It's officially the war of the emojis, and we can't see either Donal Skehan or Samantha Mumba waving a white flag any time soon.
The TV chef and the singer have been at loggerheads since the Late Late Show's Eurosong special when Samantha took aim at Donal and the rest of the Eurosong panel for not having the qualifications to judge the acts and being rude, vile and dismissive.
In a moment that made all of us clasp our hands over our mouths, Samantha tweeted: 'My parting gift them is a bag of 🍆 to slowly choke on,' and Donal is having the best time playing into it.
Pic: Andres Poveda
On Monday, Donal cheekily shared four recipes on his Instagram Stories, the real kicker- they're all aubergine based!
He wrote: 'Now back to our regular content! Discover the delicious versatility of aubergines!! 🍆🍆.'
Donal has also changed his Instagram bio from 'Donal Skehan' to read 'Donal 🍆'. No stone left unturned!
Over on Samantha's page, she drove her point home, insisting that her social media tirade was never about her 'not winning' Eurosong. She wrote: 'Who would have thought a few aubergines would have caused such a scene?'
Pic: Andres Poveda
'I'll spare you all a pages-long statement, but I really do want to make it clear- This was never ever about me not winning,' she wrote.
'That's the nature of the business and this show's format- I know that better than most.'
'I feel strongly that the panel were dismissive of all the contestants, which was disappointing given the amount of work and passion we all put into our performances. My stance on this won't change.'
'As I mentioned in my initial post, I wish EMMY the absolute best and will be cheering her on to bring Eurovision back to Ireland again!!,' she concluded, showing her support for our Eurovision 2025 entrant.
Samantha clearly has the support of her followers, as she re-shared a screenshot of an aubergine-printed tote bag from Fallon & Byrne which one of her fans joked they had the 'sudden urge' to purchase.
Waterford Whispers News also rowed in with a gas headline that read: 'Samantha Mumba spends day judging Donal Skehan's cooking through his kitchen window'.
And it seems just about everyone in the country is having fun with Aubergine-gate as Carl Mullan shared a hilarious video of himself munching on an aubergine as he reacted to the Eurosong drama.
Where will it end..!
We don't know where things will go from here, but one thing's for certain and that's that Samantha Mumba telling the Eurosong to 'slowly choke' on a 'bag of 🍆' was NOT on our 2025 bingo cards!
