Eurovision dancer Megan
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD FROM BRAY STARS DURING INTERVAL
A BRAY eight-year-old wowed all of Europe by dancing in front of a TV audience of millions during the interval of last Thursday’s Eurovision semi-final.
While Kasey Smith’s ‘ Heartbeat’ failed to make it through to the final at the weekend, Megan Geoghegan from Brook Wood made sure that Ireland was still on top in the talent stakes.
‘It was amazing,’ said Megan’s mum Suzanne, who went to Copenhagen with her.
Dad Ben and sister Lucy (11) followed them over and managed to get tickets for the big night. The two girls go to Bray School Project and Lucy was really chuffed with her sister’s exciting performance. Her dad had heard a radio ad for the competition and they submitted a 15-second clip to win the chance to dance in Denmark.
Megan goes to hip hop classes at school with Rachel Fisher and ballet at Bray School of Dance. ‘She loves it. She’s always moving and dancing,’ said Suzanne.
She rehearsed many times with the group and did a number of dress rehearsals before facing the estimated television audience of 120 million, but Megan was not phased. ‘As soon as it was over she wanted to do it again!’
Megan got to meet Kasey, and was very disappointed when she didn’t get through. She also met Jedward and Laura Whitmore, and even got a glimpse of ultimate Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst from Austria!
‘Conchita had a huge entourage around her,’ said Suzanne, adding that the whole Eurovision scene was ‘surreal’, and ‘ like living in a bubble’. She added that everyone on the production worked really hard to make it a success.
She has returned to school where she got a hero’s welcome so it’s back to normal for Megan, but we suspect this isn’t the last we’ll hear of the young dancer.
Another Bray native was there in an entirely different capacity. Presenter Laura Whitmore is on the BBC Three team covering the song competition. Co-hosting with DJ Scott Mills, Whitmore was thrilled to note that Megan was a fellow Bray girl.
This was Laura’s first job for the BBC and she admitted to being a lifelong Eurovision fan. ‘When I was younger – I'm not even joking – I watched Eurovision every year. As a kid you'd sit and watch it and you'd imagine doing the commentary over it and what you'd say. So now it's really weird to be up there, in that little sweaty box with Scott, actually doing it. It's amazing and I love it.’
Megan was first on stage for an interval dance which included people from a range of countries. She was the youngest and the oldest dancer in the performance was 86.