It’s been a rough year for Ireland at Eurovision. Not only did the Irish Republic fail to qualify for the Grand Final for the fourth consecutive Contest, but with Loreen’s win in Liverpool, Ireland can no longer boast that they alone have the most Eurovision wins.
To pour salt in the wounds, Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ revealed to the Irish Mirror just how much the financially strapped broadcaster has spent on the last four non-qualifications.
- Liverpool 2023 – Wild Youth – 12th in Semi Final – €340,000 total, including €52,314 on hotels, €4,762 on economy flights, €9,351 on food and drink for 14 people (6 from RTÉ, 4 tech support, 4 band members), and a further €58,129 on the staging and a whopping €105,099 to the EBU for the licensing fee to broadcast Eurovision
- Turin 2022 – Brooke Scullion – 15th in Semi Final – €315,161 total, including the EBU’s fee of €92,588
- Rotterdam 2021 – Lesley Roy – 16th (last) in Semi Final – €330,000 total, including the EBU’s fee of €88,100
- Tel Aviv 2019 – Sarah McTernan – 18th (last) in Semi Final – €336,000 total
This creates a grand total of about €1.3 million [£1.11 million], of which the bill from Eurovision 2023 was the largest in the last four years.
Wild Youth’s We Are One finished 12th place with just 10 points in the 1st Semi Final in Liverpool. We now know that each second of this performance cost the broadcaster about €1,889.
Do you think the costs are justified? Can Ireland qualify for the Grand Final in Malmö? Let us know in the comments below!
