Ireland’s Selection Process for Baku

Written by spiller. Posted in National Finals

Today RTÉ have announced the selection process for next years Eurovision in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Like last year there will be five mentors coaching the acts. The five mentors are:

Julian Benson
Greg French
Bill Hughes
Edele Lynch
Linda Martin

The five acts will compete on the The Late Late Show Eurosong 2012 on the 24th of February, 2012. The winner will again be decided by combination of Public Vote and Regional Jury.

Speaking about the decision RTÉ Eurovision Co-ordinator Julian Vignoles said “As was the case in previous years RTÉ wanted to offer the Irish public a say in deciding who Ireland’s Eurovision entry should be. We felt the last year’s mentoring process was successful in delivering five strong acts which could represent Ireland. This year our five mentors represent all aspects of the Irish music/entertainment industry and have already begun their search for the act which will deliver another strong performance for Ireland at the Eurovision. The mentors are currently sourcing their acts and songs and a number of acts including Jedward have been approached by the mentors to take part in the contest.”

The Acts will be revealed in the new year.

About the Mentors:

Julian Benson is a show business agent and choreographer. He has a keen interest in the ESC and has served RTÉ’s song selection committee several times in the past.

Greg French is a member of The Brilliant Things and works as a music producer/songwriter and for television.

Bill Hughes has been an independent television professional for 26 years with over 1000 hours of music, entertainment and documentary programmes to his credit. Hughes, alongside Louis Walsh and Linda Martin, was a judge on Irish television sensation Popstars and has also done jury duty on a number of shows including RTÉ’s You’re A Star.

Edele Lynch is a successful singer and songwriter. She made her name as member of Bewitched, their album, which Lynch wrote, sold 6 million copies worldwide. Lynch has also written songs for Girls Aloud, Sugababes and more recently has been in the band Barbarellas and has written their album NightMode.

Linda Martin needs no introduction to ESC matters, having, as a performer, won the contest in 1992 and come 2nd in 1984. Linda also chaired the RTÉ Eurovision Song Selection Committee in 2009 to 2010.

Tags: Baku, Eurovision Song Contest, Ireland, Jedward, Linda Martin, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, RTÉ

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spiller

Spiller or Stephen as he is known, is a 20-odd year old Irish blogger, who has been blogging since 2005 and gets to do lots of cool things with blogs. Normally he goes Eurovision mad on his blog once a year, but since 2010 he has decided to join ESCIreland and make all his predictions here. You can see Stephen's blog at the link below.

Comments (2)

Seán

November 5, 2011 at 8:26 pm | #

Any rumours about who will be in the National Final?

Reply
- spiller
  
  November 6, 2011 at 5:15 pm | #
  
  The only name I have heard mentioned is Jedward. I’d put a punt on it that Linda Martin is their mentor!
  
  Reply