She constantly improved throughout the Eurovision 2022 season, ultimately delivering a pyro-tastic performance in Semi-Final 2. And while Ireland’s Brooke Scullion ultimately finished 15th in her semi-final, she thinks she deserved a place in the Saturday-night final.
“There are different opinions,” she told the Irish Mirror. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to disrespect the EBU because I did have the time of my life and I am very grateful for the performance and the fanbase that I now have and the opportunities I got.”
“I knew that that experience was once in a lifetime, and I had done everything I could, and I thought I did deserve to go through.”
Brooke also pointed out that fans recorded the decibel level inside the arena — and she had the second-loudest reaction from fans.
BBC Eurovision commentator and Celebrity Gogglebox star Rylan agrees. Replying to our tweet about this very post, he said our girl “was robbed.”
Amen. Brooke was robbed
— R Y L A N (@Rylan) May 31, 2022
It’s not all roses, though. Brooke recounted the difficult moments after her elimination, saying that she had “a 15-minute breakdown”.
“There were people who didn’t go through, they kept themselves to themselves, they were very disappointed and got really sad about the whole thing.”
It didn’t help that all of the stars’ dressing rooms are next to one another. She and the other eliminated acts could hear the qualifiers celebrating.
Ireland doesn’t have to send ballads
The 23-year-old also addressed comments from Eurovision winner Linda Martin (1992) and Top 10 finisher Brian Kennedy (2006), who have said that Ireland can only win with ballads.
“It is a different competition to when we were winning it with ballads,” the Derry queen said. “I definitely think that ballads are amazing and they’re really good, but it is depending on the artists that submits their song like I wouldn’t close the door, I think I’ve opened the door to young, aspiring pop artists that want to do Eurovision.”
“I think it is rather unfair to say we can only win with ballads because has every other country only won with ballads? It just depends on the level of songs and the level of the artist. It’s a worldwide competition now that 200 million watch. Politics does play a part but I don’t know. It was a rap song that won this year.”
You can read Brooke’s full interview on the Irish Mirror web site.
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The main thing was the song, Tongues is so much better for Eurovision, I love Brooke and hope she comes back in the future!
Ireland was one of the biggest surprises of that semi final. Everything clicked for me. Her voice was so much better than at the parties. Her outfit was colourful and effective. The staging was the best Ireland has sent in years with great lighting and an effective pyro moment at the ‘Hey!’ part that wowed me. Definitely deserved a place after all those samey songs from Ireland. Even my Irish father liked it in the night and he is normally very embarrassed by Ireland’s entries! Brooke should come back as she clearly loves Eurovision!
she is absolutely right. disappointed by the lack of televoting support. Yes, the song wasn’t very strong but it deserved to be in the final more than Azerbaijan. Juries should change their attitude.
I love her sincerity and indeed she deserved to make it through. At least more than Azerbuyjan and Belgium.
I hope she can move on and makes a career for herself 🙂
Responding to: Why doesn’t Ireland replace their Head of Delegation? I’ve looked into it, and Ireland’s HoD (Michael Kealy) is an executive producer at RTE. This role means he manages national and international entertainment events/tv shows, including Ireland’s participation in Eurovision. So, Eurovision isn’t his main concern, at all. In fact, if you watch his interviews, he seems tired of being HoD, he’s sick of the public reaction and online hate. Michael has been employed by RTE for over 27 years, so he won’t be replaced. The guy obviously has well-established connections at RTE and will probably only be replaced… Read more »
In a word, no. Their 2015 entry was far superior to this and Molly Sterling didn’t even qualify. When you promote a bubble-gum pop tune with a music video that appears to have been done on the cheap even to those standards (everything behind a single backboard, in a parking garage maybe?), And staged in bubble-gum fashion, you can expect to be completely overshadowed by Sweden (with no music video), the Czech Republic and even North Macedonia (who many predicted would be dead-last out of BOTH semifinals).
My bad. That should be “everything IN FRONT OF a single backboard”.
On top of that, the bookies weren’t expecting her to qualify, either. She was consistently below the threshold of qualifying, and her stage setup and rehearsals didn’t give the bookies any confidence at all that maybe she just might qualify.
I agree. “That’s Rich” is something we’ve all heard a thousand times before.
I’m sure Brooke isn’t the only non-qualifier who feels she should’ve made the final. Regardless, she gave a good performance and hopefully she feels proud for the way she represented Ireland.
azerbaijan pretty much robbed everyone else in sf2, so she’s right
But wasn’t North Macedonia the first country in the ranking order to replace Azerbaijan?
And if you look at tele votes only, the 10th spot would have gone to Cyprus, so even then Ireland wasn’t robbed.
