We’re waking up this Friday to the release of Maps, the Irish entry to this year’s Eurovision. After last year’s cancellation, Lesley Roy has grabbed a second chance to perform on the Eurovision stage and will try to climb high on the scoreboard!
The uptempo sound was first played a few minutes ago, on RTÉ 2FM Breakfast with Doireann & Eoghan this morning, a little before the official release of the music video on YouTube. The video was filmed and directed by Ais Brady in the iconic region of the Wicklow mountains:
Tonight sees the Irish entrant perform on one of the country’s longest running and most popular TV-Shows, The Late Late Show, where Lesley Roy will be interviewed by Ryan Tubridy. On the show, Lesley will also be honoured to perform alongside artists inextricably linked to Eurovision, such as Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh, Charlie McGettigan and Paul Harrington. The show will be available from RTÉ Player tomorrow at 22:35 CET.
Lesley is excited to embark on this beautiful journey and states:
I’m thrilled to see through this project and represent Ireland at Eurovision 2021 with Maps. I’m so happy with the song and so passionate about it and Eurovision. I’m working each day towards representing Ireland in whatever version of Eurovision goes ahead in May. It’s a true honour and I want to have the best time I possibly can on the stage for Ireland. This has been a year in the making and I’m thrilled to finally get it out there for everyone to hear. Maps was specifically written for Eurovision. It’s heart-felt, it’s uplifting, and I hope people love it.
The Eurovision team of the Irish broadcaster RTÉ strongly believes in Lesley and her song’s potential and is ready to back her in the best possible way. Michael Kealy, the Irish Head of Delegation has said:
I’m really excited about the release of Lesley’s song, Maps, today. It was unfortunate that she didn’t get the opportunity to compete in Eurovision last year, but I’m delighted that we are back with a song we feel is even better. Lesley is absolutely focused on getting to perform on stage in Rotterdam, and I believe that this song is going to do really well with Eurovision fans worldwide.
Maps is accredited to Lesley herself, as well as Lukas Hallgren (She got me, 4th place Eurovision 2019), Philip Strand and Emelie Eriksson.
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Ireland is considered as the queen of Eurovision, as they have achieved a total of 7 victories, more than any other country (1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997). The island country of Western Europe saw its biggest Eurovision glories during the 80s and 90s, but hasn’t had similar fortunes since. Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Ireland has been present in 8 Grand Finals, while their best placing was Jedward‘s 8th place, back in 2011 with Lipstick.
Lesley Roy was internally selected to represent the nation last year too with the pop entry Story of my life. She eventually didn’t reach the Eurovision stage due to the contest’s unprecedented cancellation.
Ireland is set to compete in the first half of the first semi-final on 18 May. The 65th Eurovision Song Contest will take place on 18, 20 and 22 May 2021 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Hosts for the three shows will be Edsilia Rombley, Jan Smit, Chantal Janzen and the world famous YouTuber Nikkie de Jager (Nikkie Tutorials).
