Ireland: RTE opens submission window for Eurovision 2019 national selection
The Irish national broadcaster, RTE, has opened the submission window for the Eurovision 2019 national selection.
Mid September RTE confirmed Ireland’s participation at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Israel. Today the Irish broadcaster has invited artists and composers wishing to represent Ireland at the forthcoming 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv to submit their entries and applications to the broadcaster. This year the Irish broadcaster seeks for accomplished songwriters and singers with a proven track of success in the music industry .
The broadcaster is collaborating with professionals and established people in the music industry in order to find the best song to represent Ireland at next edition of Eurovision in Israel. The submission window for artists and composers to send in their respective songs is open as of today and closes on Friday 23 November 2018.
Mr. Michael Kealy (RTE’s Executive Producer and Head of Irish Delegation at ESC) says:
We were really proud of the Irish performance in Lisbon this year, months of work went into planning our Eurovision act, bringing together the various audio and visual elements, from song arrangement to choreography to lighting design. The performance of Together by Ryan O’Shaughnessy and dancers Kevin O’Dywer and Alan McGrath with backing vocals from Janet Grogan, Remy Naidoo and Claire Ann Varley received worldwide acclaim when performed on stage and created headlines around the world. Together placed 16th in the final which is the best result since Jedward came in eighth place in Dussledorf with Lipstick in 2011.
For Eurovision 2019 we want to produce a world class act that will do Ireland proud on stage in Tel Aviv and in front of a worldwide audience of nearly 200 million people. The Eurovision Song Contest is incredibly competitive so we need a top class song, with instant appeal and a highly experienced act who is used to performing live in front of large audiences.
The Irish Eurovision Story so far
Ireland is a country of records when it comes to the Eurovison Song Contest. It participated for the first time in 1965 and has won the competition 7 times, more than any other country. (1970, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996).
It is the only country that has won the contest three successive years (1992, 1993, 1994) while Dublin is the only city to have hosted the event two consecutive years. (1994,1995). During the decade of 90’s the country had a row of 4 vicotries in a 5 year time (1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997) and Dublin became host city three times.
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.
