RTE, the Irish national broadcaster, has confirmed that Lesley Roy will represent Ireland at the forthcoming 2021 Eurovision Song Contest.

RTE has invited Lesley Roy to fly the Irish flag at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam next year. Lesley Roy was set to represent Ireland at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest with her entry ‘ Story of my life‘, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 Irish Eurovision entry has been written and composed by by Lesley Roy herself along with Lukas Hallgren  (Switzerland 2019 producer), Philip Strand, Deepend and Emelie Eriksson.

Thus Ireland is the 22nd country to invite its Eurovision 2020 act back to the competition next year.

Lesley Roy says:

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.

Michael Kealy (Head of Delegation for Ireland) 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.

Ireland in Eurovision

Ireland debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965 and has won the competition a record 7 times  (1970, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996).

The Emerald Isle holds many a record when it comes to our beloved contest: Ireland is the only country to have won the event 3 times in a row (1992, 1993, 1994), whilst Dublin retains the record of being the only city to have hosted the event twice in a row (1994, 1995).

In fact the 90’s were Ireland’s golden years in Eurovision, the country welcomed the Eurovision bandwagon 4 times in a span of 5 years (1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997) with Dublin hosting the event thrice.

Ireland’s Johnny Logan is also the only artist to have won the competition twice (1980, 1987). The Irish have competed 53 times in the competition.

Lesley Roy was set to represent Ireland at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest with her entry ‘Story of my life‘.

Source: RTE/Eurovision.tv