Ceol an Ghrá
 "Ceol an Ghrá" | |
|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 1972 entry | |
| Country | |
| Artist(s) |
Sandie Jones |
| Language | |
| Composer(s) |
Joe Burkett |
| Lyricist(s) |
Liam Mac Uistín |
| Conductor |
Colman Pearce |
| Finals performance | |
| Final result |
15th |
| Final points |
72 |
| Appearance chronology | |
| ◄ "One Day Love" (1971) | |
| "Do I Dream" (1973) ► | |
"Ceol an Ghrá" ("The Music of Love") was Ireland's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972, performed in Irish by Sandie Jones.
Lyrically, the song is a ballad, with Jones singing about hearing "the music of love" wherever she is. She sings about being in Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Young, a mystical place in Irish Mythology allowing whoever goes there to be forever young - it may also be metonymic for Ireland herself. During Preview Week, clips from Ireland's National Song Festival were interspersed with new footage[1] of Jones singing on a cliff, walking on a footbridge, standing near the Two Working Men, and perhaps most famously, strutting in the latest fashions, complete with platform shoes, past awestruck Catholic schoolgirls. The video was also notable for short scenes which featured Jones in hot pants, which caused a stir in Ireland at the time.
At the Contest, it was performed third on the night, following France's Betty Mars with "Comé-comédie" and preceding Spain's Jaime Morey with "Amanece".
This was the only occasion on which Ireland performed in its own language. The performance was also the first of only two occasions so far on which a Celtic language has been heard at the Contest, with France entering the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 with the Breton language song "Diwanit Bugale".
The next Irish language song in any Eurovision event would be Réalta na mara by Aimee Banks in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015.
References
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