Ireland: RTE opens song submission window for Eurovision 2025

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 164 views

RTE, the Irish national broadcaster, has published the rules and regulations for the forthcoming 2025 Irish national final and opened the song submission window for Eurovision 2025.

RTE and Ireland are gearing up in full steam for Eurovision 2025 after Bambie Thug’s extraordinary results in the competition in 2024. The Irish national broadcaster is planning to hold a national final early 2025, most likely in February. The song submission window for Eurovision 2025 is now open with the deadline set on 18 November 2024.

Michael Kealy (RTE/ Irish Head of Delegation) says:

Our 2024 entry Bambie Thug bewitched audiences and came sixth at the Eurovision in May in Malmo – it was Ireland’s best result since 2000.

Bambie’s song Doomsday Blue has had over 24 million streams to date on Spotify. Their performance at the Grand Final has had 9.4 million views on Eurovision’s official You Tube channel.

Eurovision is an amazing opportunity for any Irish act to catapult themselves onto the world stage. Bambie Thug performed at Electric Picnic in August and is currently on a 30-date tour across Europe with sold out shows in Manchester, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Cologne, Helsinki, Dublin and Galway.

Representing your country and performing at Eurovision is an experience unlike any other and can open doors beyond your imagination. If you think you have what it takes to be our Irish representative in Basel next year we’d love to hear from you!

RTE’s official press release reads:

RTÉ is pleased to announce once again that Ireland will be taking part in the annual Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in Basel, Switzerland in 2025.

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 now wants to hear from artists, performers and songwriters with the talent and ambition to compete and succeed in this highly competitive environment. This is a very 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.

RTE’s press release sheds more light on the song submission:

If you are an accomplished songwriter with a proven track record of success in the music industry, we would like you to submit an original song (with a suitable performer or performers attached) to be considered to represent Ireland.

All recordings of songs must be submitted in MP3 192kbps format and be complete, professionally recorded and in their final form – no demos, unfinished work or substandard recordings will be accepted. Please include a photograph of the performer(s) and a short biography with any relevant links.

Submissions should have a performer(s) already attached, performer(s) must have the vocal ability, stagecraft, ambition and confidence to compete at the highest level before a global audience of nearly 200 million people. Performer(s) must have intrinsic and obvious appeal to the core youth audiences who make up a significant amount of Eurovision viewers and fans.

Entries will be considered carefully by a panel of music and entertainment industry professionals and/or Eurovision fans selected by RTÉ. Performer(s) may be invited to audition in the RTÉ studios in Dublin.

A shortlist of songs and artists may subsequently be invited to perform on television early in 2025 when a winner will be selected to represent Ireland in accordance with a selection process to be confirmed by RTÉ. RTÉ reserves the right to replace suggested performers with performers/artists nominated by RTÉ, and to match them with songs received.

It is important to note that RTÉ also reserves the right to select one or more songwriter(s) and/or performer(s) to submit entries (directly and without further reference to this process) and to include any such entries in RTÉ’s 2025 television final.

Songs submitted must strictly comply with the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. RTÉ reserves the right to arrange, produce or otherwise alter any song/performance selected for the purposes of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. See https://eurovision.tv/about/rules for details.

RTE sheds more light on the rules of the national selection:

Each songwriter may only submit one song (including co-writes) for consideration. The submitted songs must not be submitted for consideration to any other country participating in Eurovision Song Contest 2025. In addition, the performer(s) attached to the submitted songs must not be submitted for consideration as performer(s) of any song submitted for consideration to any other country participating in Eurovision Song Contest 2025.

The songs (lyrics and music compositions) must be original and must not be released or publicly performed or made available to the public (for example, but not limited to, on social media, online video platforms, social networks or (semi-) publicly accessible databanks and/or performed publicly, for example but not limited to during concerts) in full or part before the 1st September 2024.

In all cases RTÉ will have the final say on which song and performer(s) will be Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest 2025 entry and RTÉ and the EBU will retain final decision on the eligibility of any entry and the application of the rules.

Entries will ONLY be accepted through the online form on www.rte.ie/eurovision. No entries will be accepted by post, on CD, cassette or any other format, nor will we accept links to WeTransfer, Soundcloud, Dropbox or to any other third-party sites such as YouTube, Spotify, Tidal or other streaming platforms.

Although we wish to encourage and identify promising new talent for the future, this is not an opportunity for beginners or people with limited or no experience of performing in public to large crowds.

The closing date for submissions is 6pm on Monday 18th of November 2024.

Any queries or questions about the process may be submitted to [email protected]

Bambie Thug made Ireland proud in 2024, when they represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest with their entry ‘Doomsday Blue’.

Source: RTE
Photo credit: Sarah Louise Bennett/ EBU