Russia has not threatened to ban Ireland’s Eurovision 2018 music video. Speaking to wiwibloggs at Wednesday’s Eurovision Conference in Maynooth University, the Irish Head of Delegation Michael Kealy confirmed that the recent talk of a broadcast ban was just speculation.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s just a rumour. No one has said anything to me about it… I would be disappointed if that was the case. But so far it’s just a rumour”.
This news will undoubtedly set many concerned fans at ease, but where did the rumour come from in the first place?
It all started with a tweet. On Monday evening, Ireland’s Eurovision 2018 singer Ryan O’Shaughnessy took to the micro-blogging site writing “The Russians are now threatening a broadcasting ban because of my video for ‘Together’. Anti-gay propaganda regime at its finest! Hilarious if you ask me.. #IDareYou”.
The tweet linked to a video from the LGBT YouTube channel Pinksixty. The clip discusses the gay-themed Irish music video and suggests that it “could” fall foul of Russia’s infamous anti-gay propaganda law. The host makes no reference to any threats and offers no evidence to back up his theory.
The Russians are now threatening a broadcasting ban because of my video for ‘Together’. Anti-gay propaganda regime at its finest! Hilarious if you ask me.. #IDareYou https://t.co/6j1ECrdLBi
— Ryan O'Shaughnessy (@Ryan_Acoustic) March 12, 2018
Many Twitter users were quick to pour cold water on Ryan’s original tweet. For instance, why would Russia ban his relatively tame music clip yet allow Finland’s? The “Monsters” video sees the openly lesbian Saara Aalto lead a troupe of gay men in three minutes of glittery debauchery.
And less than one year after the law came into being, bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst was beamed into millions of Russian homes as she won Eurovision 2014 for Austria. There were angry petitions and protests, but no broadcast ban.
However, several mainstream outlets have been less discerning. The Irish Independent, The Irish Examiner, Metro, Pink News and more latched on to the tweet. And their sensationalist headlines have caused the non-story to become significantly bigger than it actually is.
Stage show
Music video aside, Michael Kealy also hinted that the gay love story would feature in the stage show for Lisbon.
In the same wiwibloggs interview, the Irish HoD alluded to the song’s universal theme of love saying “I would be surprised if you didn’t see it translated to the stage in some way”.
Interviews with Ireland's HoD Michael Kealy and #JESC 2016 singer Zena Donnelly coming soon to @wiwibloggs. Stay tuned! https://t.co/4SYnPHnBYK
— Padraig Muldoon (@JustPadraig) March 14, 2018
The full in-depth interview with Michael Kealy will be uploaded to the wiwibloggs YouTube channel in the coming days. Other topics discussed include the staging challenges in a year without LED screens, Ireland’s new selection process, and Michael’s Eurovision future.
What a fame whore.
btw he should come over & visit the Red Square
Thats the place where I saw the most amount of gays in my life )))))))) & no one beat them up or even noticed them
I’m not Ryan, but I’d actually love to visit Russia, especially Moscow and Saint Petersburg. I was planning to go to the World Cup but surprised surprise, Ireland didn’t qualify. It’s the one thing we can always be sure of is a non-qualification on the global stage.
I’ll visit Russia sometime though…
Um… I don’t know… you might be forgetting that we nearly qualified. Everything went down hill after we scored that first goal. Pretty sure we qualified for the Euro’s in 2016. We beat Germany and Italy…. Damn… we never qualify…
Darren, you come here anyway:)Saint Petersburg is very beautiful in summer.
He didn’t even bother writing a retraction. Maybe he realizes that this pathetic fake story will be the most interesting thing to happen to him in terms of Eurovision, since he definitely won’t shine with his music. Maybe he is mad at the Russians because they didn’t leak it. They probably found it too weak to even bother. 😛
I think he realized that there is a lot of support for him out there as well so no apology is needed, although you couldn’t tell by reading the reactions here because the pro-Ryan ones were deleted. That’s okay though, it’s not like this changes anything on the grand scale in relation to the dynamics at play. Thank you Ryan for expressing your concerns regarding the potential treatment of your LGBT-themed song by one of the participating countries in this competition. Just like it’s okay to cry, it’s also okay to speak up against potential injustice.
