Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 explained

Year:1975
Country:Ireland
Preselection:Artist: Internal selection
Song: National Final
Preselection Date:9 February 1975
Entrant:The Swarbriggs
Song:That's What Friends Are For
Final Result:9th, 68 points

Ireland was represented by The Swarbriggs, with the song "That's What Friends Are For", at the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 22 March in Stockholm. "That's What Friends Are For" was chosen as the Irish entry at the national final on 9 February.

Before Eurovision

National Song Contest

Competing Entries

RTÉ internally selected The Swarbriggs in October 1974 and opened song submissions.[1] They received 335 entries from public submissions, 295 in English and 40 in Irish. RTÉ chose seven entries from the public submissions and another song was required to be composed by Tommy and Jimmy Swarbrigg, which was "That's What Friends Are For".[2]

Final

The eleventh National Song Contest was held at the studios of broadcaster RTÉ in Dublin, hosted by Mike Murphy. This was the first edition of the National Song Contest to be broadcast in colour.[3] For a second year, RTÉ pre-selected their representatives and The Swarbriggs performed eight songs which were voted on by ten regional juries.[4]

Final – 9 February 1975
DrawSongPointsPlace
1"This Is Our Very Own Song"104
2"Butterfly Morning"18
3"Bláithín"36
4"Lady in Blue"65
5"Come and Keep Me Warm"193
6"That's What Friends Are For"361
7"Baberó Dederó"36
8"Goodbye to Goodbye"222

At Eurovision

On the night of the final The Swarbriggs performed second in the running order, following the Netherlands and preceding France. At the close of voting "That's What Friends Are For" had picked up 68 points (including a maximum 12 from Belgium), placing Ireland 9th of the 19 entries.[5] [6]

Voting

Notes and References

  1. News: 5 October 1974 . Brothers Chosen For Song Contest . The Irish Times . 1.
  2. News: 20 January 1975 . R.T.E. Stays Quiet On Song Contest Costs . The Irish Times . 6.
  3. News: 10 February 1975 . Swarbriggs win with own song . The Irish Times . 1.
  4. http://natfinals.50webs.com/70s_80s/Ireland1975.html ESC National Finals database 1975
  5. Web site: Final of Stockholm 1975 . European Broadcasting Union . 9 April 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210409175434/https://eurovision.tv/event/stockholm-1975/final . 9 April 2021 . live.
  6. http://www.esc-history.com/details.asp?key=338 ESC History - Ireland 1975
  7. Web site: Results of the Final of Stockholm 1975 . European Broadcasting Union . 9 April 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210409183614/https://eurovision.tv/event/stockholm-1975/final/results/ireland . 9 April 2021 . live.