Eurosong ‘row’ smacks of having been pre-planned

TV Watch with Declan Tierney

Maybe it might sound cynical but the little spat between a former Eurovision winner and a mentor to one of the acts appearing on The Late Late Show seemed a little staged and orchestrated.

When Linda Martyn left her chair and confronted Aslan’s Billy McGuinness in the audience, it smacked of something that had been planned in advance. It appeared it was just a sad effort to try and spice up an otherwise dull contest.

Since Friday night’s dreadful Eurosong contest, the national media have been consumed by the apparent row between McGuinness and the panel on the Eurosong show which was nothing short of diabolical from beginning to end.

It was obvious from the outset that RTE were trying to add a bit of tinsel to the show by having meaningless little quizzes about the Eurovision between certain individuals and conducting a poll to find out which winning song other than Ireland’s was the most popular.

These were among some of the gimmicks running through the show but by the time the final of the five acts tuned-up, a flare up occurred when Louis Walsh was accused of having a vested interest in two of the performers. Handbags at 10 paces type of stuff.

Normally when there is anything resembling controversy, Tubridy heads for the hills but on this occasion he allowed it develop which was very strange and extremely suspicious. One felt that he was facilitating the whole sorry caper.

Tubridy does not court controversy, which is why I believe that this whole saga was staged in advance. Look, it even made an item on the following night’s News so there is a lot of suspicion surrounding its authenticity.

The background is that five industry professionals (mentors) were tasked with finding an act and a song to put forward for the competition.

Then on Friday night last the acts performed live on the Late Late special and were critiqued by a panel consisting of Louis Walsh, Linda Martin, Eoghan McDermott and Maia Dunphy. After all the acts had performed, the public were invited to vote for their favourite.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.