The 2012 Irish Eurovision entry will be chosen on a special Eurosong edition of "The Late Late Show" on February 24th. Once again a public televote and a series of regional juries will select the winner. In November RTÉ announced that they would use the same mentoring process as 2011 with five names from the music and entertainment industry championing potential Eurovision entrants.

Unusually, this year the Irish entries will be heard for the first time, over two weeks before the Eurosong selection and the five songs competing to be the Irish entry in Baku, were heard for the first time on Derek Mooney's radio show on Thursday February 9th. The songs will get radio airplay in the two weeks in the build-up to the Eurosong selection.

Below you can find the confirmed information on the five potential entries, the starting order and the bookers' odds on each song.

As soon as Edele Barrett (neé Lynch), former member of 1990s pop group B*Witched was announced as one of the mentors for Eurosong 2012, the rumours started to circulate that she was actually going to perform in the Irish Eurovision selection, with her twin sister Keavy, under the name of Barbarellas. However it now turns out Edele has decided to abandon her pop music inclinations and has instead decided to mentor traditional Donegal born singer Maria McCool. Edele Barrett has written, the song "Mistaken".

Maria McCool (Maria Nic Cumhaill) was born in 1974 in Gweedore, an Irish Gaelic speaking area on Donegal’s Atlantic coast. Maria is a very well known name on the traditional Irish music scene, recording in both English and her native Gaelic. She released her debut album  “Oíche Chiúin” (Silent Night) in 1995 and two years later she released her second album “Ailleog” (Sparrow), featuring what many people consider to be the greatest version of “Song For Ireland”. Now married and living in Dunshaughlin, County Meath where she works as a school teacher, Maria released her third album “Doagh” in 2009. Maria has also performed in several folks and traditional music festivals and her haunting voice has won many admirers.   

The song has now been re-recorded, from the version which originally aired on radio and the credits changed to Celtic Aura & Maria McCool.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Maria is a former "Rose Of Tralee" finalist and in 1997 Maria stood in the Irish General Election in the Dublin North West constituency for the Dream Party, but she only gained 13 votes.

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Producer and former “Popstars” judge Bill Hughes is a familiar face on Irish television and has plenty of experience of Eurovision. Bill has chosen to mentor the return of Donna McCaul, who represented Ireland at the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest, with her brother Joe. Her song which was co-written by Swedish husband and wife song-writing team of Lina and Marten Eriksson who are joined by Swede Peter Mansson and mentor Bill Hughes. Lina and Marten co-wrote the 2010 Irish Eurovision entry “It’s For You” which was sung by Niamh Kavanagh, however their 2012 Eurosong entry is a more contemporary pop song in the style of Katy Perry or Avril Lavinge.

Athlone born Donna McCaul came to fame in 2005, when she won the third series of “You’re A Star” with her brother Joe. Their victory won them the right to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Kyiv. Their song “Love?” narrowly missed out on reaching the final. Following Eurovision Donna & Joe appeared on several television series and returned to the spotlight in 2008 in the reality series “Failte Towers”. While Joe moved o to studying journalism, Donna continued a career in music, having moved to Dublin.  Donna was one of the backing singers for J. Anvil at the Maltese pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011.  

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The surprise name among the five Eurosong mentors was Greg French, songwriter and member of the rising Irish synth-pop band The Brilliant Things. Greg has worked as both house and assistant engineers in many top international studios and has worked with artists such as The Corrs, Van Morrison and Brian Eno. Greg has also written his own Eurosong entry “Here I Am” and has drafted in another rising name in the Irish music scene, Andrew Mann, to perform it. It is apparently a strong pop-rock song.  

Andrew Mann has been performing professionally around Ireland and Europe for the last eight years. After writing literally hundreds of songs over the last ten years he has toured Ireland, Austria, France and Spain. Andrew has earned a name for himself on the Irish music scene as someone with a powerful and soulful voice. He started to record his debut album “Hidden In Plain Sight” independently during 2008 and finished it in late 2009. A single “Redemption” was released in 2010 gaining quite a bit of radio play. Andrew has built up a large fan base in Ireland and has made a legion of contacts and friends within the Irish and international music scene.  

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Despite the fact that our first four Eurovision entries were by male soloists, it’s now six years since Ireland was represented by a male singer, the longest such gap we've ever had.

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Agent, choreographer, entertainment manager and now Eurosong mentor Julian Benson co-wrote “Language Of Love” with composer Eanan Patterson and then set about finding suitable singers for what it believed to be a big romantic ballad, which wouldn’t be out of place in musical theatre.

Una Gibney hails from Finglas on Dublin’s Northside and currently lives in Temple Bar. Una has had a dual career career as a singer and model. She signed to Warner in the 1990s, but failed to score a major hit. She then joined he Irish Abba tribute band Abbaesque and at he turn of he century she teamed up with four friends to form the musical act “Boogie Nights”.  Una also spent a year on tour singing with Michael Flatley's show, “Celtic Tiger” and ended up singing at Madison Square Garden. Una is a tireless performer who also regularly works with 1994 Eurovision winner Paul Harrington.

Though he has lived and workeed in the U.K.  for several years, singer David Shannon comes from Ireland. At 21 he gained his first break, starring in a touring production of “Les Miserables”. He has since gone on to become a well-known name in London’s West End and in 2001 he was nominated for a prestigious Olivier Award for the role of John in “The Beautiful Game”. His debut album “Til I Hear You Sing” was released in 2010. This will be David’s second time trying to get to the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1998 he sang “More Than Enough For One Life” written by comedians Hale And Pace in the U.K. selection.  

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Composer Eanan Patterson is the son of the famous Irish tenor Frank Patterson and pianist Eily O’Grady.

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WHAT WE KNOW: Mentor Linda Martin is the most familiar name to Irish and international Eurovision fans, having competed I the contest, finishing second in 1984 with “Terminal Three” and winning eight years later with “Why Me?”. In recent years Linda has become an even more familiar face on Irish television through her work on the panels of “Popstars” and “You’re A Star”.

Like their mentor, John and Edward Grimes, better known as Jedward need no introduction to Eurovision fans. They originally came to fame in 2009 in the U.K. television series “X Factor” where they became hugely popular, despite not winning the show. A successful album and a string of sold out concerts followed in 2010, but their decision to enter Eurosong was questioned by many. After a narrow victory they reached the Top 10 in Eurovision and “Lipstick” became the second biggest selling single in Ireland in 2011 and also reached the charts in several European countries. The hardworking identical twins have worked hard in the last twelve months, growing their European fan base and are now ready for a second attempt at winning Eurovision.  

After a lot of conflicting information on this entry, including three different song titles, the title was confirmed as "Waterline" and is written by Swede Nick Jarl, who has previously written tracks for Westlife and A*Teens. The song was recorded in London with "You're A Star winner Leanne Moore again doing backing vocals as well as "X Factor" finalist Melanie McCabe and they will be joined Jedward on stage at Eurosong.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Jedward are a social media sensation, with over half a million followers on Twitter, making them by far the most popular Irish tweeters.