke performed during the PrePartyES 2022 event which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain and hosted by Ruth Lorenzo.^[21]

In addition to her international appearances, Brooke also completed promotional appearances in Ireland where she performed "That's Rich" on the RTÉ One programme The Late Late Show on 29 April.^[22]

At Eurovision

 

A video postcard introduced the Irish performance in the second semi-final and final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The postcard was filmed in Matera, Basilicata and featured virtual projections of Brooke across the location.

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the second semi-final, which was held on 12 May 2022, and performed in the second half of the show.^[23]

Once all the competing songs for the 2022 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Ireland was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Cyprus and before the entry from North Macedonia.^[24]

In Ireland, the two semi-finals were broadcast on RTÉ2 and the final was broadcast on RTÉ One with all three shows featuring commentary by Marty Whelan. The second semi-final and the final were also broadcast via radio on RTÉ Radio 1 with commentary by Neil Doherty and Zbyszek Zalinski.^[25][26][27] The Irish spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Irish jury during the final, was Linda Martin who won the contest for Ireland in 1992.^[28]

Semi-final

 

Brooke during a rehearsal before the second semi-final

Brooke took part in technical rehearsals on 3 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 11 and 12 May. This included the jury show on 11 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.^[29]

The Irish performance featured Brooke performing a dance routine together with four dancers. The stage colours were in blue and pink with the stage floor displaying projections that included a beating heart.^[30][31] The creative team that worked on producing Ireland's performance was led by Emer Walsh, while the dancers that joined Brooke on stage were Amy Ford, Amy Whearity, Lizzy Benham and Sophie Kavanagh.^[32]

At the end of the show, Ireland was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Ireland placed fifteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 47 points: 35 points from the televoting and 12 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.^[33] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members.^[34] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.^[35][36]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Ireland and awarded by Ireland in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Ireland

Points awarded to Ireland (Semi-final 2)^[37]

Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	United Kingdom
10 points
8 points	Australia
7 points	Spain
6 points		Australia
5 points
4 points		Estonia
3 points	Israel   Malta
2 points
1 point	Belgium   Czech Republic	Belgium   Cyprus

Points awarded by Ireland

Points awarded by Ireland (Semi-final 2)^[37] Score Televote Jury 12 points   Poland   Sweden 10 points   Sweden   Czech Republic 8 points   Czech Republic   Estonia 7 points   Australia   Serbia 6 points   Estonia   Malta 5 points   Romania   Australia 4 points   Serbia   Cyprus 3 points   Malta   Israel 2 points   Belgium   Belgium 1 point   Finland   North Macedonia

Points awarded by Ireland (Final)^[38] Score Televote Jury 12 points   Ukraine   Spain 10 points   Poland   Sweden 8 points   Lithuania   United Kingdom 7 points   Moldova   Czech Republic 6 points   United Kingdom   Italy 5 points   Spain   Serbia 4 points   Norway   Portugal 3 points   Sweden   Ukraine 2 points   Romania   Australia 1 point   Serbia   Iceland

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Irish jury:^[35][36]

• Bláthnaid Treacy
• Deirdre Crookes
• Julian Vignoles
• Niamh Kavanagh
• Phillip McMahon

Detailed voting results from Ireland (Semi-final 2)^[37]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Finland	11	12	15	16	13	16		10	1
02	Israel	16	6	17	3	4	8	3	14
03	Serbia	5	5	2	17	16	4	7	7	4
04	Azerbaijan	17	7	13	12	7	13		15
05	Georgia	10	16	14	11	17	15		12
06	Malta	1	9	11	13	6	5	6	8	3
07	San Marino	15	13	9	6	5	11		11
08	Australia	12	4	6	4	10	6	5	4	7
09	Cyprus	6	10	7	10	3	7	4	13
10	Ireland
11	North Macedonia	8	8	3	14	11	10	1	16
12	Estonia	3	2	10	7	8	3	8	5	6
13	Romania	14	14	8	9	9	14		6	5
14	Poland	13	11	5	8	12	12		1	12
15	Montenegro	9	17	16	15	15	17		17
16	Belgium	7	3	12	5	14	9	2	9	2
17	Sweden	2	1	1	1	2	1	12	2	10
18	Czech Republic	4	15	4	2	1	2	10	3	8

Detailed voting results from Ireland (Final)^[38]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Czech Republic	4	4	3	6	4	4	7	20
02	Romania	13	6	11	23	13	14		9	2
03	Portugal	8	13	8	3	10	7	4	14
04	Finland	24	25	24	22	25	25		16
05	Switzerland	10	19	21	20	21	20		24
06	France	15	24	12	21	20	21		18
07	Norway	22	7	5	24	12	12		7	4
08	Armenia	21	9	22	13	15	17		23
09	Italy	5	17	14	4	1	5	6	13
10	Spain	2	1	2	5	3	1	12	6	5
11	Netherlands	12	16	18	18	16	18		12
12	Ukraine	7	8	10	11	7	8	3	1	12
13	Germany	25	23	16	12	14	19		15
14	Lithuania	16	21	15	17	24	22		3	8
15	Azerbaijan	17	15	9	15	19	16		25
16	Belgium	18	20	20	16	23	23		22
17	Greece	14	12	17	8	11	15		19
18	Iceland	3	10	19	10	18	10	1	21
19	Moldova	19	22	25	25	22	24		4	7
20	Sweden	6	2	4	2	2	2	10	8	3
21	Australia	23	5	6	19	9	9	2	17
22	United Kingdom	11	3	1	1	8	3	8	5	6
23	Poland	20	14	7	9	5	11		2	10
24	Serbia	1	18	23	14	6	6	5	10	1
25	Estonia	9	11	13	7	17	13		11

