Nikki in Eurovision bid
Nikki Kavanagh and Ed O'Leary who will be singing in Oslo.
A SWORDS girl will be swapping backswings for backing vocals as she bids to help bring the Eurovision Song Contest title back to Ireland.
Nikki Kavanagh was part of Niamh Kavanagh's backing crew that won the Eurosong competition on the 'Late Late Show' on Friday night and with it the right to represent the country in Oslo in May.
The winning song, 'It's For You', was the clear winner and featured Nikki - who presents Sky Sports' 'The Irish Golfer' - and her partner, Ed O'Leary, on supporting vocals
'I'm not her cousin,' Nikki joked when speaking of her namesake, who won the 1993 contest with 'In Your Eyes'. 'I met Niamh last year when I was doing the Eurovision Extravaganza and I got called back as a backing singer and we got on great. ' When the Eurosong came up, we put our entries in and made a deal that if either of us got through, we'd sing backing vocals for each other. My song came seventh and was picked as one of the two songs in reserve and Niamh's got into the top five.'
Rehearsals were done on the hoof as Nikki learned the track from an email and Niamh came to her house to practice. But going into Friday night's show, the crew were hopeful of success.
'To be honest, we were quietly confident,' Nikki added. 'It was always going to be between Mikey [Graham] and Niamh. We're chuffed.
'I haven't heard any of the other songs, bar the Norway one, which everyone is saying is similar, but I don't really see the similarity. My homework now is to listen to all the other entries.'
The semi-final takes place on Thursday, May 27th, with the grand final happening two days later.
- Robin KIELY
