Ireland came crashing out of the Eurovision Song Contest last night, failing to secure enough votes to qualify for this year’s grand final.
The rock band Wild Youth were sent home, following an entirely public vote on Tuesday night after the first semi-final in Liverpool. It marks a continuation of our losing streak at Eurovision, with Ireland now having failed to qualify on eight of the last 10 attempts.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s 2012 Eurovision winner, Loreen, sailed through to the final – cementing her place as this year’s favourite.
The last time Ireland qualified for the Eurovision final was in 2018, represented by Ryan O’Shaughnessy with his song Together.
Marty Whelan, Ireland’s Eurovision commentator, expressed his disappointment as Wild Youth were sent home: “Everything was absolutely perfect, they were fantastic,” he said on RTE One’s live coverage last night.
“There’s things I want to say, there’s things I want to share. You probably get it from the tone of my voice, what I’m thinking…that this is, ugh, this is just such a shame,” he said.
He admitted that the act had not been popular enough, adding:
“But the votes didn’t come. So we are not qualifying again this year from Liverpool, when we had great expectations, as the famous book says.”
Wild Youth, a band which had won the endorsement of Lewis Capaldi and Niall Horan of One Direction, found themselves at the centre of controversy at the end of April.
A row unfolded after they publicly distanced themselves from their choreographer, Ian Banham over comments he made about a biological male rapist being sent to a women’s prison after being found guilty of false imprisonment.
Wild Youth took issue with Banham, who also worked with RTE on Dancing with the Stars Ireland in its latest series, after he sent a tweet in March in response to the BBC referring to male-born criminal Zara Jade – who was recently sentenced for multiple domestic violence crimes as a “woman”.
In the tweet, Banham denied Jade was a woman, writing: “Exactly! It’s a man. This clown world is ridiculous” in response to the story.
Just a fortnight ahead of the song contest, Wild Youth slammed Banham and offered an apology for his comments.
“Wild Youth is a band that stands for unity and kindness. Our song represents our beliefs as a band. We have cut all ties with Ian Banham and will not have him on or near our team or Eurovision journey. We are so sorry for anyone offended by his comments,” the band said.
JK Rowling was among those to defend Banham, accusing Wild Youth, an all-male band, of “preening, self-satisfied misogyny” over the comments.
Now, the internet has reacted to Wild Youth’s exit from Eurovision.
Under Wild Youth’s most recent tweet from Tuesday, some Twitter users described their exit from the competition as “karma” with one user writing:
“Misogyny is not a good look. Slán”. Another said that “actions meet consequences”.
Misogyny is not good look. Slán 👋👋👋
— 🌸Irish Secondary Teachers (Whistle-blowers) 🌸 (@IrishSecondary) May 9, 2023
While some said the performance was “outstanding” and that the band deserved to see the final, many people seemed to want to hold the actions of the band to account.
“No thanks…seeing sacking someone for a personal opinion…are ye hoping it will get ye votes???” user Mick wrote.
No thanks.. sacking someone for a personal opinion.. are ye hoping it will get ye votes???
— Mick (@Mick96017306) May 9, 2023
“You should have kept your ideology out of the event and more people might have voted for you,” user Aine said.
“You had a voice, you wanted a colleague silenced. Hypocrisy,” another user said.
You had a voice, you wanted a colleague silenced. Hypocrisy.
— Areopagitica (@Newareopagitica) May 9, 2023
Broadcaster and radio host Niall Boylan seemed to see the funny side of it all, tweeting:
“Why can’t people just admit #WildYouth didn’t qualify for #Eurovision because it’s not a great song and the choice of costume was something you couldn’t unsee. People blaming politics are looking for sympathetic excuses. I’m sure their ex-choreographer is so disappointed,” he said, referring to Banham.
Why can’t people just admit #WildYouth didn’t qualify for #Eurovision because it’s not a great song and the choice of costume was something you couldn’t unsee. People blaming politics are looking for sympathetic excuses. I’m sure their ex-choreographer is so disappointed 😉.
— Niall Boylan (@Niall_Boylan) May 10, 2023
Meanwhile, Laoise de Brún, founder of The Countess, an Irish organisation which highlights the issues with gender ideology and the 2015 gender recognition act, defended Banham, saying she was “not gutted” by Wild Youth missing out on the Eurovision final.
Not gutted. Their treatment of their choreographer was despicable. He correctly sexed a rapist and for that he was fired by these self-serving, vacuous airheads. @CentraIRL should not be rowing in. https://t.co/XCXjN0E3ik
— Laoise de Brún BL (@anliathluachra) May 10, 2023
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