Ceol an Ghrá
"Ceol an Ghrá" ("The Music of Love") was Ireland's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972, performed in Irish by Sandie Jones.
 | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Entry chronology | |
| ◄ "One Day Love" (1971) | |
| "Do I Dream" (1973) ► | |
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.
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". It finished in fifteenth place.[1]
This was the only occasion on which Ireland entered a song in the Irish language in the Senior Eurovision stage,[2] and the first of only two occasions so far on which a Celtic language has been heard at the Contest, the other being the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996, the Breton 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
- "Sandie Jones, Irish Eurovision singer, dies aged 68". Irish Times. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
- Éire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies. Irish American Cultural Institute. 1966. p. 152.
- "Irish Singles Charts 1970-1972 - Page 3". Ukmix.org.