Voters do not feel the Byrne, as ‘Sunlight’ fades from memory

Nicky Byrne will not be appearing in Saturday's final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, after voters failed to show any enthusiasm for his energetic rendition of Sunlight, a tune so unmemorable we could enter it again next year and nobody would notice.

Byrne had expressed the hope that he would be Eurovision 2016’s Leicester City, but he turned out to be Aston Villa after all.

It’s back to the saltmines of 2FM for him, but 25 other countries can still continue to dream the preposterous dream.

To be fair, it was Ireland’s misfortune in this second semi-final to find ourselves competing against a more colourful and (whisper it) more enjoyable musical smorgasbord than what we had to offer.

From Georgian rockers to Norwegian ice queens, there was plenty of variety and even a few decent tunes. Most shocking of all, during their introduction the Swedish hosts delivered a song and dance number spoofing the whole thing with actual gags that actually worked. The Dances With Robots interval act was a lot less entertaining, though.

Much had been made in advance of whether lank-haired, face-painted Ivan from Belarus would actually perform nude with real wild wolves. To the disappointment of all, his nakedness was barely implied while the very domesticated-looking lupine friends phoned in their performances via Skype.

Ivan still gave good howl, to be fair, but it’s hard to avoid the feeling he hadn’t just let himself down, he’d let Belarus down and he’d let Europe down.

Europe voted accordingly and Ivan will be on the next plane back to Minsk.

1944, Ukraine's politically-charged lament for the Tatar people of the Crimea, was about as evocative and controversial as you can reasonably expect a Eurovision entry to be.

Elsewhere, a Slovenian Taylor Swift was edged out by a Lithuanian Zayn Malik. Serbia continued its admirable tradition of sending women who look as if they’d disembowel you with their bare hands if you said the wrong thing.

Habitual underdogs Bulgaria and Belgium delivered surprisingly strong numbers that might yet be real contenders in the final, while unlikely Europeans Australia have a shot too with possibly the best singer in the competition.

In the end, 10 countries go through to do it all again in Saturday’s four-hour slugfest.

Latvia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Australia, Ukraine, Serbia, Poland, Israel, Lithuania and Belgium were all deemed better than Ireland.

Acts from Azerbaijan, Russia, the Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, the Czech Republic and Malta also compete in the final after triumphing in Tuesday’s first semi-final.

France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are automatic finalists, along with host nation Sweden.

Might we see Ukraine and Russia slugging it out on Saturday in a musical proxy war?

Stranger things could happen.

Meanwhile, it's back yet again to the drawing board for RTÉ and for Ireland's increasingly bedraggled attempts to revive the glory days of the past.