Country Ireland Languages English | Artist(s) Dustin the Turkey Semi-final result 15th | |
 | ||
Composer(s) Darren Smith,
Simon Fine,
Dustin the Turkey Lyricist(s) Darren Smith,
Simon Fine,
Dustin the Turkey | ||
"Irelande Douze Pointe" [sic] is a parody song by the puppet act Dustin the Turkey. The song was composed by Darren Smith and Simon Fine for the competition to select the Irish submission for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. On February 23, 2008, it won against five other entries in Eurosong 2008, held at the University of Limerick. The song represented Ireland in the semi-finals of the song contest on May 20, 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia, but failed to qualify for the final.
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Song's meaning
Despite the French song title, the lyrics of the song are mainly in English. The title refers to the Eurovision Song Contest's voting procedure, where all voting results are read in both English and French, and where a score of twelve (French: douze) is the highest possible result. The voting procedure has become notorious over the years due to supposed geopolitical voting, especially in Eastern countries. The word pointe is a misspelling because it is points in French, being a plurality of 12 points. Irelande is also misspelt as the French for Ireland is Irlande.
At Eurovision
The song was performed at the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, held in Belgrade, Serbia. Here it was performed 11th in the running order, following Poland's Isis Gee "For Life" and preceding Andorra's Gisela with "Casanova". It received a total of 22 points, placing 15th in a field of 19 and failing to qualify for the final.
Reception
The song received press coverage around the world, most notably in the United Kingdom, Spain and Australia. Sky News even interviewed the puppet Dustin the Turkey about the song.
The song was booed and cheered during the Irish national final. Mainly in English, it was the first Irish entry to include elements in Spanish, Italian, French and German. Dustin was joined by backing singers Kathleen Burke and Anne Harrington when performing Irelande Douze Pointe. A minor nuisance arose because the presence of the puppeteer meant that one too many performers was onstage. The officials eventually decided that because the puppeteer was in a shopping trolley, he did not count as being "on the stage."
After pressure from the Greek broadcaster ERT, the EBU forced a change to the lyrics of the song so that they would not include Macedonia because of the Macedonia naming dispute. This applied to the live version only and Macedonia is still mentioned in the studio version.