Watch Eurosong Live

Eurosong in T -5 hours, are you prepared? We have the Bucks Fizz on ice already. Speaking of which they will also be appearing on the Late Late tonight. Excited.com. Have ye picked your winner yet?

Current Betting odds (Paddypower.com) have Jedward as favorite with Nikki Kavanagh as second.

The event itself will be audited independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers who will ensure everything runs honestly and smoothly. In the interest of fairness for all acts a decision was made that the public vote will now count for 33.3% with the regional juries’ vote now accounting for 66.6% of the total vote. This was changed after an “administrative error” occured involving the release of a preview of “Lipstick”- Jedward’s entry by labelUniversal Records before the date permitted to do so.

For those of ye in Ireland then then tune into RTE 1 at 9.30 pm for The Late Late Eurosong Special.

For those of ye outside of the Republic then try here: http://www.eurovision.tv/esctv/future

We want to wish all the contestants then best of luck tonight and in the words of Late Late show host Ryan Turbidy: “It is a strange night of Eurovision stuff. Anything can happen.”

Here is a quick round up of some Eurosong articles in Irish press at the moment:

The Irish TImes

JEDWARD REMAIN the favourite to win tonight’s Eurosong despite a change in the voting arrangements which ought to favour the other contestants.

Regional juries and the public were to have an equal say on who should represent Ireland in the Eurovision, but the ratio was altered to 2:1 in favour of the juries after Jedward’s song Lipstick was leaked online last week in contravention of competition rules.

The other contestants feared an army of “texting 12-year-old girls”, as one of the artist’s mentors put it, would skew the vote and make them a shoo-in.

Their fan base included three Scottish teenagers who assembled outside the front of RTÉ yesterday for rehearsals before tonight’s contest which takes place on The Late Late Show.

Despite the change, Paddy Power has made the Grimes brothers even hotter favourites to represent Ireland in Dusseldorf on May 12th. Their odds tonight are almost 1/2 to win, in from evens at the start.

The twins were effusive about the song chosen for them by mentor and Childline concert organiser Caroline Downey.

John Grimes said: “I can’t believe we have, like, the opportunity to try and represent Ireland . . . We watch the Eurovision every single year. We’re huge fans.”

Second favourite Nikki Kavanagh said she was “absolutely thrilled” that the voting arrangement had been changed and the contest would not be an exercise in “musical GAA” with Jedward having all the support.

As a backing singer, Kavanagh witnessed Niamh Kavanagh (no relation) finish second last in last year’s Eurovision. She described Falling as “contemporary pop with an urban reference” which will play well in Europe if she can convince voters. “I’m worried that people will stick to the same safe song as they did before.”

Established singer-songwriter Don Mescall said he hoped the strength of his entry Talking with Jennifer would carry the day. “I would dearly love to represent my country, but I won’t be going for any therapy or counselling afterwards if I don’t,” he said.

Cathy Vard, part of the Vard Sisters trio, said their entry Send Me An Angel had a message of hope. “It will give comfort to people in these times,” she said.

The other entrant is Bling, a mixed four piece, who will sing Shine On.

The Herald

WE can’t wait to get on to the stage at the Late Late Show tonight and show everyone exactly what we’re made of.

And if the Irish people want to send the A-team to Germany next May, they better pick up the phone and vote for us.

It’s going to be so cool having everyone finally hear our song Lipstick after having to keep it to ourselves for so long. We’ve been humming it in our heads all week.

We can’t wait to meet up with Ryan Tubridy again. When we were on the Toy Show with him in 2009, he said that we were his favourite twins so he’s obviously a big fan.

We met Louis Copeland during the week and he made us these brilliant new suits especially for our performance tonight.

He also made us some other suits for our new tour and TV appearances so we’re going to be looking really sharp — we can’t let our fans down when it comes to our outfits, they expect a certain standard now.

Cool

We’re not feeling too nervous about tonight, we know it’s a competition but we feel that we have already proved ourselves. We’ve been around for more than a year, we went through the whole X Factor thing so this is just the next step for us.

