Why Are RTÉ Failing to Support Bambie Thug?

In March this year, the Irish Eurovision entrant Bambie Thug hit out at RTÉ, saying that the support that Ireland’s chosen song, 'Doomsday Blue’, was getting from the national broadcaster was “ridiculous”. As in ridiculously small, that is.

On the surface things have improved since then, but when you drill down into the numbers, the truth is that they haven’t improved very much. Some of the biggest radio stations in the country have never played the song. RTÉ Radio 1 have played it only four times.

This is extraordinary, surely, given that RTÉ select the songs that represent Ireland in Eurovision. According to the RTÉ guidelines for the song selection procedure: “RTÉ will have the final say on which song and performer(s) will be Ireland's Eurovision Song Contest 2024 entry and RTÉ and the EBU will retain final decision on the eligibility of any entry and the application of the rules.”

In other words, RTÉ selected the song that they are now not playing. So what exactly is going on? And why?

In what is arguably one of the best episodes of the sitcom Father Ted (S02 E05), titled 'A Song For Europe', Fr. Dick Byrne is indignant when the song the clergymen have written doesn’t qualify for the Eurosong finals. “Anyone would think you wanted Ireland to lose the next Eurosong contest… because it was costing you too much to stage it,” is the accusation Fr. Byrne levels at the uncomfortable-looking organisers.

SUPPORT AND PROMOTION
In 2019, I interviewed Michael Kealy, the head of RTÉ’s Eurovision delegation, and asked him directly if Ireland were deliberately underachieving at Eurovision because the view in RTÉ then was that “We can’t afford to host the event."

He assured me that nobody is sending him out to “do well, but not that well.” He said that RTÉ always go into Eurovision to put on the best possible performance. But, he also said this: “Can we afford to win it? No… It would definitely give RTÉ an existential crisis if we were to win it.”

If that was true then, what about now?

The financial fall-out from the cross-party Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigation into RTÉ’s finances has led to an all time financial low at the national broadcaster. In November last year they announced planned cuts of €10million in the organisation. In addition, in November 2023, the Irish Government announced that taxpayers would be providing €56million interim funding to RTÉ, to cover projected funding shortfalls within the organisation, and to compensate for a sharp fall-off in TV licence revenue following several high-profile sackings at the broadcaster.

RTÉ are in a far more precarious financial position now than they were in 2019.

It cost RTÉ €340,000 to participate in Eurovision 2023. Michael Kealy would argue that for eight hours of prime-time television, this is pretty good value.

Meanwhile, it was reported by Eurovoix that the 2022 Eurovision finals cost Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) €16.3million to host. This, however, is modest compared to more than $64million spent by Azerbaijan to host the event in 2012.

In this context the support and promotion of 'Doomsday Blue' by RTÉ becomes particularly interesting.

Credit: Lily Lytton. Copyright: RTÉ 2024

HIGHLY POLITICISED
As noted at the outset, some of the biggest radio stations in Ireland have never actually played the Bambi Thug song. RTÉ Radio 1 has played it a mere four times.

RTÉ 2FM have played the song 89 times, which might seem pretty good on the surface – but even a cursory analysis confirms that the track is predominantly being played during the 1am time-slot, being slipped into what is known as the Graveyard Shift, when very few people are listening.

When this is ranked alongside the radio support given to comparable artists – even one who competed in but didn’t qualify for Eurovision 2024 – it’s obvious that 'Doomsday Blue' is being consciously play-listed outside peak times on RTÉ.

And it hasn’t been play-listed at all by some of the largest radio stations in the country.

I contacted the Head of Music at a well regarded station that has never played 'Doomsday Blue' to have a chat about the figures and to check if my interpretation of them was correct.

We discussed how difficult it is to place a track with Trent Reznor-Marilyn Manson-esque sections to it. But the answer as to why at least some stations have never played the track is very simple: it’s not on their systems because, I am told, nobody ever sent the track to them.

You’d think that an independent artist who has been selected by – and is working with – the largest media organisation in Ireland should get some help with distribution and PR. Drumming up domestic support and helping to ensure the artist has some profile and a career to return home to after the dust has settled on Eurovision would surely go some way towards addressing the competition's darker reputation as a career killer. So why has that not happened?

There is a massive irony here. Bambie Thug is standing with RTÉ and with the European Broadcast Union (EBU) by participating in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. For better or worse – and at considerable risk to their reputation – Bambie Thug will literally be standing on the same stage as Israel’s inevitably highly politicised participant in Eurovision 2024.

The counter-question then is: are the organisations tasked with the support and promotion of artists participating in Eurovision 2024 standing with and supporting Bambie Thug? And where do RTÉ really stand in relation to all of this?

Is it that they really do want Bambie Thug – or indeed any Irish entrant now or in the future – to fail? Answers on a postcard, please, addressed to: Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 1.