Ireland: It’s Lesley Roy for Eurovision 2021
Lesley Roy has been confirmed by the Irish broadcater, RTE, as the nation’s representative at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest next May in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Lesley Roy marks the 22nd Eurovision 2020 act that will be coming back to Eurovision 2021 after this year’s unfortunate cancellation due to the covid-19 pandemic. RTE announced today that they will be sticking with their ESC 2020 hopeful in Rotterdam next year.
The Irish Head of Delegation , Michael Kealy says:
We were all very excited about bringing Lesley and Story of My Life to Rotterdam this year so it was a real shame that it wasn’t to be. However, Lesley’s new song is every bit as catchy as the last one and I can’t wait for her to perform it in Rotterdam next May to the biggest live music audience on the planet.
Lesley Roy was set to represent Irelans in Eurovision 2020 with her entry ‘ Story of my life’ which , however, never reached the Eurovision stage. The Irish act states on her comeback:
It was a real shame we didn’t get to showcase Story of My Life on the Eurovision stage, but had the show not been cancelled this new song would never have emerged. I’ve been working on new material 24/7 and this song was clearly the strongest out of all of the demos. I believe that it is even bigger than Story of My Life, and will reach an even wider audience. I am just so excited to finally get my shot on the Eurovision stage after months and months of work and can’t wait to reveal more information about our song in the New Year.
The 2021 Irish Eurovision entry has been written and composed by Lesley Roy herself along with Lukas Hallgren (Switzerland 2019 producer), Philip Strand, Deepend and Emelie Eriksson.
A few words about Lesley Roy
Lesley Roy (born 1987) is a singer-songwriter from Balbriggan in Dublin, Ireland. She was signed to an independent Irish label and in 2006, licensed to US label, Jive Records. She released her debut album, Unbeautiful in 2008, which was executive produced by Max Martin. Until switching her focus to songwriting, and attracting the attention of Marc Jordan, the manager credited for launching the career of Rihanna and owner of Rebel One Management & Publishing. As a songwriter Roy has experienced international success with releases for artists including Adam Lambert, Miss Montreal, Medina, Jana Kramer, and Marlee Scott.
The Irish Eurovision Story so far
Talking about Ireland in Eurovisin means talking about several records the coutnry hold up to date. The nation debuted in the contest in 1965 and has won the competition 7 times, making it the most victorious country in the competition. (1970, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996).It is the only country that has won the contest three consecutive years (1992, 1993, 1994) while Dublin is the only city to have hosted the contest two successive years. (1994,1995).
The 90’s was the golden decade for the country achieving a row of 4 victories in a 5 years period (1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997) and Dublin became host city three times. In addition , Irish act Johnny Logan is the only one to have won the contest twice (1980, 1987).
In 2018 the country selected internally Ryan O’Shaughnessy to represent the country with his song Together, which finished 16th in the grand final. In 2019 internally selected Sarah McTernan represented the country with her entry “22” which failed to qualify to the grand final.
This year Lesley Roy was set to represent the Irish nationa with her entry ‘Story of my life’:
News Source: RTE/Eurovision.tv
Image: RTE
