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Ireland: RTÉ spent €182,000 on Irish entry
Speculated as being a decent bet for glory, Sinead Mulvey and Black Daisy failed to even make it to the Eurovision Song Contest final in Moscow last month.
The €182,630 bill covered the cost of choosing the band, the EBU entry fees to particpate in the show, flights and accommodation bills, visas and entertainment.
The hotel bill for the 15 member delegation amounted to €24,710, flights €6,761, food and entertainment €9,540, visas €1,400 and airport transfers €978.
The information was provided to the Irish Independent newspaper under a 'Freedom of Information' request in Ireland.
RTÉ is currently short on cash with an estimated €68 million funding deficit. Last year, the bill was €170,000 for Dustin the Turkey to participate in Serbia, despite staging a national final contest outside the RTÉ studio's which would incur major increases in costs. This year however, the cost of staging the national final on RTE's own 'Late Late Show' in the RTÉ studios costed €83,879, while the Eurovision Song Contest participation fee was more than €55,000.
An RTÉ spokesman defended the Eurovision Song Contest bill and said the cash had provided seven hours of entertainment.
"All these programmes attracted substantial audiences. All costs in Moscow were carefully controlled," he said.
"In all cases, the cheapest possible flights were booked. The hotel costs reflect the going rate in Moscow."
Simon Coveney, an Irish politician said, an "honest review" of the entire RTÉ Eurovision Song Contest process was needed, but added: "To be fair to RTÉ, they get lumbered with the costs. There would be a lot of disappointed people if RTÉ decided not to enter."
- Watch Ireland's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.
Related polls
- Ireland decided: How much do you like It
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in IRELAND?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in IRELAND?
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I wonder how we can find out how much each country pays to enter the ESC. Then we'd see how much the Big 4 pay to have their automatic entry into the final.
@Marko
Good boy 
Telenor Arena is chosen as next year's hostvenue 
http://www.eurovisio(...)na+to+host+Oslo+2010
! Mark
You missed my point I'm not saying countries like the UK or Netherlands shouldn't send ethnic songs at all, i'm saying it just doesn't work at eurovision, in terms of points. Obviously alot of europeans won't associate the ethnic sound with the UK in the same way they will for Turkey for example, so if the UK sends an ethnic sounding song it probably won't do as well as if Turkey sent the same song (regardless of diaspora etc etc)
I'm all for countries sending ethnic songs and also "Your heart belongs to me" is one of my fave entries of 08 My point is however, it just doesn't translate to points very well for alot of western countries
@ Stine
This time I totally agree with my mother! YAYAY!!! 
wannabe rock trash like Et Cetera
It is a matter of taste, but I agree... To me they tried to make it fierce, and it just didnt work at all. It came off as an average mainstream pop song (at best).
@ Axel
Hahahahaha, of course that isn't real song!
Mark said the best thing about "Et cetera"!! It is rock trash! I wanted to say that but couldn't remember! lol And that's your opinion about France, maybe some ppl (read many) don't wanna vote for that coz they find it boring! 
P.S. Can I show you smth about Romania Elena Georghe? She is the third on the list of stil listening songs after ESC!!!!!First is Sasha Son YAY , and second are Aysel & Arash! YAY
You can chack that if you wanna!! 
And Elena sang good live coz she was dancing all the time, like Hadise, but she sang better than Hadise in the Final! Experts said that, not me! When somebody is dancing and singing good live that's nice and for respect! And it was ethnic, what was "Et ceters", nothing to respect special, voice, dancing, music, coreography! Really nothing special, like 100000000 other average songs! 
... "wannabe rock trash like Et Cetera"
That's a matter of opinion. I loved "Et Cetera", and if it had qualified I would have voted like mad for it
and I think it's not very necessary to give the juries more power in the semifinals, as I think the jury-decides-the-tenth-entry thingy works fine. Noway did the impossible thing in the Grand final last year, by coming in top 5 even though the diaspora/neighbour voting affect the results more in the final evening. Ireland just has to send better songs, cuz this year they sent an average entry.
I hope Ireland next year will send an ethnic ballad or something next year, I miss the old Ireland
I do want juries in the Semi's too - but not allow wannabe rock trash like Et Cetera through - It looked like a reject from the horrible music disney channel produces nowadays ...
However other songs deserved the final, and didn't ... but the songs that qualified weren't exactly awful nor relied heavily of the countries name. Two western countries won the semi finals with 100% televoting - so why can't Ireland do it !?
Lily,
Why I think Et Cetera should have passed... well it's a great popsong, good lyrics, well performed and sung.... a real song my friend. Compare that with the crap coming from Romania fe, that was appalling that it went through. But country names are more imporatnt than the songs obviously. I really do hope that from next year off, the EBU will add the jury votes to the semi's aswell.... so certain countries will stay deserved out of the final.
