Emmy, Ireland’s contestant in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, has said it is “like a dream” to be chosen to represent the country, as a member of her song-writing team predicted she can now go all the way as winning Irish hearts was the “hardest” challenge.
The Norwegian singer, 24, was greeted like a hero as she arrived at a Eurovision fan club watch party in Dublin city centre early yesterday morning after emerging from relative obscurity to win the public vote and carry a nation’s hopes into the finals in Basel, Switzerland in May with her song Laika Party.
After a night of high drama on a live The Late Late Show Eurosong Special, it was Emmy who triumphed over her rivals, such as the hotly tipped Bobbi Arlo and Samantha Mumba, with a combination of public voting, and national and international juries.
In her first interview after her victory, Emmy Kristine Guttulstrud Kristiansen told The Sunday Times of her shock at learning that she had won the competition less than two hours earlier.
“I just can’t believe that it’s happening. It’s so surreal. I’m so honoured and so grateful, and I can’t believe it. It is like a dream. It is a childhood dream coming true with my brother. It’s crazy that it is happening,” she said with joyful tears brimming in her eyes.
Emmy’s brother Erlend plays the keyboard as part of the performance and is one of the song’s co-writers.
Before being swarmed by the loyal and devoted fan club members lining up to embrace her, Emmy spoke of her gratitude at being chosen to carry the hopes of the nation into the competition later this year.
Fans greet Emmy at a watch party at the Odeon in Dublin city centre
BRYAN MEADE
“It’s so amazing. You guys are the king of Eurovision, so I’m so honoured to represent you guys and to represent Ireland. Ireland is amazing,” she said.
Posing for selfie after selfie, she was then presented by her acolytes with a sparkly crown. Frank Dermody, president of the Irish Eurovision fan club, said: “We crowned the witch [Bambie Thug] last year and we are crowning Emmy as our winner this year.”
Laika Party, the tale of a stray dog snatched from the streets of Moscow and jettisoned into space by the Soviet Union in 1957, was the unlikely inspiration for Emmy’s winning song.
Though upbeat, the disco anthem simultaneously laments the mongrel’s fate. Fans at the watch party were unanimous in their view that the song brought the best “vibe” of the night.
Emmy’s song Laika Party was chosen to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
BRYAN MEADE
“Maybe people wanted a party and liked the tribute to Laika because her story is important,” she said.
Still clad in the shiny spacesuit she wore on stage and with glittering stars stuck to her cheeks, Emmy described her own musical journey to this point as an “emotional rollercoaster”.
“I will take each day as it comes, I don’t know what’s happening. It’s all happening so fast,” she said.
Larissa Tormey, a Russian-born Irish singer who has lived here for more than 30 years and co-wrote the song, said she instinctively knew it would be an instant hit with the Irish public.
The story of Laika, the first dog in space, inspired Emmy’s winning song
OVFOTO/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES
“I knew it would be. Ireland is the kindest nation on the Earth. You are mad about your pets and your animals. Animals are nearly better looked after than humans in this country. So I thought Irish people would really [identify] with this story about the little dog,” she said.
Asked about the songwriting process, Tormey said the song was written very quickly with a creative synergy and collaboration central to the project.
“We needed to have an idea very fast. Emmy said to me, ‘My dad told me this story about a little dog. Maybe we should write about it. Do you know anything about it, Larissa?’
“I said, ‘Yeah, I grew up in the Soviet Union. That’s the story of my childhood. Let’s do that,’” Tormey said.
The Eurovision Song Contest is being held in May in Basel, Switzerland
ANDRES POVEDA
The catchy dance track was the only song of the night to generate excitement at the watch party. Though other performances fell flat and failed to stir up any emotion in the room, fan club members bounced gleefully with arms in the air for the “party in the sky” or clapped along as the chorus of Laika Party pulsated from the speakers.
The Odeon later erupted as Emmy took to the microphone to treat the crowd to a celebratory rendition.
The result of a fan club poll provided an early good omen for Emmy. Out of 101 responses, she secured more than 42 per cent of the popular vote.
Tormey said Emmy came up with the song’s (“Bom, bom”) rave-like hook and then the rest of the songwriting team, which also includes Henrik Ostlund and Truls Marius Aarra, contributed different elements to the final product.
“I wrote the verses, another two guys wrote the bridges, and in two hours the song was done,” Tormey said.
Bambie Thug, Ireland’s 2024 entrant, finished sixth last year. A cheer was raised as Bambie’s subversive and avant-garde Doomsday Blue blared from the soundsystem moments before Eurosong began.
The fondness and nostalgia that fan club members still feel for last year’s song and performance is testament to the impact Bambie had, and how difficult the non-binary artist will be to follow.
However, Tormey is confident that Emmy can improve on this ranking and surpass expectations.
“She is right for this song. She has this little begging voice, like a little girl asking for something,” she said.
“At the same time, the music is a very unusual mix of EDM [electronic dance music] with this little-girl voice. She can win. I knew it would be the hardest to break through Ireland. I was afraid because I thought maybe the Irish will pick the Irish singer, which is normal.
“But Emmy is such a nice personality. She is natural, she is not artificial,” Tormey said.
Paul McKeon, an RTE jury member who was involved in the selection process for Eurosong, gave his notes on the winning work. He said Emmy stood out for her vocals and that the tone and mood of the song was in stark contrast to last year’s entry.
“It’s a bop. Eurovision needs a bop. It’s a Euro bop and we love it. The semi-final is a public vote, so I think she can get to the final,” he said.
Dog that flew into the orbit of Eurovision
Every dog has its day but one stray mongrel snatched from the streets of Moscow in the 1950s and propelled into space has had to wait 68 years to be commemorated in a song that will be heard by millions.
Laika Party, Ireland’s song entry for this year’s Eurovision contest and performed by Norwegian singer Emmy, reimagines the fate of Soviet space dog Laika — who died on her fourth orbit of the planet in November 1957 — and envisages her now enjoying parties in the sky.
But Laika’s true story is almost as surreal. Believed to be part-husky and part-terrier, Laika was trained to become an instrument of space exploration for the Soviet Union.
Laika in the Sputnik 2 capsule
SOVFOTO/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES
She was conditioned to accept living in progressively smaller spaces in preparation for her journey aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft.
Lyrics to Emmy’s track include the singer’s hope that Laika’s spirit “never died” and that she lives on in some form out there in the ether, but Soviet scientists never expected that Laika would survive her doomed mission. The circumstances of the dog’s death were misrepresented for decades.
There is a small statue of Laika on a rocket near the medical research facility in Moscow where her flight into space was devised.
