She’s the Derry girl that’s the firm fan favourite to win Ireland’s Eurosong 2022 — at the time of writing she’s earned almost half the vote in our reader poll. And last week we met with Brook Scullion over Zoom to discuss all things “That’s Rich” as well as the plans for her The Late Late Show performance on 4 February.
Interview with Brooke Scullion — “That’s Rich” | Ireland’s Eurosong 2022
Brooke’s first brush with fame came in 2020 when she appeared on The Voice UK. US singer Meghan Trainor took the Irish singer under her wing, taking her all the way to the final. Since then, Brooke has been working on a number of projects, but “That’s Rich” is the first song she wrote.
“It wasn’t written to be a Brooke song”, she tells us. “It was ‘let’s see where Brooke’s creative mind goes'”. The song came about with writing assistance from Izzy Warner and Karl Zine on production. Both had been involved with the soundtrack for Netflix’s Eurovision movie, and so drew Brooke into the song contest bubble.
The trio didn’t set out to create a song for Eurovision, but everything just flowed. Nonetheless, she says that “the conversational middle eight, I feel like that is so unintenionally, beautifully Eurovision”.
Despite Eurovision’s bad reputation in Ireland and elsewhere, Brooke had no qualms about entering the Eurosong process. When her team asked about submitting the three-minute track, she replied “absolutely, put it in”. When she found out that it had made the last six, she was both nervous and excited.
But she’s not at all worried about what people might think when it comes to the song contest itself. “Eurovision is cool now, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon”.
Brooke on her Late Late Show staging
Rehearsals have already started ahead of The Late Late Show final. And Brooke has a clear vision of what she’s going to bring to the stage, although she’s keeping her grand vision under wraps. Still, she was able to share a few teasers. “I’m gonna get my outfits in order, work out what we are allowed on the stage, because we have things that aren’t really allowed. So, we’re trying to work out a way that they can be permitted”.
She’s also busy finessing her choreography. She’s working with a Dublin-based choreographer and knows exactly how the entry will be staged, although everything will look spontaneous on the night. “I’ve got two fabulous dancers. They’ll be bringing the energy where I can’t”. And Brooke will be doing some dancing herself too, “it’s going to be very kitsch”.
She’s also come up with a work around for the vocal distortion effect which can be heard on the studio version of “That’s Rich”. Watch the full interview to get a flavour of that.
Are you excited for Eurosong 2022? Do you think Brooke can win? Is she your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
I’d like to see Brooke represent Ireland, but I worry that the older demographic of the lately show might not choose her. So I think all young Irish eurofans should watch the late late show live on February 4 to make sure Brooke actually does get to go to eurovision.
It could be helped by the juries as well.
especially the international Jury fingers crossed
I’m not sure the older LLS viewers even bother to vote – it’s far more likely that the younger viewers will be the ones picking up their phones (meaning there’s no reason Brooke can’t win the televote).
I hope that’s the case next Friday.
I am in the Older Demographic and I really like it. But then Maps was my favourite song in last Year’s Eurovision and look what happened to that so it is probably a bad omen.
I think That’s Rich is a far stronger song than Maps if truth be told. Maps was decent enough in its studio version, but Brooke’s entry grabs you right from the opening bars. Also, you’re immediately struck by how contemporary it sounds (as is Brooke’s vocal), it could be something straight out of the 2022 pop charts.
I think if Maps sung by Lesley had shown up in this selection, it would not be the favourite and Brooke would still be ahead in the fan polls (and I definitely don’t think it would win a Eurosong….we saw that Lesley struggled a fair bit with the live version and did not impress at all).
Sounds like Brooke has a nice vision of her own song, which is great! I’m looking forward to seeing what she’s got in store, That’s Rich is a terrific and catchy entry! 😀
I haven’t heard any of the other Eurosong entries (I’m a hardcore Ireland fan, but fan talk has made me a little nervous), but given the hype around this one, I gave it a listen – and it’s terrific! With the right staging, this could be a great Irish entry, and that draw could potentially be great news for it. Ireland’s issue is that they hem and haw between their classic, “traditionally Irish” style and more contemporary sounds, and I chalk up most of their mediocre results to trying to strike a balance and instead being neither, just kinda boring.… Read more »
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