Janet Grogan — “Ashes (of Yesterday)”
I know I’m only halfway through the Irish selection, but I’m starting to thing they’re assembling a collection of Eurovision cliches for the audience to pick from. This strongly leans towards soul pop with a Scandi vibe, too close to the structure and sound of “Move” by The Mamas (the Swedish entry for the cancelled 2020 contest) for comfort. There’s nothing wrong with Grogan’s vocals or the general upbeat nature of the song, but the déjà vu I’m getting is worrying.

Brooke Scullion — “That’s Rich”
Probably the most modern of the selection so far, Scullion seems to be going for a toned-down Lady Gaga approach, although she does exhibit the proper levels of sass and sarcasm. It’s the production that lets her down — to counter her fairly deadpan vocals, in my opinion the beats needed to be bigger and the instruments fuller, with additional layering. I realise this is a weirdly specific thing to focus on, but I kept waiting for the song to really take off musically, as it seemed to promise it would, but it stuck to the same pace throughout. As a result, it runs out of steam in the last 45 seconds.