Dustin , this year's Irish entrant for ESC says in his song Irelande Douze Points "We're sorry for Riverdance....". Has he got it wrong?
The interval act at Eurovision is usually a time-filler when people make a cup of tea/coffee and get ready to watch the votes coming in. In 1994, RTE asked husband-and-wife TV producers Moya Doherty and John McColgan to come up with a suitable interval of about 7 minutes long. They contacted Bill Whelan who arranged the music and then asked Irish-American world dancing champions, Jean Butler and Michael Flatley, to do some jigs and reels!. All that was left was to include some haunting sounds of Irish vocal group Anuna, and the result was to change the face of Irish dancing ...forever.
Traditional Irish dance and music, used to be the stuff of corner pubs and village crossroads. Not after 1994 though. Riverdance, as its 21 million of ticket holders and 2 billion TV viewers can attest, is not just lyrical tin whistles and fiddle-playing. That thunder you hear when dozens of dancers line up Rockettes style and hammer their heels across the stage wowed the audience at The Point in Dublin, and has continued to wow audiences 14 years later...and has grossed over $1 billion!
Sorry Dustin, you've nothing to apologise for....
No comments:
Post a Comment