Ireland at Eurovision
Ireland debuted back in 1965, with Butch Moore finishing in 6th place in Naples.
To date, Ireland is the most successful country at Eurovision, having won the title seven times over the years. Dana was the first Irish winner, back in 1970, and ten years later Johnny Logan won the first of his two titles (with the second coming in 1987). The 1990s were particularly dominant for Ireland, with the Emerald Isle winning in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996.
The 21st century has not been so successful for Ireland. They’ve only qualified for the Grand Final once in the last five contests, with their last top 10 finish back in 2011 with Jedward.
2021 Entry: Lesley Roy – “Maps”
Semi-final: Lesley will perform in semi final 1, performing 7th in the running order
My Eurovision Scoreboard fan ranking: 21st out of 39 entries
Odds to win ranking: 28th out of 39 entries
Odds to qualify ranking: 13th out of 16 entries
(rankings as of 7th April 2021)
About the artist
Lesley Roy was once again internally selected to represent Ireland this year, after she was originally supposed to represent Ireland at last year’s contest. The Irish broadcaster RTE internally selected her last year with the song ‘Story of My Life’.
Lesley is from Balbriggan in County Dublin, but these days often spends time in New York with wife Lauren.
She began her career as a singer, initially signed to an independent Irish label Religion Music and in 2006, licensed to US label Jive Records.
She has released two albums where she is the primary artist, one where she has provided vocals and has been a composer on six others. She released her most well known album 'Unbeautiful' in 2008. She also released the single 'Gold' in mid 2018.
In recent years she has turned her focus more to song writing, and has written for artists such as Adam Lambert, Miss Montreal, Medina, Jana Kramer, and Marlee Scott.
About the song
‘Maps’ originally premiered on RTE2FM's breakfast show, with the music video premiering on Eurovision's YouTube channel shortly after. The music video was filmed in Wicklow Mountains National Park.
The song was written by Lesley herself, as well as Lukas Hällgren, Philip Strand, Normandy, Deepend and Emelie Eriksson. Lukas Hällgren is a name that may be familiar to some Eurovision fans, as he produced the Swiss entry in 2019 ‘She Got Me’.
Check out our interview with Lesley Roy we talked to her about creating and writing 'Maps, the staging for the song, Lesley's musical influences, performing with Irish Eurovision winners, removing the stigma of the Contest in Ireland, visiting and connections to Australia, her favourite Aussie Eurovision song and support for Montaigne. Check it out here:
Aussievision podcast Ireland episode
Check out the Aussievision podcast review and rank episode including comments from the team. Listen via:
Apple
Spotify
Podcast addict https://podcastaddict.com/episode/121162788 or on Google