Music
17 Feb 07

John Waters and Tommy Moran Compose Ireland’s Eurovision Entry

John Waters, who was among the most out-spoken critics of the running of last year’s Eurosong 2006 contest by RTE, has emerged triumphant from this year’s event.

‘They Can’t Stop The Spring’, written by Waters and Tommy Moran, was chosen last night as this year’s Irish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. It will be performed in Finland where the contest is set to take place in May. The song will be performed by Irish traditional band Dervish.

‘They Can’t Stop The Spring’ was performed by Dervish for the first time on The Late Late Show Eurosong 2007, alongside three other compositions: ‘Walk With Me’ written by Stig Lindell, ‘The Thought Of You’ written by Matti Kallio and ‘Until We Meet Again’ written by Malachi Cush, Pam Sheyne, Martin Sutton and Don Mescall

According to RTE, the public voted in their thousands by telephone and text to secure ‘They Can’t Stop The Spring’ its place in the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest Final. Voting began after the four contending songs had been performed by Dervish live on The Late Late Show. Pat Kenny announced that ‘They Can’t Stop the Spring’ had won live on air at the end of the show, in the presence of independent adjudicator, Michael O’Neill, from Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Composer John Waters said: “Tommy and myself are thrilled with the result. Dervish gave a really strong performance tonight and we’re delighted that the Irish public chose this song to represent them.”

Kevin Linehan, Entertainment Commissioning Editor, RTÉ Television said: “Dervish did justice to all four songs tonight. Any of them would have given us a great shot on the Eurovision stage. We are sure that Dervish, John and Tommy will do Ireland proud in Helsinki in May.”

Following Lordi’s win last year in Athens, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Finland. The contest is in its 52nd year and the final will take place on Saturday 12 May in the Hartwall “Areena”. As Ireland made it into the top ten last year in Athens with Brian Kennedy’s ‘Every Song Is A Cry For Love’, Ireland now automatically qualify for the final this year and will be competing against 24 other countries. The semi-finals take place on Thursday 10 May and will be broadcast live on RTÉ Two.

The Eurovision Song Contest final will be broadcast live on RTÉ One on the 12th of May.