Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006
Performing during the show in position 8, "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" was announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 20 May.Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993, and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter).[2] On 14 November 2005, RTÉ opened a submission period where composers were able to submit their songs for the competition until the deadline on 17 December 2005, which was later extended to 27 January 2006.John Waters, who submitted three songs to RTÉ which were all rejected, alleged that extension of the deadline was made to accommodate Kennedy's submission.[18][19] Criticism was also made by IMRO publisher Johnny Lappin, who claimed that RTÉ did not have sufficient time to make fair judgements on all the submitted songs, failed to clarify in advance the role of the selection panel and overrode their own rules by approaching music publishers to submit songs.[5] In a press conference following the national final, RTÉ Commissioning Entertainment Editor Kevin Linehan stated that the deadline extension was made due to "a lack of good entries", while RTÉ Senior Press and Publicity Officer Sharon Brady responded to Lappin that "every single song was listened to" since before late December, and that the televoting was monitored and approved by an independent observer."[18][20] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the ten highest placed finishers in the 2005 contest are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final.[22] RTÉ appointed Eimear Quinn (who won Eurovision for Ireland in 1996) as its spokesperson to announce the Irish votes during the final.
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