I wore my slippers in rehearsals ...so I’d not be towering over Ronan
SECRETS OF IRELAND’S EUROVISION REVEALED
EUROVISION host Carrie Crowley had to wear flats to avoid dwarfing co-presenter Ronan Keating, she’s revealed.
The pair took to the stage to front the live show in Dublin in 1997 – the last time Ireland held the song contest.
Carrie said: “I am very tall and Ronan isn’t quite as, so at rehearsals I wore slippers instead of shoes so I wouldn’t be towering over him.
“For years after the Eurovision people looked at me differently and I wasn’t very comfortable with that.”
The actress is one of several contributors to an RTE show exploring Ireland’s links to the contest.
It goes from 1971 when we first hosted it – just the second time RTE had done an outside broadcast in colour – to the seventh and last time over 20 years ago.
Presenter Bernadette Ni Ghallchoir recalls: “After there was relief we hadn’t let the country down.”
Fionnuala Sweeney said the joy at Niamh Kavanagh’s win at the 1993 show in Cork with In Your Eyes “was akin to Italia 90”.
Cynthia Ni Mhurchu, who co-hosted with the late Gerry Ryan in 1994, said: “It felt like he was a bag of nerves.”
The 1995 host Mary Kennedy added: “A lot of people were hoping we wouldn’t win it again as we simply couldn’t afford it.”
Good Evening Europe agus Anois… an Eurovision is on RTE One tomorrow at 7pm.
Watch Ryan Shaughnessy sing for Ireland in the first semi-final on RTE Two on Tuesday at 8pm.
news@irishmirror.ie 1 The Eurovision Song Contest was first staged in Switzerland on May 24, 1956.
2 The first show featured just seven countries each of whom performed two songs. 3 The youngest winner ever was 13-year-old Sandra Kin from Belgium in 1986.
4 Rules ban live animals, instrumental music, and songs over three minutes long. 5 The iconic Eurovision Anthem is called Prelude To Te Deum by Marc-antoine. 6 Ireland holds the record with seven wins, with Sweden now just one behind us.
7 1974 winners Abba were given the dreaded ‘nul points’ by the UK for Waterloo. 8 Johnny Logan began a tradition in 1988 reprising his 1987 song Hold Me Now. Every year since, the previous champion returns to the stage to perform. 9 In 2006 Brian Kennedy became the 1,000th act to sing on the Eurovision stage. Every Song Is A Cry For Love finished a respectable tenth. 10 In 1978 Jordanian TV broadcast some flowers instead of the Israeli entry. And when Israel won, Jordan pretended it was Belgium.
11 In 1981 Italy boycotted the contest saying it was “too old-fashioned”. 12 Up until 1998 there was a live orchestra but since then it has been optional and never utilised. 13 None of Luxembourg’s five winners came from the Grand Duchy. Four were French and one Greek. 14 Portugal in 1964 and Lithuania in 1994 are the only countries to score zero points on their debut. 15 After Portugal’s win in 2017 the country waiting longest for a first win is now Malta, entrants since 1971, followed by Cyprus (1981) and Iceland (1986). 16 In 1969 four countries tied for first and as there was no tie-breaker they shared the prize. Since then the rules for a tie have altered. 17 Israel have competed at Eurovision since 1973. Australia were invited as a “guest” in 2015 but their participation now seems ongoing. 18 In every contest from 2001 to 2008 the winning country had never won Eurovision before. Since 2009 the only first-time champs have been Azerbaijan in 2011 and Portugal in 2017. 19
The Greece/cyprus 12 points vote exchange is far and away the most recurring predictable vote. 20 In 1966 the first black contestant was the Netherland’s Millie Scott and the only black winner Dave Benton (one half of Estonia’s Tanel & Dave in 2001).