A warm welcome to all contestants and guests to Ireland for the 104th edition of the Forum Song Contest.
We are here in Ireland due to the victory of Imelda May in FSC #103 with her heartfelt and emotional song Black Tears. Let's have another listen:
Our host city for this special event is Sligo on the western coast of the Emerald Isle.
Sligo is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000, it is the second largest urban centre in the West of Ireland, with only Galway being larger.
Sligo is a historic, cultural, commercial, industrial, retail and service centre of regional importance in the West of Ireland. Served by rail, port and road links, Sligo exerts a significant influence on its hinterland. Sligo is also a popular tourist destination, being situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty, with many literary and cultural associations.
Sligo is the anglicisation of the Irish name Sligeach, meaning "abounding in shells" or "shelly place". It refers to the abundance of shellfish found in the river and its estuary, and from the extensive shell middens in the vicinity.
Sligo bay is an ancient natural harbour, being known to Greek, Phoenician and Roman traders as the area is thought to be the location marked as the city of Nagnata on Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd century AD co-ordinate map of the world. During the early medieval period the site of Sligo was eclipsed by the importance of the great Columban monastery 5 miles to the north at Drumcliff. By the 12th century there was a bridge and small settlement in existence at the site of the present town.
In the nineteenth century Sligo experienced rapid economic growth and therefore architectural change was rapid. This was marked by the erection of many fine public buildings. These include Sligo Town Hall (City Hall), Courthouse, the Gilooly Memorial Hall and the Model School (now the Model Arts & Niland Gallery).
Music is of great importance in Sligo, with many musicians both from Sligo and from around the world coming to Sligo to play and improve their craft.
Sligo culture was a significant inspiration on both poet and Nobel laureate W. B. Yeats and his brother the artist, illustrator and comics pioneer Jack Butler Yeats. An extensive collection of Jack B Yeats art is held in the Model Niland Gallery on the Mall.
The boy band Westlife was formed in 1998 in Sligo.
Sligo has a vibrant nightlife, and is a popular destination for local residents and a sizeable student population. Sligo has several nightclubs and late bars, particularly along the riverside, an area successfully redeveloped during the 1990s. There are also many pubs and music venues with traditional and contemporary music throughout the year.
Our venue for the events of this evening is Markievicz Park.
Markievicz Park is the principal GAA stadium in County Sligo, Ireland, home to the Sligo gaelic football and hurling teams.
Built in 1955 due mostly to Sean Forde who single-handedly gathered the funds necessary to build the stadium, it is named after Constance Markievicz, one of the participants of the 1916 Easter Rising, the first woman elected to Dáil Éireann and the first female British MP.
The grounds were redeveloped in a ten-year project completed in 2009 and costing €2.4 million. This raised the safe capacity from 10,500 to 18,558 (3,585 seated under a covered stand, 14,936 standing terraced and 37 disabled spectator places)
And now, let's meet our gutsy and mostly gracious hosts for tonight, Linda Martin and Billy McGuinness.
Linda Martin (born 27 March 1952) is an Irish singer and television presenter. She is best known in Europe as the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1992 with the song "Why Me?", and in Ireland as a member of the 1970s/1980s band, Chips.
She has presented the RTÉ quiz show The Lyrics Board, one of the broadcaster's more popular formats, and served as one of Louis Walsh's behind-the-scenes team on the first series of ITV's The X Factor.
She also served as a judge on the first, second and fourth seasons of RTÉ's You're a Star and on Charity You're a Star in Summer 2005 and Summer 2006.
She was a guest performer at Congratulations, the 50th anniversary Eurovision concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2005. Martin was also the Irish spokesperson for Eurovision Song Contest 2007 and was one of the five judges for Eurosong 2009 (Irish Selection for Eurovision). In 2012, she was the mentor for Jedward in the Irish Eurovision final Eurosong 2012.
Billy McGuinness became famous as the keyboardist, guitarist and harmonica player for Irish rock band Aslan, started in 1982. He was also one of the mentors during the 2014 season of Eurosong, the Irish National Final for Eurovision.
It was during the Eurosong final that the pair became embroiled in a furious spat involving a lot of attitude and finger-wagging from Linda Martin, culminating in her calling Billy McGuinness "an odious little man".
And now, it's time for our opening act, famous Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has put aside her personal and mental health issues for one night, and is here to perform her year 2000 hit "No man's woman".
And without any further ado,
let the Forum Song Contest begin!
And, with that, we conclude the first half of tonight's performances.
For our interval act, we have two performers from past national finals.
First up is Thomai Apergi from Greece, who participated in the 2015 Greek national final with her song "Jazz and Sirtaki"
Our next performers are the band State of Drama from the 2013 Swedish Melodifestivalen with their song "Falling"
After two enjoyable performances, let's get started with the second half of tonight's participants.
And with that we conclude the performances by our participants tonight.
We have one more surprise for you, our closing act by popular Irish musician and songwriter Hozier, performing his debut song and hit "Take me to church":
If you find any mistakes, problems with the videos or broken links, please contact me directly to have the matter corrected
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Deadline: October 29, 23/59.
.Good job [MENTION=13133]aardvark[/MENTION] 
