Music fans of all stripes have lamented Ireland’s performance at Eurovision these past two decades, but Irish folk metal band Cruachan have decided to do something about it.
In posts on the band’s social media accounts this past weekend, Cruachan announced that they “have submitted specially recorded song for consideration to represent Ireland in next year’s Eurovision song contest.”
We have submitted a specially recorded song for consideration to represent Ireland in next year's Eurovision song contest. @Eurovision #Eurovision #Eurovision2023 #cruachan pic.twitter.com/y3WIMYlECf
— CruachanKeith (@CruachanClan) October 1, 2022
The band continued on their Facebook page, “It’s a typical Cruachan song and we feel it’s time Ireland left the usual and expected ‘pop’ stuff behind and went for something different. One of the greatest things we have in Ireland is our folk music yet it’s never utilised so we’re hoping to put that right.”
Cruachan were early pioneers of the metal sub-genre “Celtic metal” in the early 1990s, combining the new black metal sound of Norway with the traditional Celtic folk, along with other Irish bands such as Primordial and Waylander.
Named after the Irish archaeological site of Cruachan, the band utilizes Celtic instrumentation such as the violin, the tin whistle, and the Irish flute, as well as lyrics exploring Celtic lore and Irish history.
The band’s debut album, “Tuatha na Gael,” was released in 1995, and each successive album brought the band more attention in Europe, South America and the United States.
The band’s most recent album, “Nine Years of Blood,” was released in 2018 and is about the Nine Years War between Ireland and Spain against Queen Elizabeth I’s England from 1593 to 1603.
Though adjacent genres such as folk punk (Koza Mostra’s “Alcohol is Free” and Zdob si Zdub and Advahdov Brothers’ “Trenuletul“) has had some success at Eurovision, the genre of folk metal has not despite having expanded from Ireland and the United Kingdom across Scandinavia and into places like Switzerland and Eastern Europe.
Korpiklaani, a Finnish folk metal band who led the second wave of folk metal in the 2000s with hits like “Beer Beer,” tried to enter Finland’s national selection for Eurovision 2011 with “Metsalle.” Swiss folk-metal outfit Eluveitie’s hurdy gurdy player Anna Murray entered Switzerland’s national selection for Eurovision 2011 as part of the band Fräkmündt.
More recent folk metal efforts at Eurovision national selections include TrollfesT’s “Dance like a Pink Flamingo” in 2021 for Norway and Pagan Fury’s “Stormbringer” in 2019 for Sweden.
Despite Brooke Scullion failing to make the Grand Final for Ireland at Eurovision 2022 with “That’s Rich,” Ireland will again be using RTE’s Late Late Show, hosted by Ryan Turbidy, to pick their representative for Eurovision 2023.
Should Cruachan make it to the selection and win the nomination, they will have a lot of bad form to overcome. Ireland have only qualified for the Grand Final once since 2014 (Ryan O’Shaughnessy in 2018), and have come bottom in the Grand Final twice in the 2000s.
Though Ireland has the winningest record at Eurovision with seven victories, including a dominating period of four wins in five years from 1992 to 1996, the fact that Jedward’s 8th place in 2011 with “Lipstick” is the country’s best since 2001 has put Ireland’s fans among the most long-suffering of Eurovision fans lately.
Do #YOU fancy Cruachan’s folk metal to be the charm Ireland needs to make the Grand Final? Or for a small country that has produced some of the world’s best musicians and artists, do #YOU think Ireland has better choices out there? Let us know in the comments below, on social media, or in our forum.