I was watching this year's final once again, and still can not believe that France only came 8th..... it gives me absolutely the shivers. Her performance, her voice, the song, the dancing, the simplicity,......
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Axel is right, there are a lot of American crap music that sells not because of the quality of the music, their voices a.s.o but because of other un-important things...
A good marketing strategy will get you more sales than talent alone. Record sales are not necessarily a measure of talent, nor is being famous. And this is why people get annoyed with the pop music industry - they sometimes overlook genuine talent for someone thinner, better looking, more "marketable". I mean, they can always clean up their voices in the studio and lip sync, right? This is one reason why I dislike a lot of modern pop music - it's not 'real', and has lost a lot of it's feeling for me. One of the best things about the ESC is that singers MUST have ability (even if sadly, the music is pre-recorded).
@ Axel and Sara
Just don't tell me please that "Et Cetera" is better!
You all say that it should qualify, but don't mention real reason why??
Axel is right, there are a lot of American crap music that sells not because of the quality of the music, their voices a.s.o but because of other un-important things.... There are too many to mention, hehe
@Lily,
because it's true.....
@ Axel
All the American crap that channels buy to "entertain" the public cost a lot more
OMG, how you can say that??
So Lina you would prefer no songcontest anymore ??? If you say give it to the poor people.... I think this is a really small investment for 3 evening (over 8 hours) of tv. All the American crap that channels buy to "entertain" the public cost a lot more and is in general absolutely dreadful. So well done RTE, and please be back next year. Italy, Luxemburg, Austria... left us but a contest without Ireland would be like a pub without beer.... And yes, Sinead should have been in the final.
OOOPS!
*DERVISH 2007 not 2006!
LOL
@ Brendan Bonner
Hahahaha, NOOOOOOO please only Dustin the Turkey not!!!
I was in Arena last year coz ESC was in my country and I shouted BOOOO together with all ppl in Arena coz we didn't like he had song with bad words about Eastern Europe! That was rude and he deserved BOOO
P.S. But on the other side Ireland has my favourite winner ever - 1995 - Eimear Quinn "The voice" 
and one of my favourite entries DERVISH 2006!
@ Lily Bell
thanks for the vote of confidence - but Dervish were totally dreadful, even Dustin was better. They had the wrong type of song too popish for a traditional group
This year Sinead did a great job - she looked a bit nervous on stage but still the song was good
Why countreys dont give all that money to poor people , ESC dont deserve all that money.
totally agree i hate RTE i wish tv3 was part of the EBU
I believe that the money was not huge. To be honest I think RTE has a problem. They remember the 90's where ESC did cost them a lot of money. BUT winning is a big morale boost to the country, and it pushes RTE to have to extend themselves to put on a good show and so improve them too. Some people have an agenda against RTE for various dogey reasons and will give out if RTE spend money on toilet paper. THe big issue for them is to involve Johnny Logan or not. There would be mixed feelings about that here.
Sinead and Co. were a different type of act for us to send and that was great. In our final they were the best performers, perhaps not the best song, but good enough.
I do accept that we didn't get through but I do wonder if there had been equal jury and televote as in the final if things would have been better. Also if the big4 idea was abolished it would have obviously have been fairer for all. These two changes are obvious to me. I would have no problem with RTE paying more to the EBU. I think each country should pay a set amount, and perhaps wave the fee for the previous years winner. Eurovision doesn't have to be as big a spectacle as Rissia did this year, so it doesn't have to cost as much.
Finally I think the Irish public could have supported Black Daisy more. Cynisim is a big problem here. If we won, the ESC would be labeled the saviour of the Irish ecconomy, otherwise people give out about it. But still it gets big viewing figures.
@ Brendan Bonner
The girls would have made the final with a mixed voting
Sorry , but good song dodn't need mixed voting, coz televoters can recognize it very well!
the best for a very long time
DERVISH in 2007 was just AMAZING!
But if you think I'm talking only about my opinion, no, coz in 2006 Ireland was great, i didn't like it too much, but it deserved final! this year NOT
Such a shame Ireland didnt make it to the final, they should have replace. The song was great, a better singing position could have have helped. Fingers crossed for a big Irish come back next year! A big ballad would do the trick...
I say good value for money - I actually really liked this years entry the best for a very long time and showed a different side to irish music and these days rock is what we are know for.
The girls would have made the final with a mixed voting system and i still thing they did a great job - Sinead was a little too tense and I would have stuck with the origianl outfit (would have got more notice and a few more votes lol)
but wel done ladies
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