Crown the pooch. A year after Bambie Thug brought witchy weirdness to Ireland’s Eurovision campaign, Norwegian singer EMMY has been selected as our 2025 representative with a high-energy ditty about a dead Soviet space dog. Laika Party – “Like-a-party” if you say it quickly – has been selected after a nail-biting national final on the Late Late Show (RTÉ One, Friday). Look out Eurovision – the going is about to get woof.
Eurovision fans will differ over whether EMMY and Laika Party are the right fit for Ireland this year. Catchy and melancholic, the track is the opposite of Bambie’s Thug’s haunted head-banger, Doomsday Blue. Should we have doubled down on the hex factor – or is it wise to pivot to sparkly? The debate will undoubtedly rumble on all the way to May’s final in Basle.
Judged purely as Friday night entertainment, however, the Late Late hits the high notes. It doesn’t quite go the entire douze points, with the occasional piece of amateur staging conjuring the ghost of am-dram night on Father Ted. But the contest is tight, with Samantha Mumba doing well in the national and international jury votes – only to be trounced convincingly by EMMY in the public phone-in.
The set-up is very RTÉ. There’s a studio audience, a not-very spectacular stage – and a panel of four experts (cleaving to the RTÉ mantra: when in doubt chuck in a panel).
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They don’t hold back – and are particularly dismissive of Mumba’s My Way, which Arthur Gourounlian describes as 10 different songs thrown into a pot and which Bambie Thug reckons needs a revamp “to push it” in Basle.
Later, there is further straight-talking when Donal Skehan – Eurosong entrant turned celebrity chef – says that the competition deserves its own national song contest and shouldn’t be relegated to the Late Late. Presenter Patrick Kielty pretends to play it cool – but you have to credit Skehan for telling it as he sees it.
There are just six acts but, stretched over two hours, the evening threatens to become a slog. So it is to Kielty’s credit that the energy is kept high. He starts with an amusing (ish) skit in which he fantasises, My Lovely Horse-Style, about competing at Eurovision with a song that rhymes his County Down hometown of Dundrum with “bum bum” while wearing horrifyingly tight trousers.
It’s Lycra to legends as Kielty welcomes Eurovision winners Niamh Kavanagh, Eimear Quinn and Linda Martin. They put their stamp on 2023 winner Loreen’s Tattoo before gathering for a natter with Kielty, where Quinn says the only way to win Eurovision is to come up with the best tune.
Is Laika Party that song? The panel agree that it is catchy – Bambie Thug says they and their sister have been humming it non-stop. Whether a Soviet space dog party anthem will be regarded as out of this world at Eurovision is another question. Let’s hope the public voters are correct, and it does not come crashing down to earth with a bang in Basle. For now it is flying high and you can only wish it and EMMY all the best.