No, it is in fact not okay to (deliberately) spread fake news. A “potential injustice” doesn’t exist. The only person in this world who should be able to get away with fake news is Donald Trump because you just can’t keep with his pace. The rest of us should still visit reality every now and then.
* keep ip
* keep up
He spoke up about his song potentially being banned. There is such a thing as “potential” and “likelihood” and “indication” in this world. I think the ones that need to apologize are the ones that are assuming that he is trying to gain publicity out of this. Talk about a conspiracy. He heard it might be banned, he tweeted his outrage, it’s well within his rights and no apologies are needed.
He is a proven liar. He claimed Russians were threatening when it was all made up.
Nothing he says can be trusted without verification from now on.
He not only lies but is PUSHY with it. Immoral person he is.
lol my country is such a great tool to get free (& useless) PR :)))))))))))))))))) never fails to amuse me
Coca Cola / McDonalds can never!
🙂
My only objection to that video is that I’ve walked down that street in Temple Bar dozens of times and I’m sorry, when the cobblestones are that wet, there is NO way a human being can pull off those dance moves and not break both their ankles.
If half the Irish fans arrive in Lisbon with their legs in a cast, it’ll be RTÉ’s fault!
This is being blown way out of proportion now. Stop hating on Ryan, it’s a song contest at the end of the day. Judge him on the song and not on a silly tweet. BTW I love the song but fear it will be left in the semi final
Criticizing what he did is not hating on Ryan.
oh this again…
bye.
Russia should keep the video and ban the audio attached to it. There, 100% improvement.
SAVAGE!
Calm down, putin.
Thanks for the professionalism and firm effort for accuracy, Padraig and wiwibloggs. Highly appreciated.
Agree completely.
Now, now, we can’t let actual facts get in the way of a good social justice fake news stunt.
(That said, thanks for airing actual facts about the laws and actions of the country in question.)
Is there any other way to get attention to Ireland this year? I mean srsly the next news is going to be ” they confirm the confirmation” ….
He was in my top 10 before his Tweet, which I knew from the start was Fake News. He is now in my bottom 3 ~ A Russian.
After all it’s still a SONG contest…. Not a ”which Person do I like the most?” contest.
russians are very sensitive people, give her a break xd
Some people aren’t fans of pushy liars.
I can understand that you’re angry tho, I wouldn’t appreciate such lies to be tweeted about my Country either.
Yes, it’s a song contest, but as an avid follower of it and it’s participants it’s more than just the song.
This was basically how I read it.
Weak song with little impact attempting to make a non-musical impact. Can’t blame them for trying.
No evidence at all that Ryan planned the tweet he sent out. The “story” that he retweeted on Twitter had only appeared on Youtube a couple of hours beforehand. Someone must have sent the link to him and he immediately commented on it.
Another participating country with a very large entourage of likeminded countries … none of whom now have any reason to have any of their juries look at him in any positive way. I should check the list of how many of those countries share his semi-final, to get a full sense of just how foolish and self-destructive his petty venting is likely to be for him.
“Building bridges” he definitely is not.
I think Ryan was just misinformed and ran with a story that wasn’t really there in the first place. It was a mistake on his behalf to take it as gospel. Everyone makes mistakes. I think Ryan has a really nice, sweet song this year and hopefully it will get us back into the grand final. It would be a definite qualifier from SF2 but it’s not looking too good for us in SF1.
Keep telling yourself that it isn’t true. While you’re at it, also keep dreaming about Russian television airing Ryan’s video.
Hovi star managed in 2016 to turn the spotlights on him with a fake story so Ryan thought he should use the same method.