Gurl, nobody robbed her, c’mon!! She was 15 in her SF which shows neither juries nor public didnt want to place her in a final. Of course every artist thinks she/he deserves place in the final and we should respect everyone for her/his work but the truth is that Song was very generic and her voice was far from perfect. Not mentioning her dress and choreography which looked like North Macedonia 2000…
Well, she can always try again next year I suppose.
I’ve been taking a closer look at some 90’s ESC recently and the Irish really need to realize that the days when they could finish top 2 just by singing in English (’92 and ’97) are long gone. Those two in particular were just extremely overrated. I don’t mind the ’93 winner but Norway and Greece have both aged much better I think, from that line-up. Also, I can’t say they didn’t deserve to win in ’94 and ’96 tho I still clearly prefer Hungary ’94 to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids and Portugal ’96 to The Voice. Sorry, Ireland,… Read more »
This makes the 3rd time Ireland’s Brooke, a non-qualifier, has been in the thumbnail of a wiwi article just in a week, and two of those were articles about her.
???????
In other words, of the last 11 articles here, 2 were about her and 3 had her as a thumbnail. Again, a non-qualifier.
???????
Sorry she had awful song. I thought when it was selected from a very weak selection it was the type of song the UK would pick six or seven years ago. Also her stage look was also awful and i preferred her look on the opening ceremony where she looked more sophisticated. That said she came across very warmly but ultimately it is a song contest and this song was just not good enough to progress.
No lies detected.
I mean, she didn’t lie!
She did deserved a place in the final but in JESC!
That’s it Ireland.
I think Ireland needs to take a break for a few years, maybe indefinitely. RTE puts minimal effort into the selection and therefore gets poor results. The RTE selection show is full of reminisces about the ‘glory days’ (a generation ago) and tries to find a ‘good Eurovision song’ (whatever that is). The bottom line is Eurovision has moved on and RTE has not.
Minimal effort, indeed! They didn’t even make a video that was fitting of the story in the song. They just put her in front of a board, somewhere in a studio or garage and did the whole thing in front of that board. A far cry even from the video they did for Ryan O’Shaughnessy in 2018.
I agree. Anyways, I’ve heard RTÉ might pull out for at least 3-5 years next year
Source please.
Well, she definitely deserved it more than Azerbuyjan and Belgium.
More than Azerbaijan, yes. More than Belgium, NO. Jérémie gave the best vocal performance of the semifinal.
Stop blaming Azerbaijan. Shame on you
No, shame on you for buying votes
that person didnt buy the vote , somebody else did so stop blaming someone else for it.
I adore the song, but every version of its staging was not my cup of tea. It’s a pity.
The song – and it is a song contest after all – was hideous. The performance was ghaatly and a bit desperate and ao it got what it deserved from both jury and public vote. How can anyone say she was robbed?
Finally some sense. Messy staging, awful costume, like a drunken karaoke performance. Fully deserved not to qualify and its lowly position. I read some of the comments and think they must have been watching a different performance to me. Plainly we all must have different opinions and likes, but in my opinion this was one of the worst performances this year.
I would go far as to say one of the worst entries by any country ever in the whole history of the contest. And I am talking about the song.
One of the most mediocre songs of the year… so, sorry Brooke you didn’t deserve ti classify. RTE must change their eurovision delegation, as Spain did
Certain countries cant understand that sending something that sounds and looks ok is not enough. Her performance was a good a xfactor semifinal performance. Eurovision needs authenticity, a story, a memorable song. She is talented and had a catchy tune but that is not enough.
You’re right, but the same could be said about qualifiers such as Finland, Azerbuyjan and Belgium
She’s right, the song deserved to qualify instead of some other acts.
However, Ireland can’t do staging right. In my opinion, for a Eurovision act to be successful, the staging needs to have a concept. Lovehearts on an LED, pink lights and some fireworks isn’t a concept.
For Ireland to succeed, they need to get the new generation of young Irish artists interested in Eurovision. When I say young artists I don’t mean X-Factor or The Voice finalists, I mean ACTUAL artists and not just reality show singers.
Also, I know Brooke wrote ‘That’s Rich’ and she wanted that song to go to Eurovision. However, the song did nothing for her and her vocal ability. She’s too good for that song.
Watch Brooke’s cover of ‘Nothing Breaks Like A Heart’ on The Voice UK Semi-Final. If Brooke brought an Irish country song like that to Eurovision she could’ve done well.
Overall, the song and staging needed to change. Brooke is a star otherwise.
I really liked the staging and thought it was one of the best on the night.
