Ireland has missed out on a final place in the Eurovision Song Contest.
The 23-year-old Brooke Scullion performed her song 'That's Rich' in the second semi-final on Thursday night.
The grand final is due to take place on Saturday.
The annual contest began on Tuesday with the first semi-final, featuring 17 countries, while the second semi-final took place on Thursday, with 18 countries.
Ten countries from each semi-final qualified for Saturday's final, and they will be joined by the automatically qualifying "big five" of Germany, Spain, Italy, France and the UK, who together foot the bill for the competition.
The competition is being held at Turin's 12,300-capacity Pala Olimpico, the largest indoor venue in Italy.
Ms Scullion has a long history with performing, having appeared as an extra in Derry Girls and Game of Thrones.
In 2020 she finished third in BBC reality contest, The Voice, where she was mentored by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor.
Scullion was dressed in a co-ordinated blue outfit as she opened her performance lying on a pink heart on the stage before jumping up to perform an energetic routine accompanied by a group of backing dancers.
Famous faces
Before her performance Scullion received well-wishes from a number of famous faces including Trainor, Ronan Keating and Mika. US singer-songwriter Trainor said: “Superstar Brooke, I love you, I miss you, good luck at Eurovision, you’re going to slay. “That’s Rich is a smash, have so much fun and remember how talented and amazing you are.”
Eurovision host Mika sent a video of him in a car dancing to her song.
The second semi-final opened with Finland’s representative, The Rasmus, who gave a dramatic performance of Jezebel while dressed in black and yellow.
Israel followed with Michael Ben David, the most recent winner of the country’s X Factor, who performed his song I.M.
Serbian entrant Konstrakta performed a peculiar song about Meghan Markle, then Georgia entertained the audience with a colourful performance by Circus Mircus, whose members sported a variety of extravagant facial hair and accessories.
Eye-catching
One of the more eye-catching performances came from San Marino’s Achille Lauro, who donned a dramatic outfit complete with a black feather boa and diamante encrusted cowboy hat, before ending his performance on a bucking bronco.
Ukrainian act Kalush Orchestra, who performed during Tuesday’s first semi-final, are the favourites to win the final.
Ireland has been plagued by Eurovision heartache across the past decade. Since the introduction of the semis in 2004 Ireland has failed to reach the final on nine occasions.
The last time the country finished in the top 10 was 2011, when Jedward came eighth. -PA
