Our series of poll battles continues. Following the cancellation of last year’s contest, the majority of the class of 2020 are back to finally get their chance to perform on the Eurovision stage. But, as is standard Eurovision regulation, they’ve all got new songs. And the comparisons are coming in fast.
So now, we want to hear from our readers. Do you prefer the returning artists’ 2020 or 2021 songs?
Today, we’re heading to the Emerald Isle and taking a look at Ireland. Last year, Lesley Roy was set to sing “Story of My Life” in Rotterdam. And this year, she’s found her way back to Eurovision 2021 with “Maps”. Two years, two songs. But which is your favourite? Vote now in our poll!
Scroll down to vote in our poll.
“Story of My Life” (Ireland 2020)
Lesley Roy was internally selected for Eurovision 2020 with the song “Story of My Life”. A pop-rock song, it’s been likened to the musical stylings of Avril Lavigne and early Katy Perry. Lyrically, the song embraces diversity, and encourages the celebration of uniqueness and individuality. With the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — Lesley Roy scored an average of 6.03/10.
“Ok, I just love happy sugary pop”, said wiwiblogger Natalie. “I completely understand that this song is dated and completely underwhelming considering the hype around Ireland this year. But, still, OMG! It makes me want to dance so much! It’s so jam-packed with energy and is so frickin’ defiant. It’s as though Lesley knows she’s singing silly a late-2000s pop song at a music contest but she doesn’t give a damn! She’s gonna sing loud and proud, she doesn’t care what you say!”
“Maps” (Ireland 2021)
“Maps” brings together Lesley Roy’s signature pop-rock sound with an orchestral flourish. It’s a modern and inspiring pop song about learning from your mistakes, forging your own path home and going back to your roots.
“I thought it would’ve been a disservice to everybody to go and write “Story of My Life” part two”, Lesley tells our Padraig. “That would have been a bit boring and would’ve been so obvious, so as much as [“Maps”] is still in keeping with the positive pop that I always try to write, it’s sonically a departure. It’s still uptempo, and will hit people straight through their chests.”
Poll battle — Ireland: Which Lesley Roy song is your favourite?
In this poll, you can vote for just one song. And as always, you can only vote once — so choose wisely, and make it count. Europe, start voting now!
[polldaddy poll=10775500]
Which of Lesley Roy’s Eurovision songs did you vote for? How does “Maps” weigh up against “Story of My Life”? Sound off in the comments below.
It’s awful
I love maps. I hope they go to the final. 10/10
Easily “Maps” for me.
I didn’t get with the childish vibe that comes from “SOML” and definitely didn’t think it suited Lesley, who I like a lot. Maps is definitely more mature and a better fit.
I really like both, it was hard for me to make a decision, but i voted for maps
Maps , cant hear the words clearly
I think this is an issue with the video production. The Late Late Show performance was better in terms of clarity of the words so hopefully this is improved even more by the time rehearsals creep around.
MAPS! It’s a mature catchy song with very beautiful lyrics! Story of My Life is more instant and catchy with its poppy tune but it does not have the quality of Maps.
Lesley knows for sure the formula for good pop songs!
Story of my life was just another cheap LGBT bait song. At least that’s what music video suggested. Maps is one if not more leagues higher
Not everything in life circles around LGBT you know.
Yeah, that’s the point.
She’s LGBT herself. Hardly bait when it’s her own community.
Its like saying black people can’t be racist. You can be LGBT and still try to bait other members of your community to vote you just because they got a shoutout
The difference between the two would appear down to concept and production. The reality is that both songs are musically quite similar. Both songs are in G Major. Both songs have a similar driving tempo. Both songs have syncopated hooks. And both songs are “vanilla” to listen to, as other commenters have said. It’s funny to read that Lesley Roy didn’t want to create “Part 2” of the song, because if it wasn’t for the production differences, that’s probably what she would have ended up with. 🙂
I like both, but prefer “Maps” over “Story of my life”. I hope Ireland goes through to the final.
Maps is my number 1!!!
That’s my kind of music.
I love this song.
Greetings from Switzerland
Maps for sure 🙂 I will be voting for Lesley since my other 2 favourites in this semi are almost sure to qualify.