Yes but ESC fans don’t hate Israel so they believed him…
I may have missed something but since when do People (me not included) hate Ireland? And if so, why?
I feel like I see half a dozen of this type of comment every day on here….”If people didn’t hate Greece so much”….”If Spain sent this song, people would love/hate it”….”If this were X country….”
I’m Irish and I think the idea that ESC fans hate Ireland is ridiculous. And complaints about RTÉ don’t count, because they’re more than deserved.
Being Irish doesn’t mean any thing. It just means you’re Irish AND wrong in stead of just being wrong. The complaints are warranted don’t get me wrong but at times its a little OTT.
Yeah, but every little scandal thus far has been dealt with similarly. See any of the plagiarism accusations. You haven’t offered anything to back up your claim that Ireland is being singled out in some way, Cathal.
Every single Country thinks that the rest of Europe hates them. Or at least they use it to excuse their low efforts or their bad results.
People are attacking Ryan for this but if these people had sense they would realise that this wouldn’t have happened if all the news agencies hadn’t reported it.
This wouldn’t have happened if he had bothered to read the “article” and realize it was just a speculation on their part. Instead, Ryan, stupidly (though I’m begining to think it was actually deliberate and with malice) decided to twist the story and claim it as fact, and then tweet it, which ultimately is spreading lies and libel against another participating country.
This paranoia in western world blaming Russia in all possible things is really hilarious . Hey guys Russia is the homeland of Tatu, Boris Moiseev, Shura……. Even Verka Serduchka created her career in Russia not in Ukraine. With this jumping couple you can’t impress Russians.
Once upon of time Conchita Wurst built a victory using the same tactic “Let’s show those bad homophobe russians and Putin …..bla bla bla”. You can’t repeat the same sucess story using the same tactics in very short time! Get a grip for God’s sake!
They like double standards in Russia, don’t they? Flashy acts like Verka may be okay on TV, but legally and socially they’re not. Not to mention how often Russian men cheat on their wives with guys in the down low. It still doesn’t make any of it okay though, so let’s not try to normalize it by sugarcoating. Ryan’s video on Russian TV would prompt a direct call from Putin.
Verka is not the only case! I mentioned other names as well. What about TaTu? or just google this: ????? – ????? ???? ? ????? OR ???? ?????! – ?? ???? ??????
Stop it, you can’t Change the fact that Russia is a homophobic Country…. Beauty and the beast was released for +16 aged People, because one gay character was included. How silly is that?
I guess this was done perhaps this is a movie for kids, you know. Our laws restrain such content for minors. What’s bad about that??? Kids are too young and immature. Adults are free to do whatever they want.
Verka is very much loved by Russians! Come on! You can hear her songs at every restaurant. We like her a lot. Why talk about things you don’t know the heck about??! As a Russian myself, I ask all of you, beatiful people of Europe, stop listening to the stupid propaganda. These are all lies. Being gay is ok in Russia. Generally people don’t care wether you’re gay or not. As our famous saying goes “Everyone should mind their own business”. Russia is peaceful place with friendly people. Our country does have problems, but can you name one perfect country?… Read more »
OMG. Verka didn’t “create” her career in Russia. She just earned lots of money there (due to larger audience on TV). And also Verka is not gay. He’s a guy, dressing like a woman – that is okay in Russia. But to actually be gay publicly… Lets just remember the story of 2 Russian guys who married in Denmark not so long ago (this winter, I guess). What happened to them? They received death threats and then left the country.
Ryan’s publicist needs to TAKE AWAY HIS TWITTER. He made it sound like he had been issued a warning by Russia and he kept hyping it on Facebook, etc. It’s like he wanted to make himself a story. He would LOVE a country to try and ban him. UGH. Anyway, thank you Padraig for getting the truth from the official source. It’s a shame the Metro and others who re-posted Ryan’s rumour didn’t make the same effort.
