Lamphs Roisin Dubh for Eurovision 2009, Ireland

The song Rуisнn Dubh by Lamph was rejected by RTEs judging panel.
This was a mistake. That song has so much going for it.

1. It is partly sung in Irish. (Something that Ireland hasnt sent since the 1970s.)
2. The lyrics are very current, and tell a story.
3. The tune is distinctly Irish, yet has modern elements.
4. The song has the type of great intensity that the European voters connect with.
(Similar to Serbia 2007, Ukraine 2008, Romania 2006 and Bulgaria 2007.)
5. It had a group of young talented musicians dedicated to it.
6. Lamph had some brilliant, well thought out plans for staging it (To see these ideas, go to Youtube and search for:- Rуisнn Dubh staging and it will be the first video result.)
7. There was a huge amount of excitement surrounding this song. People who heard it, thought it had potential to do very well at Eurovision indeed.

I cannot emphasise enough how this song has received rave reviews from youtube members, and from competing eurosong musicians (from the final 6 in 2008 and in 2009), and most tellingly heres what some hardcore Eurovision fans think:-

I have to say that I prefer this song to most of the ones selected
for ESC so far this year and to most of the Irish entries of the last
twenty or more years.

it's EXACTLY the
sort of thing Ireland should be entering these days.

I think it would be an excellent,
contemporary choice for Ireland: quite a departure from last year.

I think both the slow and fast
sections are really beautfully written. It instantly catchy and it stay
with you. In fact I've listened to it around 5 times in a row now and
it sounds good every time. I would be proud to support this in Moscow
and I haven't said that about an Irish entry in a long while.

(source:- http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/eurovision_general/)



In spite of this kind of enthusiasm, Rуisнn Dubh has had a dismal track record with the Eurosong judging panels

In 2007, it failed to make the shortlist of 33 songs.
In 2008, it failed to make a shortlist of 41 songs.
In 2009, it has once again been rejected, but there is no news of how far it managed to get.

Lamph have emailed me, telling me that they are very disheartened this time, and would not feel happy to put an entry in for the Irish selection again while the 6-finalists system is in place. It is too much like a lottery. They would reconsider entering in a year where the Irish selection consists of more than just 6 songs.

We are sure that Rуisнn Dubh would do Ireland proud on the European stage, and are saddened that Lamph cannot enter it for ESC again, as the exposure on YouTube and on local Irish radio this year has rendered it ineligible for any year other than 2009.

We ask RTE to:-

1. Reconsider their decision to exclude this great song from Eurosong 2009, and to include it as a 7th entry.

2. Failing that, we would ask that RTE have a bigger song selection next year. If this years leaked entries on YouTube prove anything, it is that there is a wealth of songwriting talent entering for Eurosong. (entries by David Lyons, John Kennedy, Gareth Nugent, Cowmen, & Lauren White highlight this fact) A larger quantity of songs in the final (or possibly even in semi-final heats?) would be seen as a vote of confidence in the musicians, and a mark of respect for the quality of entries being submitted, and this in turn would probably encourage more songwriters to enter, as there would be a higher chance of making the televised stage, thus reaping the fruits of their efforts.