When we were kids, we always watched the Eurovision and the acts all looked like they were having so much fun so it would be cool to experience that for ourselves.

When it comes to the other acts, we’re not really concentrating too much on them. To be honest, we consider each other as our competition and we know we have the right song. It’s a real pop-style song and has the kind of cool sound that will help us go really far in the competition.

We’re going to be doing a really cheeky performance and giving it our usual 100pc.

The whole week has been spent in Dublin as we’ve been rehearsing and practising our routine all week long to make sure it’s really sharp.

We flew back in from the UK last Sunday and we had a night off to just chill out. Monday morning we had a super early start at 6am as we had loads of interviews to do with radio stations and we started our rehearsals.

We didn’t stop until 9pm and then we did it all over again the next day. We got to meet up again with Rebecca Creighton, who’s singing with us, and our other backing dancers like Morgan Deane. They were all really cool.

On Tuesday we did a slot with Xpose which was really cool and then we had a meeting about doing a TV commercial with a fruit drink company in the UK. We can’t say which one yet — you’ll just have to watch it.

We had more interviews on Wednesday but we don’t mind because we love talking and spreading the love for Team Jedward.

Thursday morning we were up again at 6am to go into the studio and then we had to get our hair done with Louise Teasdale.

She used to do our hair when we were on the X Factor and she knows exactly what way we like our quiffs done — we don’t trust anyone else to do them.

Then it was out to RTE for a photocall and to meet with all the other acts who are going to be on Eurosong tonight. We did another full rehearsal and then we went back to the penthouse of the Dublin hotel that we were staying in.

We’ve been using that as a base for the whole week but of course, our fans managed to find us as they always manage to track us down.

John had to go out in a full disguise to do some shopping on Grafton Street so he dressed down in a hoody top and was trying to walk differently so no one would recognise him.

He still kept his shiny high tops on, though, as you can’t compromise yourself too much.

Performance

We woke up kind of nervous at 6am this morning but we’re not too bad now. We’re just really excited about going on the Late Late Show again and doing our thing.

We’re spending the day rehearsing and making sure our performance is the best on the night.

There has been lots of talk about this competition but at the end of the day, the best act will win — and we hope that will be us.

Our single is going to be released for downloading just after the Late Late Show and then goes on sale at midnight tonight.

All our fans have been so cool and have been promising they’ll buy it so we just hope they’ll stick to their promise.

- Jedward

The Irish Independant

IT’S Jedward, but not as we know them.

The pop duo yesterday described their bid to be the Irish Eurovision entry as the “next step” in their careers.

The 19-year-old twins, who perform in a ‘Late Late Show’ Eurosong special tonight, have faced a barrage of criticism this week from rival entries and former competition winners.

However, following rehearsals in RTE yesterday, the Lucan brothers claimed TV viewers tuning in tonight could expect a surprise.

“It’s Jedward but not how people have seen us before,” John said.

“What we’re trying to do is take our performance to a new level. We’re doing something very polished but with the same youthful energy. That’s why we’re calling it Jedward’s next step.”

“We will be singing live on Eurosong, and if the public decide we’re Ireland’s Eurovision entry, we will be singing live in Dusseldorf,” Edward added.

“We have the height of respect for people like Paul Harrington and Shay Healy, and the rival entries who criticised us. But we want them to know that we would be very proud to represent Ireland. We would do a good job. This is the kind of opportunity we have been waiting for. We just want to be given a chance.”

Jedward, with backing singers Morgan Deane and Rebecca Creighton from ‘X Factor’ girlband Belle Amie, will perform after Don Mescal tonight. They will be followed by new band Bling, who have been tipped as the other potential winners, with the Vard Sisters and Nikki Kavanagh fourth and fifth.

Speaking at yesterday’s rehearsal, host Ryan Tubridy welcomed a decision by RTE to split the vote two-thirds in favour of regional juries and one-third phone votes.

“I’m glad it’s not all texting,” he said. “You don’t want one section of the population who are prolific texters to run away with it.”