EUROVISION SONG CONTEST - IRISH PUPPET FAILS TO MAKE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST FINAL

IRISH PUPPET FAILS TO MAKE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST FINAL

There will be no Irish entry in this year's Eurovision Song Contest final after the country's entrant, a turkey puppet named Dustin, was eliminated in the first semi-final.

The glove puppet - a popular fixture of Irish television - will not appear in Saturday's final in Serbia after failing to make the grade in last night's semi.

Greece, Romania, Armenia, and Finland were among the ten successful countries sent through to the Eurovision final while a further ten will be selected in the second semi-final on Thursday.

The UK's entrant - former X Factor runner up Andy Abraham - is also guaranteed a place in the final as are the contestants from France, Germany and Spain, due to their significant financial contributions to the continental music competition.

However, Dustin the Turkey, who has released six albums in his homeland, will not take to the Serbian stage after his song Irelande Douze Pointe failed to impress voters.

Keith Mills, editor of Irish Eurovision website All Kinds of Everything, said he had "thought from the day [Dustin] was chosen that we were in for a disappointment".

"I never saw it as a Eurovision winner, even when it was hot favourite and since I arrived in Belgrade, I've said that I thought it would lose out," he wrote on his blog.

"It was a three minute 'joke' that wasn't especially funny, didn't work for an international audience and looked very messy on screen."