"At least it's not a turkey? Not the feathered kind, in any case.
Several countries have had a poor decade at Eurovision, but perhaps none moreso than Ireland. In the past eleven years, the Irish have failed to qualify five times, and made it to the finals but finished last on two more occasions. (Ironically, most of this happened AFTER they sent a puppet turkey to protest poor finishes.) The only bright spot was Jedward's 2011 entry, "Lipstick," which managed to crack the top ten. Can Brendan Murray right the ship?
In a word? No. It's not bad, I guess, but it's not interesting either. Murray's vocals are nice, but his voice is too thin for the accompaniment, which sounds like it belongs to a completely different, and more soulful, song. The key change comes way too early, and can best be described((thanks for the term, Mike)) as unearned. There's literally zero buildup, just "Oh hey, here's something different for you!" And it's slow. Sloooooooow.
I don't have anything terrible to say about this entry, or Brendan Murray. He seems nice, if not very charismatic. I'm just bored by this whole package. Excellent staging can go a long way to saving an otherwise mediocre song -- but Ireland's not been very lucky on that front, either. There are probably a few things Ireland can do to avoid a complete meltdown, but I don't see them coming anywhere near qualifying with this entry."