An Irish Turkey For This Year's Eurovision Song Contest

Dustin The Turkey was plucked from a raft of six finalists, winning a televised vote on Saturday night.

The cult figure's gobbled rendition of Irelande Douze Pointe - a parody of the Eurovision voting system - secured his place at the top of the pecking order. Dustin now aims to restore Irish pride battered by recent Eurovision failures.

But while Dustin beat off national opposition in broadcaster RTE's Eurosong on Saturday, he now faces a pressure cooker environment at May's Eurovision, where he will have to fight off competition from all over Europe.

Dustin Time

Although it faced strong opposition from the likes of Dubliner Leona Daly's Not Crazy After All and 17-year-old Liam Geddes's Sometimes, Irelande Douze Points won over the viewers, who voted by phone and text in the competition.

Composed by Darren Smith and Simon Fine, the tune draws strongly on the campness of the Eurovision contest, which has become notorious in recent years for its tactical geopolitical voting.

"Shake your feathers and pop your beak, shake it to the west and to the east," crooned Dustin in Limerick's University Concert Hall.

"Wave Euro-hands and Euro-feet, wave them in the air to the turkey beat."

Dustin will now go on to perform in Eurovision's first semi-final in the Serbian capital Belgrade on 20 May and, if successful, will be aiming for the golden egg of glory in the final four days later.

Logistics

Each country participates in the contest via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to represent their country in the international competition.

The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world.

Ireland holds the record for the most number of wins, having won the contest seven times.