Sean Dunphy brought a deep and very pleasant voice that added quite a bit of personality to his ballad. So did the very nice orchestral arrangement with it's cute little piano bits.
It's all very nice and pleasant but a critical ear will still hear that beneath all the nice detail and the flawless vocal delivery, there isn't much excitement going on at all. A pretty standard ballad that in no way troubles or disturbs or leave any visible traces anywhere.
Ireland would make this something of their own thing at Eurovision: celebrating the simple and understated and scoring pretty well with songs that were clean-cut and pleasant but not particularly interesting.
A deserved 2nd place?
Let's see. The juries could have love bombed "L'amour est bleu". Or "Il doit faire beau là-bas". Or "Hablemos del amor". Or "Boum badaboum". Or "Anouschka". Instead they went for this one. A victory for the safe (and dull) ballad. Not what I would have wished for.
Sean Dunphy - If I Could Choose (Ireland 1967)
Ireland must be the country with the most male sung ballads in Eurovision, therefore I sometimes have hard time remembering which one of those was sung which year. This song is ok (after reminding me which one it was), but nothing remarkable particularly in a contest with so many special entries taking part, f.eg all those you mentioned.
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