IRELAND’S EUROVISION HOPEFUL Bambie Thug has said they have recovered from “food poisoning” ahead of their performance tomorrow evening in Sweden.
The Macroom singer was admitted to hospital on Friday, with “bad shellfish” cited as the cause of the illness.
But they made an appearance last night at the Turquoise Carpet, the launch night for Eurovision, telling reporters that they were feeling improved.
“I’m better today. My muscles are in pain but I am over the food poisoning,” Bambie Thug said.
“It was horrible. I was ‘both ends’, [it was] gross, horrible ordeal.”
Bambie Thug is due to perform their song “Doomsday Blue” in the Eurovision semi-finals tomorrow evening.
The second semi-final is set for Thursday, followed by the final on Saturday night.
The contest has come in for increased focus due to Israel’s war on Gaza, with a protest held outside RTÉ Studios last week calling for Ireland to boycott this year’s Eurovision due to Israel’s participation in the competition.
The Irish Boycott Eurovision 2024 Coalition Ireland should not take part and called for Israel, “a genocidal apartheid state”, to be removed from the competition.
Responding to the calls for a boycott last night, Bambi Thug admitted that there is a “massive cloud” over this year’s Eurovision, but insisted they would be focused on “giving the performance of a lifetime” tomorrow evening.
They added that they feel that the competition’s entrants are “easy targets as artists”, and said that critics “should be contacting” the European Broadcasting Union and RTÉ instead.
“I don’t think it’s entirely fair to bully us so much, especially when I am doing everything in my power which I can do outside of this,” Bambie Thug said.
Asked if they were feeling under pressure from the protests, the singer said they are “standing for a lot of things”, including “as a queer person”, and that their contest entry was being done with “a lot of voices” in mind.
“You know, there is obviously pressure but at the same time, I am one person, I cannot make the change that I think they [pro-Palestine protesters] think I can.”
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