The EBU should not fine RTÉ they did nothing wrong it was Ryan not anybody else and it’s ruissas own fault Ryan is assuming this they’ve done horrible things in the past and I’m not blaming all Russians it’s just few people that make Russians seem bad
How was it Ryan, did ryan write the article about the ban? No it was another company.
Why lbtg community is evolving in eurovision?
We must keep from this,if they want to to participate,they should create an own version of that.
Omfg, you’re literally the most ignorant Person ever… (It’s LGBT actually)
Are you serious? Why are you even on Wiwibloggs if you’re this narrow? Maybe you should have your own “straight and narrow” song competition somewhere? 90% if not more of Wiwibloggs journalists are gay. Check yourself. Disgusting.
No, s/he’s not serious. You can tell by the username they are a troll.
I don’t think you can blame gay people for the sad demise of manners or formal wear. 😉
There was something to be said for those black-tie days, though.
I still haven’t forgiven whomever it was in the crowd waving that awful feather duster all through Anouk’s performance. Or all the people who insist on holding up their cellphones. Or the hideous novelty costumes. Or the disrespectful drunken whooping and hollering during quite moments like France 2015, or the singalong (badly) through Sanna 2014, or the Russian booing, etc. etc. etc.
Today’s crowds have pros & cons.
To give the theatre halls full of people in glamorous outfits their proper due, they consistently managed to not loudly boo and try to visibly disrupt the acts of those countries they disliked.
The current audience, regrettably, consistently fails to meet said standard. Praise be that the EBU has better tech to muffle them on the broadcast and record around them.
It was definitely a stupid thing to do, but I believe it was in good faith and ultimately it was just a tweet.
Not smart, but forgivable.
If and when he apologizes and retracts, I’ll agree with you. So long as he continues to fail to apologize for the misinformed accusations, he deserves to keep reaping what he’s sown. So long as he keeps doubling down on it …
So Ryan is not entitled to an opinion? Grow up.
So Ryan can spread lies? Grow up.
He spread what was reported by the media…grow up
Exactly! He took some pseudo Information out of a random Twitter site and selled them as Facts while being really aggressive. Because it’s evil Russiait’s okay to blame them, no matter if they did something or not…
Oh wow i didn’t know Saara is lesbian but it doesn’t matter for me. I am not a fan of the Russian federation but it’s not fair either to always talk bad about them, even if they didn’t do anything.
By the way, I don’t like it that Eurovision always comes so close to the LGBT community, what’s the sense of that??? I don’t understand what’s the connection and if that’s really necessary.
Eurovision is about creating community beyond borders. It’s welcoming all people from all countries, including LGBT. How is that a bad thing? No one is forcing a connection, it’s just naturally there.
The connection is extremely forced. There is literally not One Single Social Movement on the planet that is allowed to wave its flag in the Eurovision audience, except for the Rainbow Brigades. Even with the Rainbow Brigades, the “mature adult people understanding” was that waving their Special-Exception-Just-For-You Flag wasn’t ever supposed to making a political statement. Fast forward a few years, and waving that flag is increasingly often an obvious, overt, and crass political statement, especially when trying to do it to disrupt the broadcast recording of certain songs. At the present rate, if they don’t turn it around, fast,… Read more »
Explain how Switzerland & Macedonia have higher chances, atleast Ireland can get a good jury support, what votes can Switzerland & Macedonia rely on?
They only thing Switzerland and Macedonia can rely on is having a much better song. Given that it’s supposed to be a song contest, it should count for something.
Those odds won´t tell much cause you look odds for the winner. Nobody really believes, that any of those can win (odds for all those in Betfair between are 640-940).
Odds to qualify to the final, tell more. In those odds Ireland and Switzerland are quite even (you can bet for about 3 and against 10). Macedonia odd is round 2.5 (for and against). Gamblers believe clearly, that Macedonia has a chance, Ireland/Switzerland has far less chances to get final.
Odds to qualify don’t actually as most betting companies don’t open their markets on qualification until rehearsals.
