The Irish act and song was revealed on January 26th during a special Eurosong edition of "The Late Late Show". The scoring of a national jury, an international jury and nationwide televote (all with equal weighting) were converted into points and added together to produce a winner. The Irish song for Malmö is "Doomsday Blue" sung by Bambie Thug.
Cuntry Ray Robinson, AKA Bambie Thug, was born in County Cork in 1994. They initially showed promise as a ballet dancer and moved to London for a scholarship. However they sustained an injury causing them to change the focus for their studies to Musical Theatre. They have been releasing music since 2021 under the moniker of Bambie Thug with many of their first releases on the themes feminism, queerness and witchcraft. They created the term "ouija-pop" to describe their music; encompassing goth sensibilities, electro instrumentation and lyrical hexes. Bambie also mentioned in a previous interview that they were friends with last year's successful Serbian act, Luke Black.
Bambie is on stage with two dancers dressed in black catsuits with symbols written down the sides. These dancers also have protruding ears and elongated fingers like the Frank character in Donnie Darko. Bambie is wearing a gothic strapless dress with netting and frills, a white painted face and two different coloured eyes. The look is strange but not unfamiliar. The background screen fluctuates between gothic lettering, scribbled sigils, moody forests and fairytale castles. The song is composed of three main parts, each with its own feel and make up. The verses are chanted/rapped over a macro beat backing track. The bridge is more electro and juddering in the instrumentation whereas Bambie's vocal is repetitive, demanding and high pitched which increases the urgency. Finally the chorus is very melodic, shows off Bambie's rather distinctive singing tone as well as adding a touch of flair with the Spanish guitar earworm. The song ends with some cathartic shouting and metal-esque low growls.
This set up for the Irish NF has never been the best - although this edition had had a slight glow up - but the stage show of the winning act could easily be moved straight to Malmö. I would hope, however, that the choreography is made even bigger with double the amount of dancers on stage. I was quite impressed how Bambie took control of the performance with the lighting and camera angles. Personally this was not my pre-contest favourite however the live performance - as low tech as it is compared to other NFs - absolutely usurped the recorded version. I was impressed that the vocal was so doable live and the visual was well considered. This is not everybody's cup of tea - but it will bring people to the contest, and hopefully vote in the contest, who normally would not. This package will get people talking and watching and this will never be a bad thing. I don't actually think it matters if this qualifies or not. The fact is the Irish choices over the past few years, nay decades, have been safe and almost rooted in past glories. This is in-your-face, confident and shows a side of modern Irish culture and society Europe has never seen before.
ARTIST - Bambie Thug
SONG - Doomsday Blues
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Olivia Cassy Brooking, Sam Matlock, Cuntry Ray Robinson, Tylr Rydr
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