References

1. "Ireland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
2. Jiandani, Sanjay (6 September 2021). "Ireland: RTE confirms participation at Eurovision 2022". ESCToday. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
3. "Submit your entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2022". rte.ie. RTÉ. 16 September 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
4. "Public to have more say in selection of Ireland's Eurovision entry". rte.ie. RTÉ. 17 September 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
5. "Ireland: What to expect from 'The Late Late Show' 🇮🇪". Eurovision.tv. 4 February 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
6. "The Late Late Show - RTÉ Player". RTÉ Player. RTÉ. 4 February 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
7. Menéndez, Hugo Carabaña (10 February 2022). "The Late Late Show: Eurosong 2022 arrasa en Irlanda con un 40% de cuota de pantalla". ESCplus (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 July 2023.
8. Granger, Anthony (16 November 2021). "🇮🇪 Ireland: 320 Songs Submitted For Eurovision 2022". Eurovoix. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
9. Farren, Neil (24 November 2021). "🇮🇪 Ireland: Head of Delegation Would Welcome Irish-Language Entry in Eurovision". Eurovoix. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
10. "First two hopefuls announced for Eurosong 2022". rte.ie. RTÉ. 17 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
11. RTÉ [@rte] (16 January 2022). "Ireland's road to @Eurovision 2022 begins tomorrow morning on the @ryantubridyshow @RTERadio1, where songs from two acts bidding to represent Ireland will be played. A further four will be played during the week. #eurovision2022" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
12. oLeary, Kim (4 February 2022). "LIVE Ireland's Eurovision song revealed on the Late Late Show". DublinLive. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
13. Muldoon, Padraig (4 February 2022). "Eurosong: Brooke Scullion will sing "That's Rich" for Ireland at Eurovision 2022". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
14. "Brooke wins 'Eurosong' and will represent Ireland at Eurovision 🇮🇪". eurovision.tv. 5 February 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
15. "Brooke Scullion will represent Ireland at The Eurovision Song Contest 2022". about.rte.ie. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
16. Granger, Anthony (13 March 2022). "Spain: Ten Acts Announced So Far For The Barcelona Eurovision Party". Eurovoix. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
17. "London Eurovision Party 2022". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
18. "London Eurovision Party". londoneurovision.com. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
19. Rössing, Dominik (23 April 2022). "TONIGHT: Israel Calling 2022 full show rebroadcast". escXtra. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
20. Tarbuck, Sean (7 April 2022). "Line-up complete for Amsterdam's Eurovision in Concert 2022". escunited.com. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
21. Korypas, Andreas (17 April 2022). "Spain: Watch all the live performances of the artists at the PrePartyES 2022!". Eurovisionfun. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
22. Granger, Anthony (30 April 2022). "🇮🇪 Ireland: Brooke Gives Final Performance Before Eurovision Rehearsals". Eurovoix. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
23. "Eurovision 2022: Which Semi-Final is your country performing in? 🇮🇹". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
24. "Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Semi-Final running orders revealed!". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
25. "Brooke Scullion takes off for Turin and the Eurovision". rte.ie. RTÉ. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
26. Mulgrew, Seoirse (3 May 2022). "Eurovision 2022: When is it on, where can I watch it and everything you need to know about Ireland". Independent.ie. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
27. Grace, Emily (7 May 2022). "Ireland: Marty Whelan To Commentate On Eurovision 2022". Eurovoix. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
28. Grace, Emily (7 May 2022). "Ireland: Marty Whelan To Commentate On Eurovision 2022". Eurovoix. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
29. "Eurovision 2022: Rehearsal Schedule". eurovisionworld.com. 21 April 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
30. Muldoon, Padraig (6 May 2022). "Ireland's Brooke is the beating heart of her second rehearsal at Eurovision 2022". wiwibloggs. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
31. Grace, Emily (3 May 2022). "🇮🇪 Ireland: All The Details About Brooke's Rehearsal". Eurovoix. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
32. "Eurovision 2022 Ireland: Brooke Scullion - "That's Rich"". Eurovisionworld. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
33. "Voting–Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 16 May 2019. from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
34. "Fairness–Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 21 February 2018. from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
35. "Juries in the Second Semi-Final of Turin 2022". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
36. "Juries in the Grand Final of Turin 2022". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
37. "Results of the Second Semi-Final of Turin 2022". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
38. "Results of the Grand Final of Turin 2022". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 15 May 2022.