Ireland Entry: Ryan Dolan - Only Love Survives

May 24, 2013 Critic Jonni 0 Comments

Ryan Dolan was chosen to represent Ireland, he is a young singer-songwriter and shouldn't have come last in the Grand Final, this song is amazing. Little is known about him, although I am aware of the fact that he has released quite a few singles here in the UK.

"Only Love Survives" was written by Wez Devine and Ryan Dolan. The song was set to do well, especially when it came eighth in the first Semi-Final, so how this only got a few points in the Final, and came 26th out of 26 countries, I have no idea. My thought is that Ireland performed last, and by then everyone had chosen their favourites to vote for and Ryan Dolan failed to make those people change their minds.

In the Final, Ireland came last, and only managed to get 5 points, 1 point from the UK, 2 points from Sweden and 2 points from Cyprus. Whereas in the Semi Final Ryan Dolan gained 54 points from various countries, where did it all go wrong?

This music video surprised me, at the start, the performance is stand out and top notch. I was ready to give it a top rating watching it, as it brought in the concept of the world changing and each day possibly being the last, as well as playing on the love side of the song which is the main theme. And then it went downhill.

I really did not enjoy the editing of the various photos and video from the general public, it made it amateurish. And after such a professional start to the video, this seemed wrong and not right at all. Plus the amount of 'heart-hands' is just too much.

There's not a lot more to comment on I have downloaded the song and listened to it a couple of times, and I do really like it, but it doesn't stick in my head compared to other songs from this year's contest. As for the video I got excited that I might be giving out the first five stars for a Eurovision 2013 music video, but my excitement dropped as the fans and general pubic joined in, it looks messy and just doesn't work.