It’s the first day of Eurovision semifinals. We know you’ve been anxious. You’ve been saying to your friends “Casements haven’t dropped their annual Eurovision episode yet. I don’t know which entries I’m allowed to like?” They’re sick of hearing it. Don’t worry - we’re here, and we brought acclaimed Dublin musician PureGrand (a.k.a Luke Faulkner), expert in all things The Past.
We discuss the best and worst of Ireland’s entries past and present, the way the Brits even manage to colonise a song contest from the place they voted by referendum to leave, and write a new definition of camp to rival Susan Sontag. Tune in ASAP to find out whether it’s cancellable to like Wild Youth.
We also get Luke to preview some of this year's favourites. Does the return of former Swedish Eurovision winner Loreen represent a threat to Ireland's record? How has J.K. Rowling helped Ireland's chances of success at this year's tournament? And who is this year's hottest contestant?
Before all that we have about ten minutes of technical difficulties and another ten minutes of actually rather interesting chat with Luke about his philosophy of music, and pop music’s relationship to the past and to the future.
As always, send us your hate mail at casementsleftovers@gmail.com, or abuse us on Twitter, Instagram and/or TikTok.