It was good and she done a good job. But the staging was a bit meh. Even though it didn’t work for Lesley in 2021, I thought we where on the right track staging wise. But look, it’s Eurovision and we just gotta accept that someone washing their hands surrounded by orthodox priests is what gets the votes. Ireland had a nice performance to watch, but it just got lost among everything else. Just didn’t feel competitive enough. But I’m not at all surprised that we didn’t qualify. I’ve been quite done with Ireland at Eurovision for a few years… Read more »
If she deserved it, she’d be in the Final. Not to mention that neither televote nor juries put her through. Performance was captivating for sure, but nothing can fix a bad song. Same goes to San Marino. Sorry to say but it’s true.
Bruh, you say this as if Azerbuyjan and Belgium were actually better and more relatable
Main problem for Brooke was the juries. She finished 11th in the televote, which was absolutely fine in a strong semi. But bottom 3 with the juries was a joke and hardly fair on her – there’s no way there were 15 better songs / performances than her in that semi.
By Irish standards Brooke’s song was probably something new and great, but by Eurovision standards Ireland was pretty average this year by all means. And also, at least 10 years late to the party when it comes to this particular style of music in Eurovision. It is strange to see a country that won 7 times struggle so much to even qualify.
There is a big difference between ESC in the last 10 years than ESC bare when Ireland was winning constantly. Ireland NEEDS STRONG ENTRIES! Just being good gets you no where!
ESC Bare would be a good charity calendar.
Back not bare omfg lol! Clearly my head is elsewhere lol
Needs. To. Happen.
Ochman should be Mr July
Yeah… and Michael Ben David wants ALL the rest of the months.
Think we seen enough of the MBD for a lifetime!
Tymofii Muzychuk Is also a good candidate. With his flute
Excellent idea. I agree. I want Ochman to be featured. Please.
It really makes me sad to see artists disappointed by results. Not all of them are affirmed stars, Eurovision is one in a lifetime chance and it must be a rollercoaster of emotions. I still think it’s unnecessary to film their reactions when they get 0 points…
But her comment “i should have gone through” sounds pretentious. She knows there are limited spots in the final; her advancing would have meant someone else being eliminated. If she believes she deserved the final, she should be specific and address who she was supposed to replace.
Six of the eighteen countries were cheating. A third of them. That can only jumble her emotions even more.
Exactly and all 6 should’ve been disqualified No matter how good the song was
If her comment about ”should have gone through” sounds pretentious, how about Chingiz saying how was dissatisfied with A FUDGIN 7TH PLACE in the finals in 2019?
”We should not have taken seventh place. Compatriots living in Europe voted for me enough.”
(Little did he know that after the revised result, he actually finished 8th – which is also good, by the way.)
any act was better than fade to black, so she’s right
I was completely shocked when I saw that Ireland didn’t qualify this year 🙁
I don’t know why. The bookies had her at 1000 to 1
I was sad but not shocked. I knew it was coming.
nam nam
Whoever represents Ireland next year should really meet with Brooke and Lesley Roy before they fly off to the host city. People are always told to be confident and wished good luck, but really, it’s more important to be ready for defeat. It’s so hard to come crashing down so suddenly, back to the real world with a thud after so many months of expectation.
I think RTÉ, the EBU, and all other broadcasters should have a duty of care to safeguard mental health.
Why would they meet with two losers? Leslie Roy stuffed too much into her presentation with all those cardboard cut out things and frenetic running around. Frankly she looked a bit mad and it totally destroyed the vocals as she was so out of breath. Brooke’s song was a total turd from the outset and her vocals very limited at best.
I must agree. Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s team in 2018 found a formula to qualify 6th (he ultimately finished 16th), amid a string of NQs before and after his appearance. They should draw from his playbook and work with that.
You’ve both missed my point.
I completely disagree with the notion she should have advanced. The song was nothing special, her vocals were not good, and it was an otherwise boring performance. OK, let the hate begin lol
I would have agreed with you completely before seeing the actual ESC performance cus all the performances of That’s Rich before that were dreadful. However Brooke’s vocal’s did end up sounding very close to the studio cut, the styling & Choreo improved, plus the camera angles & staging overall were very nice. As for the song, I always liked it personally but I knew that even with a solid performance it would not stand out, especially in a death semi and at slot 10.
Can we start going to her now when we need an Irish Eurovision alumni’s opinion instead of Linda Martin?
Yes, please!
