No way!!!
Eurovision Drinking Rules:
Rules of the Eurovision
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All of the participating country names will be written on pieces of paper (standard size) and placed in a hat. The game participants shall pick an equal amount of countries from the hat (if there is an odd number of countries a scissor paper stone round robin knock out competition will take place the winner decides who should assume responsibility for additional countries). Each individuals list of countries will be known as their portfolio.
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A penalty shall be applied to anybody deemed to have added non-participating countries to the hat as an attempt at humour the other game participants shall decide what this forfeit shall entail.
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Participants will begin drinking their drink of choice as usual until the Eurovision song contest commences using the traditional rules of the round as drawn up by a previous committee.
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When an entrant from your portfolio is seen to commence their performance the participant will have the time it takes the entrant to complete their song (including the intro bit where they show scenery and clips from the country about to sing) to drink a 330ml can of Heineken or other equivalent beer. (Note the less participants the more drink for the individuals concerned).
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If the entrants nerves get the better of them and they are unable to complete their performance that country shall become null and void and rule number 4 shall not be enforced.
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If there is half time entertainment after all the entrants have sung and prior to the commencement of the voting phase, each participant will be required to knock back a can if the commentator makes reference to Riverdance. Similarly during the voting phase each participant will be required to knock back a can if an RTE newsreader or Johnny Logan reads out the results of the Irish jury.
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In the voting phase you have to take a drink every time a country from your portfolio wins points. The exception to this rule is if your country wins the maximum points then everyone else in the room has to drink half a 330ml can of Heineken or other equivalent beer.
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Any time there is a shot of one of your portfolio members in the green room you must take a drink for the duration of time that clip remains on the screen. This lengthy slug must immediately be repeated if the entrant and/or their entourage either give a victory or thumbs up sign or blow a kiss to the camera.
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Finally, the participants must tally up the combined points total of their portfolio at the end of the voting phase and the winner has the pleasure of watching the other participants knock back a 330ml can of Heineken in one go (he/she may join them if he/she so desires). Note the individual country judges results will be final and there will be no recourse to appeal if one is not satisfied with ones final points total.
Cheers for finding the rules, rocko.
Here’s an mp3 version of our entry:
We’re 74/1 on Betfair - worth a couple of euro anyway.
It was all the Eastern European countries that qualified last night though. Really think we’re fighting an uphill battle but could be tempted to bet though the thing is I still don’t understand the betting exchanges despite your attempts to explain them on the old forum last year. U wanna try taking me through it again?
Best of luck to Cathy and the gang tonight.
1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996.
Please let us be able to add 2007 to that list.
Link to the lyrics:
http://www.onlylyrics.com/song.php?id=1006299
No paper for our printer at home so rocko could you print up 10 or 15 copies for the pub later.
I can also confirm my attendance
However I wiill be there in the late evening so may miss the build up to the big event. Not that I have any interest in it anyway
I’m really nervous now, having seen some the semi finalists and the previews of the pre qualifiers I think we’ve comfortably the best song. The use of backing tracks will count against us too, as our gang won’t gain any advantage from being top class musicians.
I just hope we don’t come undone with the block voting.
Come IRELAND!
“They may crush the flowers
Trample every living thing
But they can’t stop the spring”
Legendary lyrics.
Last.
I can’t properly reflect on what just happened.
A truly great event has become an absolute shambles.
Disgusted.
It was hardly a shocker we came last. The song wasnt great. The performance was ruined by the backing track. It was embarrassing to watch that. They become the worst performer ever for Ireland in a Eurovision final beating Chris Doran.
Last night was a glaring example of how cruel sport can be. The best song, a super band and a nation standing and singing together - yet we were humiliated by the tasteless fooks that vote.
All that I could get over however, the low point for me was the appearance on screen of that haggard piece of mutton dressed up as lamb, Linda Martin to present the Irish vote. Who the fook thought she might me suitable to advertise Ireland for the 30 seconds she was on? An appalling choice, and imo she looked worse than usual last night. Horribly made up she more resembled Morticia Adams than a glamourous woman. I was oloking at it thinking I know its true but I can’t believe it, compared to the hotties presenting the votes from the other countries it was appalling.
Not alone did the voters of Europe shit on us and our song, RTE completely fooked us over by putting that munter on display.
Completely agree on the Linda Martin point. That was horrible. Imagine people around Europe assuming that’s the best we have to offer as a nation. Christ almighty.
Disgusted with the results. Europe broke my heart last night.
The only part i saw last night was the Montenegro voting results, what a shocker when they gave 12 points to Serbia, I never saw that coming :o
Very pertinent point on Linda Martin there Appendage.
Where do we go from here?
Last night I was sickened. Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia giving each other 10s and 12s. All the other Eastern European countries pretty much swapping points with each other. I actually wondered whether we should consider pulling out of the competition as a means of registering a protest.