All this huffing and puffing over nothing won’t get him into the final, either. It’s either a desperate cry for attention or a he’s just a very gullible dude.
Shows how disliked Ireland are in ESC when fans are defending Russia in this scenario. It appears most favs on here are slightly on the thick side of things so let me break it down. This all originated from a Gay magazine (I.e nothing to do with Ireland what so ever) saying that Irelabds entry would be blocked, Ryan then responds to this giving his opinion, nothing else.
@Cathal – he didn’t give an opinion. A statement that reads: “The Russians are now threatening a broadcasting ban because of my video for ‘Together’. Anti-gay propaganda regime at its finest! ” suggests that there has been a credible threat issued by either the Russian delegation who’s responsible for showing his entry or Russian officials who would have the power to block the transmission of the entry. Apparently, NEITHER has occurred and it’s just a bluff. This has nothing to do with loving or hating Ireland – in fact I’m absolutely indifferent about Ireland in Eurovision, but when you’re in… Read more »
Well a large quantity of the ESC fandom reacted in the same manner, Ryan isn’t a diplomat he can have a view if he likes, and if it was true than what Ryan said was totally valid. The only people who should be getting blame in all this is the magazine who reported it.
Don’t give that guff, it obviously is ESC fans are probably loving this as it’s giving them another stick to beat Ryan with.
@Cathal – the large quantity of ESC fans would and should have reacted negatively if the so called report was true. But, IT’S NOT. Ryan literally created this story. I honestly don’t understand how you can defend him. Here’s a simple analogy for you:
TV Reporter: If it continues raining this hard, IT’S LIKELY there’s going to be a major accident on this highway.
Ryan: There’s been a major accident on the highway because of rain. This rain sucks!
Do you see it now?
Uhm… Ryan threw shade at Russia for things that weren’t true or at least not confirmed. Critizising Russia for its politics and way of dealing with things is alright and important. But if Russia didn’t do anything (which is the case at least now) why start a drama and shoot against Russia when it’s causing unnecessary controversy?
Yeah fandom lets defend Russia, poor poor old Russia…give us a bleeding break. How is Ryan and others supposed to react to this?
WTF, I’m not defending Russia! I don’t like that Country either. I despise everything and everybody included in homophobic Actions, but why should I complain about things that didn’t happen?
Where does he even think the video is going to be shown on Russian TV anyway?
Rvssians and LGBTQÞ£§1234+×= are so similar – always victims!
Thank you wiwbloggs for doing your due diligence and your research and not latching onto the hysteria like many are wont to do. The atmosphere in America is such that an out-of-place particle of dust is blamed on Russia. It’s very refreshing to see a place that seeks to report something in a truthful, unbiased, and professional manner.
As must as I find Russia’s pov about LGBT disgusting, Ireland turning another country into a scapegoat and selling it out for a bit of fame is almost as disgusting. Beyond that, that’s just playing dirty. Lying is cheating.
Well, Ireland just sunk to the bottom of my list, I would not even consider to consider voting for that song. BOO!
Finland-2013 showed, Lithuania-2015 showed, Lazarev’s video “Tak krasyvo” showed whole days and here Ryan was taken and banned))) When Russophobia eclipses the brain…
Padraig: How did the conference at Maynooth go otherwise?
Well, you should understand that Russia couldn’t’ve banned Conchita’s appearances while competing in the Eurovision–that’s in the rules. What happens on Russian television outside of their require semi-final and grand final live broadcasts is a different matter. There was no shortage of vitriol towards Conchita.
There’s no obligation to show the preview videos either–but what if they show all the other preview videos except this one? And perhaps Aalto’s?
So he just misunderstood an article he randomly read. Let me tell you, I was quite shocked: I’m not Russian, but I don’t think Russia would even care about LGBT-related videos outside of their country…
Happy to see that the same story will be continued on stage. I honestly expected a kiss on the video and was kinda disappointed: the atmosphere was too romantic, something was missing.
