19 May 2011
Nostalgic for Ireland’s Eurovision glory years? Or at least, nostalgic for Ireland reaching the final and therefore avoiding our now-annual national psychodrama at the crushing realisation that other countries may not actually love us as much as we crave? Then you’re nostalgic for Jedward and their 2011-12 repping for Ireland, in which they reached the final both years. Their 8th place in 2011 was our highest finish since 2000. Since then we’ve been mostly stuck in semi-final purgatory. The Jedward Years are as good as Ireland’s 21st century Eurovision experience gets.
If you’re familiar with Jedward—and the mind boggles for anyone coming to this unawares—then you’ll know that ‘Lipstick’ is really just a pretext for Jedward to be Jedward out in the open; run and jump onto the stage, run and jump around the stage, run and jump off the stage. Yes, the stage in question is that of a song contest, but no worries there: ‘Lipstick’ has a catchy chorus and some electro-R&B-pop bits that Britney Spears’s ‘Womanizer’ was no longer using. Being more percussive than melodic, it’s generous to the two lads’ best-guess approach to singing and dancing. Anyway, there are actual singers backing them up on Eurovision night. And wasn’t The X Factor a singing contest, and didn’t they get through that just fine? You have your song, you have your Jedward; what more do you want? It’s meant to be fun, Simon!
Jedward will top the Irish charts again in 2011, but ‘Lipstick’ is the last time we’ve had an Irish Eurovision entry at number one in Ireland. Perhaps we’ll see another whenever Ireland next enjoys Eurovision success, such as qualifying for the final. In the meantime 2012 won’t bring us another Jedward Eurovision Irish number one, but it will bring us, for the first time in almost twenty years, an Irish number one single that’s an actual Eurovision-winner – in fact, the figurehead of Eurovision’s subsequent renaissance in smart, energetic, chart-orientated dance-pop. Maybe Jedward and ‘Lipstick’ were ahead of their time.