I’ve calmed down a bit now and don’t think we should let them beat us. Cheats should never prosper. It will take a lot of organisation but if the government fund things properly we could be a force to be reckoned with again in time for next year. We would have to wait and see what countries qualify in the semis on the Thursday night and Aer Lingus would need to have a fleet of aircrafts ready to transport Irish people to these countries on the Friday morning. We would possibly need a minimum of 6,000 people going to each country. The government would be required to provide these volunteers with a telephone card for that country to the value of approximately 30EUR. This card would be used completely to register votes for the Irish entrant in the final on the Saturday (assuming we are in fact one of the qualifiers from the semi final).
I estimate a cost to the Irish economy of roughly EUR4bn.
Is this too much to pay to get back our self respect?
I believe you cant put a price on self respect but EUR4bn is close.
Cracking idea Bandage. The jury system of voting has been abandoned and it’s time to embrace new methods of securing the title. There’s no point in appealing to artistic critics with performances like that we offered on Saturday. The competition has been reduced to the lowest common denominator and that’s the level we need to compete on.
John Waters’ take on the fiasco:
Who could want to stop the spring?
There was a brief period in the early hours of Friday when I went halfway to meet the possibility that Ireland might come last in Eurovision, writes John Waters
It wasn’t that my belief in our song or in Dervish’s performance of it suddenly imploded, but that I remembered, having watched the semi-finals, what we were involved in. Nothing had changed except to get slightly better in the way things had been getting incrementally better through the week.
We had, we remained certain, a good song. Rehearsals were going well. Cathy Jordan was singing beautifully. The response from the floor of the auditorium during rehearsals was warm and connected. The Finnish technicians were dealing with every issue we raised. The steady optimism that I’d felt was growing and deepening.
But now I felt myself contemplating not merely defeat but the possibility of being completely stuffed, of coming last, of not garnering a single vote.
It wasn’t a fear of voting pacts or of any identifiable trend in the songs which had emerged from the semi-finals. It was neither a premonition nor anything rational, simply an awareness that if this thing can make dreams come true it can also make nightmares real. Suddenly I felt cold.
Then the feeling went away, as the logic of the semi-final results appeared to take shape. I didn’t, and don’t, buy into the conspiracy theories, the talk of voting pacts or the belief that the contest has become, irreversibly, “The Eastern European Song Contest”.
I reiterate my belief that the emerging patterns of voting are much less about tribal affinity than cultural, as in musical, recognition.
I repeat: the issue is not tone-deaf neighbourly loyalty but the fact that, clearly, East European countries share a musical ear, whereas the popular culture of the West becomes increasingly fragmented and diversified. What I saw as having emerged from Thursday night was a collection of reasonably good songs, varied, a bit time-warped, but also interesting, absorbing and of a reasonable musical quality.
In the shadow of the question-mark left by Lordi’s victory a year ago, this seemed like it might be good for Ireland. Just as I didn’t accept the idea of crude voting loyalties, I didn’t see Lordi as mere kings of spectacle. I still feel there was a coherent musical message behind last year’s result (just as there is a coherent musical message behind this year’s result, even if, for the moment, I freely admit that I have only the vaguest idea what this might be). In the warmish Helsinki light of Friday, I made a choice to take comfort from what I had half-digested of the previous evening.
Nothing of this prepared me for Saturday night. It was utterly, unspeakably, crushing. It may seem daft, but I have never in my life felt more disappointed, not just for myself, but for Dervish, for Cathy, for the wonderful team of people from RT and for my co-songwriter, Tommy Moran.
I console myself with the idea that it wouldn’t be possible to enter this arena without risking this level of rejection. If we refuse to take risks, we shut ourselves off to reality’s capacity to make dreams come true.
This is this. If we were to set out again, we might not start from where we did. I remain proud of our song and of Cathy and the band. The feeling we got from home during the week was tremendous.
This was a necessary toeing of the water. We went to Helsinki in a spirit of taking part and enjoyed ourselves tremendously up to the meltdown. To be part of this extraordinary event was a privilege and a pleasure. For as long as I live I’ll not forget the hour I spent walking about between the dressing rooms just before Saturday night’s show, encountering the artists from 23 other European countries going through their paces - warming up their vocal cords, doing their physical jerks and, despite intense rivalry, sharing their hopes and expectations.
It would be a pity to allow disappointment to turn any or all of us against entering Eurovision and trying to win.
But we went to Helsinki with the intention of winning - and came last. I’m not interested in blame or excuses, but only in establishing not so much what we did wrong as what we failed to understand in order to get it right. Above all, we need to look at the victors and the near-victors and see how they did it. If Eurovision’s centre of gravity has drifted east, we need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to do what is necessary to compete and occasionally have a chance of winning.
The central questions gravitate around the cultural implications of the still relatively recent collapse of the Berlin Wall. The taste gap between East and West can be addressed in one of only two ways: radical introversion or a more enthusiastic opening up to the new. I prefer the latter.
They can’t stop the spring. We can’t stop the spring. Who could possibly want to stop the spring?
Inspiring piece by Waters.
They can’s stop the spring indeed.
Thanks for the support rocko. I think my idea has a lot of merit. There are a lot of Irish people - on both sides of the political divide - who have history of engaging in undercover operations. In many ways if we all join together to repair our tattered Eurovision reputation it could build further on the wonderful scenes of reconciliation we witnessed last week in Stormont.