RTE, the Irish national broadcaster, has confirmed to ESCToday that Ireland will participate at the forthcoming 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom.

Thus Ireland joins the list of countries who have so far confirmed their participation at the forthcoming 2024 Eurovision Song Contest.

Ireland and the Irish national broadcaster are amongst the first set of countries to confirm their participation at the forthcoming 2024 Eurovision Song Contest following Austria, Moldova, Dennark, Cyprus, France, Spain, Norway, Iceland, Israel, Luxembourg, Netherlands,  Finland etc

RTE has opened the song submission window for Eurovision 2024 and published the rules and regulations for next year’s ESC edition. The deadline for song submission has been set for the 29th of September 2023.

Ireland will be once again selecting its Eurovision act and entry via a televised national final.

The RTE press release reads:

RTÉ is pleased to announce that Ireland will once again be taking part in the annual Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in Sweden in May 2024.

The Eurovision Song Contest is the world’s biggest live music show and one of the most popular annual television events on the planet reaching hundreds of millions of viewers in Europe and worldwide on social media platforms and is particularly popular with youth audiences and younger adult viewers.

RTÉ wants to hear from contemporary performers and songwriters with the talent and ambition to compete and succeed in this highly competitive environment. This is a rare and valuable opportunity for performers and songwriters to gain exposure on a global scale – the rewards for success can be significant and as a result the competition attracts top professional talent from all over the world.

The Eurovision Song Contest is a global phenomenon, it is the world’s biggest live music show and one of the most popular annual television events on the planet reaching hundreds of millions of viewers in Europe and worldwide on social media platforms.

The show is particularly popular with youth audiences and younger adult viewers throughout Europe. RTÉ wants to hear from contemporary artists and songwriters with the talent and ambition to compete and succeed in this highly competitive environment. This is a rare and valuable opportunity for artists and songwriters to gain exposure on a global scale – the rewards for achieving a top ten result in the final can be significant and as a result the competition attracts top professional talent from all over the world

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 56 times in the competition.

In 2023 Ireland was represented by Wild Youth and their entry ‘We Are One’ at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.

Source: RTE
Photo credit: EBU/Corinne Cumming