Dublin? Where?
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2003
(Try to gloss over the fact that I actually watched part of the Eurovision if you could, whilst reading this)
As always, during the voting in the Eurovision as each country delivers their votes, there prevails a magnificent backdrop to each presenter from every country, of their capital: baroque 17th century buildings, or floodlit fountains, or gleaming spires and cathedrals, illuminated office buildings or live scenes of brightly lit squares and piazzas.
And Ireland…
Need I even say any more…The most pathetic, egregiously ludicrous, most terrible, awful, incomprehensible & unrecognisable backdrop concievable.
A darkened freezeframe of a minute section, (the south western end) of O’ Connell Street, replete with blazing red traffic lights and Champion Sports dominating the shot, the rest, the central part of the shot, an unrecognisable black lump of nothingness.
What a spectacular scene a pure white-floodlit Spire would have been, with O ‘Connell St spread out around it, or our stunning Custom House or Four Courts illuminated with the Liffey shimmering in the city lights below.
Instead a shambles. Primarily RTÉ’s fault, and considering their devotion to Eurovision it’s surprising, but also the CC’s fault, or the OPW, for the abominable floodlighting of most of our major public buildings.
RTÉ probobly looked at all the options for Dublin backdrops, but couldn’t find anything remotely suitable in this city.What a shame.
I honestly can’t say i notcied, and i doubt most European viewers did either. If anything, i found the lack of advertisement for the Latvian tourist board to be more shocking than anything. Including the Austrian song.
Never noticed myself…. agreed oin the lack of initiative on behalf of the Latvian Tourist Board… the Irish always made the most of those postcard slots in the pst…
yeah i thought so too graham, the backdrop looked awful.
they did it from the top of the chimney in smithfield last year, looked cool with the gas lamps lighting …
(i know its sad that i remember these things)
I agree too……It was not a selling point for the country……the backdrop was forgettable. We should brand Ireland more professionally to sell it. It’s the likes of all these little things that add up affecting our image abroad…..and image is everything nowadays.
At least they did have the lovely Pamela Flood delivering the results of the votes and not quirkey old Anne Doyle or Eileen Dunne as they had on past occasions. Sharon Ni Bhealon….and Liz Bonin two more hot contenders.Bloody hell lads, get a grip.
Do you really think anyone watching the Eurovision is looking at what’s behind the presenter as they read the scores and then deciding where to go on holidays?What do you want, an image of her hovering over the Cliffs of Moher?
It was at least better than some countries that had images of traffic behind them.
And to Ireland’s credit nobody puts on as good a show as the Irish, regarding presentation, interval performance (who could beat Riverdance) and the picture postcards.
Surely the song is more important!!! I’d say there’s plenty of people who’ll be scared off going to the UK on their hols this year after hearing their “Null Points” effort!
The backdrop is one thing – but having your country represented by two off-key oompah loompahs… scaaary.I was going to mention the lovely Pamela, only I thought most people would’nt know who she was, and yes, she was the only saving grace for Ireland.
I don’t agree the backdrop is insignificant, I think most people look to it for a reference to the country featuring, and virtually every participating country go to great lengths to carefully select, compose and frame their backgrounds to promote a good image, even bloody Russia gets in on the act!
Indeed the fact that some here did’nt even notice the backdrop is evidence of how pathetic it was, you’d certainly notice, not to mention remember a spectacular floodlit scene such as the Spire or even the Four Courts, lit in white and seen from that classic raking angle with the trees lining Inns Quay.
The only reason I watch Eurovision is to see how countries convey themselves to the rest of Europe, not least the host country, and yes Latvia did a terrible job in promoting themselves, esp in contrast with ourselves or Estonia last year, or Sweden etc.
The song is important of course, but the Eurovision has long been used as a vehicle for home-promotion and we should have utilised what little time we had to it’s greatest extent.
If Bord Failte was to take out an ad, even if it was just a picture of Dublin, broadcasting to every country in Eurpoe simultaneously for a minute in a prime Saturday slot, it would have been charged tonnes and I’m sure it would have chosen the image carefully…
Instead of the grim vista RTE gave us.
Oops! Also admitted watching Eurovision!Well it’s about time theres a bit of Cork opinion amongst the dubs here, like! Anyway just agreeing that the chromakey backdrop on the Eurovision vote slot was utterly appaling. It the worst shot imaginable available from the stock pics probably normally used for those ‘lil picture windows next to the Anne Doyle’s noggin on Dublin Today sorry… i mean… the main evening news. I thought it was actually Spar on Dame street mainly in the picture.
A rare chance for free advertising lost. But the crimes of Latvian TV were far greater. They used what appeared to be security footage for their postcard slots. How could they have let such an opportunity slip away… millions of viewers tuned in mostly not knowing much about Latvia… an apparantly beautiful country with some incredible old architecture… and not a single shot of any part of the country was shown! Just a nice suspension bridge which appeared accidentally in the background. sad…
Latvians must not be the seasoned opportunists that we are.
Anyway I thought Russia’s backround was really weird – just a long street with lots of traffic if I remember correctly????
Why??Anyone see the footage on the news of the beautiful Russian city of St. Petersburgh over the weekend as all the head honcho’s of the world were invited there to celebrate it’s anniversary. It contains some of the most spectacular architectural jewels and the Russian government has rightly spent millions on their restoration……the Hermitage Museum, onion domed cathedrals, various palaces….etc….
Ok, there are still shoddy impoverished areas of the city which were masked from public view…..but fair play to Peter the Great for the wonderful achitectural legacy he left Russia and the world.
Peter, Tzar of Russia heavily taxed his citizens to fund his great building programmes…..a bit like our great leader Bertie today…..(Peter who was a bit uncouth like Bertie, even taxed the wearing of beards, he stood nearly 7 feet tall and had a nervous..t….t… tic, he liked the auld gargle and encouraged his ministers to do so too)…..however for such a coarse character credit can be given to him for westernising and modernizing Russia…..just like Bertie today ….ahem!
How unlike Sadaam Hussein, Peter and Bertie are …..for Saddam ‘robbed’ his country and citizens blind and had nothing to show for it when he was run out of office. What a decrepit kip Iraq is for a supposedly super rich state……unlike the marvellous architectural jewels that St Petersburgh and Dublin have….thanks to the great visionary political leadership of Peter and Bertie………ahem!Yes, I saw the pictures, a truly spectacular place thats never been appreciated until now.
Russia’s backdrop was a river scene in Moscow (admittedly I don’t know what river) flanked by illuminated spires etc. They’ve used this for a number of years now.
How much would it have cost RTE to send out an OB unit to shoot a live scene from Dublin city centre.
(Dont start whinging over Cork, capitals have always been used by every country)
I know that…
I meant Milstreet as a stunning background – A donkey, a field, a broken cart… Noel C Duggan counting his money. Can you sum up Ireland any better than that?!?
In a nutshell.
Still, the on-air presentation that year was excellent, it was the best set Eurovision had up till then, as was the Oirish promotion, all diddle aye links between songs, racing ariel shots of the ‘lush’ greenery etc
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