Marty Whelan has revealed his disappointment after Wild Youth missed out on a place in the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
The Dublin-based band impressed the audience and viewers at home with their performance of We Are One during the first semi-final which took place in Liverpool on Tuesday evening.
Despite their powerful performance, Wild Youth didn’t receive enough votes to make it through to Saturday night’s final.
Marty said the result of the first semi-final is “very hard to fathom”.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, the RTÉ commentator said it was “desperately disappointing” for Irish fans who made the trip across the pond to Liverpool.
He said Wild Youth had put the work in “selling the song”, adding: “It’s like we suddenly have no friends. We’re like Billy-no-mates on this one.”
“I think everything about the presentation was terrific. I think they really gave it everything.”
Marty revealed he thinks Ireland are “always going to be fighting a fight” at Eurovision, because “we’re a little island on the edge of Europe”.
“It’s a very tough call. And there’s nobody going to tell me that there is a better way to do this than what we do. One day, a song is going to hit. And when it does, that’s going to do it.”
Ireland hasn’t gotten through the semi-final stages of the Eurovision since our 2018 entry Ryan O’Shaughnessy.
The first semi-final took place on Tuesday night, and saw Croatia, Czechia, Finland, Israel, Moldova, Norway, Portugal, Serbia Sweden, and Switzerland go through to the grand final.
The second semi-final takes place on Thursday night, and will see fifteen countries – including Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, San Marino and Slovenia, compete in the hopes of performing again on Saturday night.
The UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy – known as ‘The Big 5’, automatically qualify for the final each year, as well as last year’s winner: Ukraine.
The grand final of the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest will air at 8pm on Saturday night on RTÉ One.