I totally agree with her. I still don’t understand how she got 15th with such a GREAT performance
I agree that the song is miles better than all the other NQ’es (Besides Georgia I love it sorry not sorry lol) and the performance was great but sometimes things just don’t get as much attention. Sometimes entries just NQ despite them doing the best they could. Look at Croatia last year. Sometimes it boils down to “You didn’t get enough attention unlucky gg goodbye”
I have a rather unpopular opinion on this one ! I really enjoyed the audio version, but to me most of the live performance felt less than half-baked. I thought the vocals lacked precision and power and she didn’t seem to let go as much as the fun of the track would allow to. Visually the pyro moment was great, but the rest was pretty lackluster between the pink heart shapes and her blue outfit which didn’t look really special. It’s a shame because the song calls for innovation, I don’t understand why they kept it so monochrome and one-note.… Read more »
The idea that “ Ireland can only win with a ballad” just shows that RTEs heads are still in the 90s when they could simply send a good ballad and the juries then would just lap it up and give them the win. Is 2022! Ireland need to really get with the times and send something modern. My controversial take has always been Ireland don’t deserve to have the most wins when more than 50% of them were in the space of 5 years they simply benefited from the juries just liking that type of genre at the time. The… Read more »
They benefit from trends and some other scandals i belive in 1992 Mia Martini didn’t won with so outstanding Rapsodia only cause they didn’t want Italy host disaster happens again so it prevent many jury to vote Linda Martin song was just good ballad and she already should won with terminal 3 in 80’s . 1994 Górniak lost cause scandal that her manager tell her sing in English in rehearsal what was not allowed. And many courties call for disqualification but i didn’t happens but boykot song anyhow. And they also benefit for use English what had advantaged on others… Read more »
Edyta claims that the Dublin weather gave her a cold, which meant she had to sing in English because it was easier on her voice than Polish. We are expected to believe this.
Robbed Queen speaks the truth
Yes she got a big reaction from the crowd but she didn’t get the votes so she didn’t go through. End of story. It ain’t rocket science. I would have put Ireland through personally but I always knew it would not stand out enough.
I certainly agree with her that Ireland can’t only win with ballads. It’s not one genre that does well, it’s picking a genre and giving it in the best possible way.
I hope Ireland strengths itself as an ESC country soon….
What is the televotes are rigged? We have no proof that they are real
Afaik the televote isn’t audited so there’s no way to prove they’re rigged xd
I agree with her that she deserved to qualify. It’s my biggest grower from my pre-ESC list. And I also think that Ireland can do well with non-ballads as well. Still, That’s Rich is the only Irish non-ballad in the qualifying era that, IMHO, should have easily qualified and it didn’t. The Irish track record in the semi-final era: 2004 – AQ ballad 2005 – NQ uptempo pop, but I understand why they stayed in the semi. 2006 – Q ballad, deservingly so 2007 – AQ mid-tempo, finished last due to a subpar performance. 2008 – NQ joke entry (not… Read more »
I would have comfortably put here through instead of Azerbaijan or Belgium, without hesitation.
I mean what does it mean“deserving“? Who says who is deserving? You don’t get enough points you are not in! Period!!!
Azerbaijan got 0 televote points and still qualified. You don’t deserve to qualify if you get 0 televote points imo.
Well, rules are rules, though. It is what it is. And if the juries saved, the juries saved it.
* saved it
Except for the fact they broke the rules and were one of the countries involved in the cheating scandal. They effectively stole a place in the final ahead of a more deserving act.
That is a total different topic. She would have not qualified either way!
That my be your opinion, but ESC has juries and televises and you need to impress both….
She definitely deserved a place. My only criticism is that the performance didn’t live up to the lyrics, that are really quite feisty and funny. It was a very sweet presentation, perhaps something a bit more edgy could have helped. But truly Brooke was great.
Brook got robbed
And she is so RIGHT! I’ll definitely miss her, she really deserved to be in the finale.
Brooke was great. I simply think the song was to much teen oriented to really work.
But she is right that Ireland does not need ballads to win. Does any country need ballad to win? Ireland only need to try new things and not being stuck in the past.
She should’ve qualified instead of Romania and Belgium’s crap songs or Azerbaijan
Calling a song “crap” doesn’t make your point any more valid, it’s just plain rude.
KESC aka KRM aka MYY aka raylee throwing some open hate once again.
it’s true that i throw some beautiful hate but i’m not KESC or KRM or MYY.
She’s not being cocky. She’s being factual
She really deserved it, but she should be happy that her performance was good first. I think Romania stole the votes for Ireland just as Moldova stole the votes from Latvia in the first semi-final. :/
They didn’t steal any votes… Neither Romania, neither Moldova…. The Irish song just wasn’t that great…
Romania stole what? Romania was an easy qualification this year with a warm and fun instant song. Look at their televote in SF: that was not only diaspora.
Of course they could win with any song, not only ballads! I loved Brooke’s song, I think the performance was good, though I can understand why some people think that it was just not enough and preferred other acts. Wish them luck and I hope Brooke’s song will be a good start for Ireland to try something new with their entries! The selection was a mess though and needs to be revamped (or completely changed tbh).
I completely agree, she did her best but the song just wasn’t good enough as proved by not getting through. It’s a competition so ultimately acts are going to see other acts go through and celebrating!