Ireland hoping to repeat Malmö victory

The Irish delegation headed up by Michael Kealy were very happy with almost everything following the first rehearsal of Only Love Survives on Tuesday.

There were some minor changes requested by the delegation for the background graphics, to make the celtic cross appear more heart shaped, and this has happened.

The backing drummers/dancers have a bit more bodypaint on them, with a red tint added to them. However vocally and soundwise they are totally happy with everything so far.

One area where all the artists save time on the second rehearsal is that they don't require the full sound checks that they had on their initial rehearsal. When the artists arrive in their dressing rooms they will find their earpieces they used from before, with each one marked with the name of the performer on them.

The singers can then pop them in, with the wires etc placed under their costumes, ready to be plugged in when they arrive backstage, saving everybody valuable time.

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Another time saving touch that occurs in the staging, that viewers won't notice is that the two drummers who are out front on the catwalk stage at the start of the song, originally just placed the bodhran drums down on the floor when they finished playing them, as they have to run quickly down the catwalk stage to resume their positions behind singer Ryan Dolan for the remainder of the song.

It meant for the floor assistants that in the change between songs they would have to retrieve them from the catwalk stage. Now the two drummers will instead run with them and hand the drums over to the floor assistant. A precious few seconds have now been saved for the stage hands.

For Ryan Dolan is was business as usual, and his vocal performance was once again excellent on each of the three run through performances.

The luck of the Irish

The Irish delegation are hoping that as Ryan is just one of three male soloists in the Second Semi-Final, and that he has an up tempo song amongst a large number of ballads that their song will stand out, and hopefully repeat their succes in Malmö of 21 years ago.

As it happens, Linda Martin, who won for Ireland in 1992 with the song Why Me? is coming over to Malmö this week, and will be appearing at the Eurocafe.

Working out at the gym

One of Ryan's hobbies is to go down to the gym, he also enjoys various watersports, and the press conference moderator has been following Ryan on Twitter, where he had tweeted he would have a six-pack for Sweden, The moderator asked whether the journalists could now see the results?

After a lot of laughing and joking, he hinted that he might reveal his alleged six-pack abs, if he gets through the First Semi-Final next week.

Apart from physically preparing in the gym, Ryan stated that he and his group had been having lots and lots of rehearsals, working hard, and that he is under a lot of pressure, especially as he is representing the most successful ever country in the contest.

Ryan has supported Jedward in the past, and he was asked what he had learnt from them? "Hairstyle!" was his quick response, and "avoid jumping too high!".

As co-composer of Only Love Survives, Ryan feels that he is able to put more emotion into the song lyrics than perhaps another performer might do. 

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A rock'n'roll kid

The moderator asked Ryan if he was a Eurovision fan? He admitted that the contest had played a big part in his life, and that he ahd great memories of watching it with his family, and when pushed further as to any particular song, it was the Irish 1994 winning song Rock'n'Roll Kids that he named as a favourite.

Then Ryan was given little choice but to sing a bit of the 1994 contest winner, and he duly obliged. He will no doubt hoping his own entry will have a similar result next week.