Reader, I read with dismay that Nicky Byrne has decided to trot out the tired party lines in his interview in yesterday’s Irish Times entitled “I Feel worse than yesterday”.
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/nicky-byrne-i-feel-worse-than-i-did-yesterday-to-be-honest-1.2647359 if you are so inclined but, in case you aren’t, here are some of the highlights.
“I thought we delivered a very good performance. I’ve been on stage for 20 years and you know when you’ve nailed it.”
My personal favourite :
“We were in there with Latvia, Serbia, Lithuania and Belarus amongst others and they all vote for each other to make sure they’re all in the competition on Saturday as a bit of a stand against Russia. So Switzerland, Ireland, Norway and Denmark fall by the way . . . Is it even about the quality of the song anymore? I really don’t know.”
and…
“Is he sticking around for the final? No, he says. He has changed his flights and will be flying home on Saturday.”
So, it seems the RTE press machine, or his press machine, have been working overdrive to tell the Irish the narrative that has been doing the rounds for the last few years… The one the Brits have come up with… ” Its all political lads”… But is it? – Let’s look at it. HE thinks that the nailed the performance.
Personally, I don’t know if “nailed” in the Nicky Byrne lexicon is the same as mine but if he thinks that not looking at the camera once in three minutes, having a weak voice for a song, not interacting with the viewing public at all and then getting his on stage image wrong is “Nailing it”, then i’m not surprised he was not the lead singer in Westlife.
The song itself was indeed written by people that have helped Westlife in the past, but lets look at some of the lyrics of the chorus shall we?
“Just touch who you wanna
Kiss who you gotta
Fight like we’re winners
Love like beginners
Dance like you mean it
Sing like you feel it”
Yes, cos that doesn’t sound trite at all oh dear me no. And these people who wrote this are supposed to be seasoned song writers that know a good lyric when they write it? – It begs the question how much of a rush were they in to get the song out if they didn’t bother with the lyric?
Then, just when he can’t justify anything he did on stage any more…. he brings out the tired old ” It’s all political” cliche. I particularly like the fact that he has neglected to mention that NO Scandic countries qualified and that only TWO Balkan countries qualified… so clearly all their neighbours vote for each other. In fact, that argument is so weak that it’s tired as hell. It’s cultural and not political. If the UK gave points to Ireland, he or his machine won’t be crowing about that will they?
The facts are plain. The song was weak, sung by a singer that connected with the crowd rather than the television viewer who is 50% of his vote, it’s lyrically trite and unappealing.
If you want someone to blame Nicky, look at the team around you and don’t blame it on everyone else.
