Avada Kedavra: How Bambie Thug brought Grand Final glory back to Ireland

On Saturday 11 May in Malmö, it was difficult to determine which sight was more awe inspiring. Was it Bambie Thug cradling a demon back to life before mercilessly destroying him again? Or was it the ensuing consequences of that... Ireland consistently scoring points high enough to maintain a firm grip inside the upper echelons of the Grand Final scoreboard?

We certainly hadn’t seen the latter in a while. And in all probability, we’d never seen anything like the former. 

The performance and its result managed to simultaneously bring something fresh to Eurovision, while making us all reminisce about the glory years of the Contest's (joint) most trophied-up country. 

But perhaps a little bit of Bambie Thug’s Eurovision destiny had been written in the stars and chanted to the spirits all along. 

Back in 1993, at the very start of Ireland’s incredible run of hosting throughout that decade, the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Milstreet. And just 20 kilometres north of the venue, Bambie Thug had come into this world only a few weeks earlier, born in Macroom - another town in County Cork. 

30 years on in 2023, and the artist Bambie Thug released their third EP, Cathexis. One of the songs featured was Doomsday Blue, a stand-out on the EP's tracklist due to its genre-defying sound and multifaceted vocal delivery.

It was the composition that Bambie gravitated towards most when it came to picking one to send to RTÉ. The Irish broadcaster had put the call out for songs to be submitted to its Eurovision pre-selection for Malmö 2024. And Bambie Thug was ready to lift the curse on Ireland’s recent run of bad luck at the Contest.

On 11 January, Doomsday Blue was announced as one of the 6 competing entries in Ireland’s national final The Late Late Show Eurosong 2024. The pre-selection would take place on Friday 26 January, with a winner determined by a public vote, a national jury and an international jury. 

The self-proclaimed witch gave a performance on the night that ended up placing something of a hex on the people of Ireland. 

Not only was the live studio audience almost unanimous in its support for a Bambie Thug win when interviewed by host Patrick Kielty, but the viewers at home had also been spellbound through their TV screens. The public vote, and also the national jury, both awarded Doomsday Blue top marks. 

At the end of the vote, the song’s final score of 32 was a comfortable 8 points ahead of the runner-up. Ireland was sending Bambie Thug to represent them at Eurovision (or, as the Irish like to call it, The Eurovision!).

The honour brought with it a certain amount of pressure, in the competitive stakes at least. In the past 10 years, Ireland had only qualified to the Grand Final on one occasion. And the previous time was way back in 2018, with Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s Together serenading his country out of the Semi-Final. 

All eyes were now on Bambie Thug to see if they could lift Ireland out of the… well… doomsday blues. 

The first official duty was to film a music video for the song. Upon its release, Bambie revealed: 

“Originally, the story for the video was very dark, but since winning The Late Late Show Eurosong, there have been so many people reaching out about how their children love the song, so I wanted to make sure the video was something enjoyable and accessible for people of all ages. My sister and I eventually came up with this idea of making it a little more cutesy, spooky and comedic.”

The producer for the music video, Spanish talent Sergio Jaén, did such a good job, he was appointed as the staging director for Ireland’s Eurovision performance in May. Which, as we know now, ended up being a wise move all round. 

Sergio and Team Bambie set to work on devising and developing a unique concept for Doomsday Blue's staging for Malmö. But not before Bambie Thug returned to The Late Late Show one more time to treat Irish viewers to a whole new re-imagining of their Eurovision song, premiering the 'Intimate Version' on Friday night primetime TV.

Now, after Ireland’s 1992 win in Malmö had taken the Contest to Cork, Cork's finest new music export was finally heading to Malmö. 

Bambie Thug was feeling somewhat at home there, too, with them being half Irish and half Swedish. The artist even quipped pre-Contest that they would be the only Swedish person competing in Malmö, given that Sweden’s act was the Norwegian twins Marcus & Martinus!

Once images started coming out of Malmö, and Ireland’s first rehearsal on stage, it became clear that nothing anyone of us had tried to imagine for Doomsday Blue’s staging was even close to the mark. Instead, we knew we were going to be witnessing something very different altogether. 

Support rallied and ramped up for the Irish performer ahead of their performance in the First Semi-Final. And it wasn't just coming in from Ireland, but from plenty of Eurovision fans too. For many, the charms of Doomsday Blue were finally falling into place upon the arrival of that one last piece of the jigsaw puzzle - the visuals.

Even Eurovision legend Johnny Logan, who won the Contest for Ireland in 1980 and 1987, praised the song’s sound and look, and championed its chances for a record-reclaiming 8th Eurovision win. 

At the First Semi-Final on Tuesday 7 May, Ireland competed in a field of 15 and ended up finishing in third place, with a score of 124 points. 

Since the Semi-Finals had begun in 2004, it was just the 6th time that Ireland had progressed to the Grand Final (the country was automatically qualified in the 2004 Grand Final, not needing to compete in the Semi-Final that first year). 

And its third-place finish is now a Semi-Final record high placing for Ireland, too.

At the Grand Final on the Saturday night, Ireland ended up scoring a total of 278 points from voters, with a similar haul from both the public vote and the jury vote - 136 points and 142 points respectively. 

The high score gave Ireland a respectable return to the Top 10 of the Grand Final. Doomsday Blue's 6th-place finish is now the country’s highest placing at the Eurovision Song Contest since the year 2000, when Eamonn Toal’s topically titled Millenium of Love also finished in 6th. 

Not only that, but its points tally of 278 becomes Ireland's highest ever at the Contest, eclipsing the final scores of all 7 of the Emerald Isle's Eurovision winners. 

Back home in Ireland, the Grand Final was watched by almost double the amount of viewers as the previous year, when 362,000 tuned in for Liverpool 2023. 

The spell that Bambie Thug cast over Europe was watched by an average of 666,000 viewers, with a peak share of 66% of the available audience. This followed Doomsday Blue's result of 6th place with the public vote and 6th place with the jury vote, with 6 points between the two, leading to a 6th place finish overall.

Make of those superstitious sum-totals what you will!  

Since their Eurovision glory, Bambie Thug has been booked and busy performing at festivals such as Download, Mighty Hoopla and Rock For People, with a performance at Electric Picnic pencilled in later in August.

Now, at the end of August, the Irish artist commences an ambitious tour of Europe - the Crown The Witch tour - that will take in what's currently over 30 dates. 

We already got to see some of what they can do on stage in Malmö... Now you can go out there and witness their witchcraft in all its gothic glory! 

You can listen to all 37 songs of Eurovision 2024 via your favourite streaming service or watch the music videos on our YouTube channel.

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