Ireland’s Eurovision Performance Has Caused Controversy On The Other Side Of The World

Ireland was practically bursting with pride and, let’s be honest, a fair bit of bemusement on Tuesday night when we finally qualified for the Eurovision final for the first time since 2013. 

Ryan O’Shaughnessy impressed the continental public with his rendition of Together, during which he was accompanied by two male dancers portraying a gay couple. It all went great from an Irish perspective and Ryan will be taking to the Lisbon stage once again for the final on Saturday. However, the performance didn’t go down too well in some quarters – namely China. 

According to the Irish Independent, broadcaster Mango TV edited out Ryan’s entire act due to the fact it depicted homosexual romance, something Ryan wanted included as it showed that ‘love is universal’. We weren’t the only ones to feel the wrath of the station either as the Albanian act was also censored due to a ban on showing tattoos on TV. 

Despite fears that Russian TV would also not show Ireland’s performance, they did so albeit with the commentator referring to it as “true male friendship”. 

The 2018 Eurovision final will be live on RTÉ One this Saturday and if you missed Ryan’s semi-final performance you can watch it in full below. 

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