Why do you think an anti-LGBT country would not care about an LGBT video in their airwaves? There is a tendency towards giving Russia the benefit of the doubt that is not justified by its record. It’s almost Stockholm syndromy. In fact it goes as far as censoring those who put the finger exactly on where the problem is, or labeling Ryan as a publicity seeker.
Apparently, not only is a bad singer, he’s also pretty dumb. Taking the words of a website that suggests that the music video may be controversial in Russia and twisting it as Russia banning his song is dumb to say the least.
He will come after the israeli girl soon, just watch
IM NOT YOU TOY
YOU STUPID BOY.
XD
bucka-mhm-buckbuckbuck-mhm boy
I suspect Ryan thought he was watching an actual news broadcast when he retweeted the clip and didn’t realise he was just watching some private citizen in a suit, pretending to be a newsreader.
He’d want to be careful though, as he could be accused of posting politically motivated tweets about a Contest that is supposed to be strictly non political.
Oh Boy… I’m not exactly a fan of Russia myself, but some People act, like the whole land of Russia is always evil and mean and the one to blame everything for. You don’t have to start a nonexisting Drama.
Ireland wants some publicity, it’s pretty clear their entry this year is weak (just like in the previous 5 years), so they want to speculate any publicity…
These days every man and his dog claims something to do with Russian hackers or the state. It was pretty hilarious when Barbie Escobar claimed that her ‘much anticipated’ audio was leaked by Russians (they would even believe that this is a real person to start with). And now a no hoper from Ireland jumps on this PR wagon too. Of all the trade secrets and military strategies in the world, the most exciting ones are about Melfest and Irish Eurovision of course, isn’t it blindingly obvious
In all honesty if I was the artist I wouldn’t say anything because of the situations like this that arise. If you aren’t aware or clued up on the facts say nothing. Everyone is very quick to jump on the anti-Russia bandwagon. Ireland have gone so far down in my top for this, you cannot blame a whole country for this. In essence he should have said “The Russian broadcaster is censoring my video” if that was really an issue. Yulia, you are in my top 10-Ryan can’t relate…!
> Michael Kealy also hinted that the gay love story would feature in the stage show for Lisbon
Song is crap, so I guess it’s time for plan B: cheap pandering.
Oh no….. I’m supporting the LGBT+ community with all my heart and Soul, but that truly seems like a tragic attempt.
I was thinking the same. There is something dodgy about this lad (i.e Ryan)
Nothing dodgy, he’s just smart, unlike the other contestants
OMG , I am so tired of that strange “hype”, first was Iceland, second is Ireland, third is disabled singer from Russia. Who’s next? Damn!
This is not Eurovision song contest. It’s a circus 🙁
the feminist song by the israeli girl, she’ll come preaching for the metoo movement soon and how she’s a victim of men
Which is basically my reaction to the song. It’s not that it’s bad (some parts are annoying), it’s going to bring out political opinions from everyone thanks to the #metoo and#timesup movements.
Because of this I cannot support Israel’s song.
The music video elevates the song. Without the video the song is gay. Pun intended.
To be fair, pretty sure Ryan is straight, so how was he to know that PinkSixty News wasn’t a genuine gay themed news feed??
I wouldn’t blame him completely and I doubt it was done on purpose. Perhaps he genuinely thought this was the case with Russia?
He is straight? Sure…
Yeah, i ship ryan with padraig already.
Pretty sure he has a girlfriend… and went on Britain’s Got Talent to sing about loving his female best friend… wow… totally gay…
the russians got so mad at him tho
Hahahahaha
And again it’s proven that he is not the man for the job, doesn’t even understand how PR works….naive in every conceivable way…
On that, I agree with you.
*IF* this had been a true story, there are ways to handle it properly and try for sympathy points … but even *IF* this had been a true story, angrily tweeting and Facebooking in the vein of President Trump does nothing but make people sigh and roll their eyes and say “yeah, fine, you have a point, but do you have to make it the least attractive possible way?”