Bambie Thug feeling much better ahead of Eurovision bow after being hospitalised with food poisoning

Eurovision hopeful Bambie Thug rehearsed for the final time in Sweden on Monday ahead of the first semi-final of the song contest.

Bambie performs their song Doomsday Blue fourth in the first semi-final on Tuesday night in Malmo.

The Macroom singer will be hoping to qualify for Ireland for the final for the first time since 2018.

READ MORE: Bambi Thug kicks off Eurovision festivities at wild opening bash alongside other hopefuls

Bambie was fighting fit at their dress rehearsal on Monday afternoon after being hospitalised on Friday with food poisoning after eating “bad shellfish”.

But they made an appearance on Sunday at the Turquoise Carpet, the launch night for Eurovision, telling reporters that they were feeling better.

“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.”

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 said 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, Bambie 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” on Tuesday 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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