“It’s Finally Here” – Mairead Farrell is Looking Forward to one of the Most Exciting Nights of her Life

After four months – it’s finally here. This Friday night on The Late Late Show I will present my Eurosong to the nation. 

I've told you ladies this before but I'm a HUGE Eurovison fan. I look on it the same way a football fan would look upon The World Cup Final.

If I had been filmed over the last few months it would have made for a hilarious fly-on-the-wall documentary. You know the way they always talk about their "journey", and you can be guaranteed they'll say "It’s been a rollercoaster"? Well I’m joining that club now too – I've been on a weird Euro pop journey and holy god has it been a serious rollercoaster ride. I have laughed hysterically along the way and balled my eyes out like a teething baby.

By nature I'm a very organised person, I like things to be in their place, I like neatness and I love plans (sad I know). So, I thought that this "Eurosong Mentor" job would be perfect for me. In total I received sixty-seven songs, the bulk of them from Irish songwriters. But I also got some from Sweden, Israel, Turkey and the UK.  

My normal day is - get home from work at 5pm, do the usual stuff like push on a wash, cook some dinner, bathe Dara, then get him ready for bed, read his story and then sit down sometime about 8.15 pm. Then it would be time to take out the iPad and headphones and listen to the songs I had been sent that day. 

Getting my final choice down to four was tough, but I decided to stick with my original idea of an up-tempo Europop song called “Kiss Me”. I've been out to four Eurovision Song contests and I have seen what they like.

Happy with my choice of song and very happy with my act, I could relax and simply plan... But then three weeks ago I lost my original singer. She needed to pull out because of her Leaving Certificate - and she was right to do that. But it meant I had to find a singer to sing my song, pronto! Rollercoaster alert! 

After a bunch of auditions I whittled the fab girls down to four and decided to go with Kasey Smith, a 22-year-old Dublin girl who happens to be a Cheryl Cole lookalike. Even at her young age she has been through so much, including the showbiz wringer. She was one member of Kian Egan’s girlband Wonderland. They had a top ten album but were dropped by their label after it. I've spent the last three weeks working with Kasey and I can honestly say she’s a pleasure to be around... she has thrown herself into this project and given it her all. She has sang live to some great audiences in The George and Dragon (such brilliant nights out there!). We've done all the rehearsals, all the styling, all the dancing - all we have to do now is win on Friday. It would be a dream come true for both of us to take care of Ireland’s act at this years Eurovision Song contest in Malmo, Sweden. 

So I’m gonna go all Louis Walsh now and say “PICK UP THE PHONE AND VOTE – WE NEED YOUR VOTES” pretty please vote for us Song 5 – Kiss Me by Kasey/ Mentored by ME?#Kaseyforeurovision.

 

M x