Mixed Reaction From Irish Radio To Jedward Win

Jedward are Ireland’s representatives at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. They romped home in the top spot in the public vote on Friday night when the finalists appeared on The Late Late Show. But will they get the backing of Irish radio stations? And what does the local music industry think about the fact that the song, ‘Lipstick’, was written by British and Scandanavian rather than Irish songwriters?

The initial response from radio has been cautious with a number of stations saying that they plan to ‘wait and see’.

“It’s a pop song, it’s fun, it’s disposable,” Today FM Head of Music Brian Adams told Hot Press.”It may even do very well. Objectively speaking, it’s probably a little young for our target audience – but we’re gonna see what the demand is from our audiences between now and the Eurovision.”

Meanwhile, Nessa McGann of Spin South-West, one of the country’s most successful regional stations, also said they would play the song – but only if there is demand for it. “We haven’t really played Jedward songs before,” McGann revealed. “They’re more for the ZooCrew audience, so we might feature it there, but it really will depend on whether people want to hear it.”

iRadio music director Mark Cunning was far less positive in his reaction. “Most of our listeners would be anti-Jedward,” he commented, “so I don’t think we’ll have to playlist at the station. I’d rather play Niamh Kavangh every hour to be honest.”

All three programmers were in agreement, however, that in the light of what the Eurovision has become, Jedward may well prove to be the perfect choice. “They’ve got a right to be there just as much as anyone else,” Adams said, “and the way Eurovision is going it’s more about a visual impact and presence – in-your-face stuff – and they do that very well. They also have a track record of getting TV audiences to vote for them.”

“I think it’s a bit silly really,” Mark Cunning added, “but then the Eurovision has got a bit silly as well so I suppose it’s probably the right entry to send.”

Ray Harman, composer, Something Happens guitarist and recent IFTA winner, dismissed criticisms which have been circulating on the Irish music industry grapevine today that it was an insult to Irish writers that the song chosen to represent the country in a major European competition was written by a team of non-Irish songwriters, Lars Halvor Jensen, Martin M. Larsson and Dan Priddy.

“I suppose there will be noses put out of joint by that,” he said, “but there obviously wasn’t anything that fitted into the way the Eurovision has developed. I thought it was by far the catchiest and simplest tune of the lot and all the better for it.

“They’re so likeable that they’re actually perfect for the competition,” he added. “Their enthusiasm is really infectious and it seems to really fit in with the current Eurovision ethos. It’s a well-chosen song and in some ways they’re manna from heaven if Ireland want to win Eurovision. I heard it on the radio this morning and they actually have a good chance.”

Johnny Lappin, the leading Irish music publisher, who publicly lambasted RTÉ’s decision to change the format from an open-entry song contest a couple of years back, was also sanguine on this occasion.

“Well first of all, it wasn’t a song contest was it?” he asked. “I think it’s a little bit disingenuous to call it the National Song Contest when it isn’t one. It’s a bit of a shame that there wasn’t actually a song contest – but that’s beside the point at this stage. Jedward probably stand a good chance of making some impression with the Eastern-European block because it’s more a performance contest now than a song contest. So I think overall, while the other songs were good, I think that because of Jedward’s profile, they stand a better chance of bringing home the bacon.”

Ray Harman expressed what may become the dominant feeling in industry circles as the contest draws closer. “I don’t have an ounce of bad feeling towards it,” he concluded. “I think they’re great. They’re funny and likeable and engaging.”