At first I thought Maps was fine, a bit overproduced but good. Now it’s grown on me so much it’s my 6th
Story Of My Life is actually a proper bop, and to me it kind of makes Maps a bit too vanilla for my taste. That’s why I’m actually concerned about it’s qualification chances.
I found SOML a little bit cringe, and it’s not my sort of thing. Maps is more mature and(I feel) fitting for her.
How would everyone compare the former with Ireland’s 2009 entry ‘Et Cetera’? Every says it’s very late 2000s, when they sent something similar at the time, and it narrowly missed out on the final.
I was devastated Et Cetera didn’t qualify in 2009.
It was strange voting systems though, like the 10th qualifier was chosen at random by the jury, didn’t have the 10th highest result.
I think they picked Croatia, who actually finished 12th or 13th in that semi if I remember correct.
I was sickened because we where so close and we had such a good song that year.
lijepa tena is one of the best Croatian entries ever, though.
If it placed 13th though it should not have qualified.
Serbia, Ireland and Poland all placed ahead of it and it only got 33 points.
‘Er Cetera’ was a great entry and deserved to qualify.
2009 was a good song, but there was no effort with staging. Leslie knows better…
Lesley knows better too.
I agree! I have faith in Lesley’s vision for staging. It is a good song but staging will be the decider in this semi.
When I first heard “Story Of My Life”, I wanted to vomit, but after time went by, it grew on me. It’s still one of my NQ’s but at least I respect the song more. Let’s not talk about Lesley, she is a magnificent person and, after I heard about the “outstanding staging” in Rotterdam, I’m all for a qualification of Lesley and “Maps” from this extremely difficult semi…
Oh, yeah. Semi 1 voting sequence will be nail-biting for sure. Before rehearsals start, I can still say I highly expect Malta, Lithuania and Romania to make it. Probably San Marino and Cyprus too. However, the competition is so stiff that I wouldn’t be that surprised if even one of them misses out. Especially if more underdogs prove themselves on stage. By the way, after sorting out my list, I realized that semis are very on-pair when it comes to my absolute favorites (Ukraine / Romania / Lithuania vs Switzerland / Bulgaria / Czech Republic), but the number of other… Read more »
Thankfully San Marino is in semi 2 lol I don’t think I could cope having yet another favorite in Semi 1 haha
Yeah, both of you are right. San Marino is in semi 2 (luckily). We do have traditionally successful countries like Sweden, Australia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan all stacked in semi 1, though.
Ukraine is my winner of the semi and I will certainly use my vote to help them go through. The running order also favors them, but being sorrounded by other favorites doesn’t. I still hope (and believe) they will make it!
Australia has an interesting and risky song, but it hasn’t properly grabbed me yet. As of now, it would be my 12th in the semi, but I wouldn’t be angry if they qualify anyway.
Ukraine NEED to qualify this year! I like Azerbaijan too, but at the same time, I won’t mind if it doesn’t qualify. I think Australia will qualify though, they’ve qualified before with worse, and they have the juries and Sweden to help them.
I think there will be shock NQs in semi 1, and some shock Qs too.
Mata Hari is borderline cringe for me and it Has nothing to do with this whole drama around singer. What’s the point of bringing Mata Hari (person) into it to begin with? Just because it sounds cool? Meh. I’ll be disappointed af if it qualifies over Ireland
Hands down Maps!
It’s so underrated in the odds but I’m cautiously optimistic that staging will elevate Lesley into the final.
The fans seem to like it, which is a good start anyway:
Story of my life, was okay, very dated though and could have done well in Eurovision back in 2010. We’ll never know what ThisIsPopBaby where going to do, apparently it was going to be huge. But yeah Story if my Life was a definite NQ, not on my radar at all. I feel more positive about Maps.
im not gonna lie, i love both, but ireland is my 12th place this year. a great pop song with irish elements
Maps is miles ahead of soml. It’s a great pop song, very catchy and brilliant lyrics, some of the best this year! I have every faith in lesley’s abilities to put on an amazing show and I’m extremely optimistic about the staging. I honestly can’t wait to see it now
Both are solid songs, but I think Maps is more unique and distinguishable. Both are immense feel-good songs, and I hardly ever skip them when they come by on my Spotify. I hope Ireland can qualify this year 🙂
Maps for me by a mile! Actually Ireland was one of this year’s positive surprises for me, they are my fifth place this year! Hope they manage to qualify from the tough semi final.
I was horrified by the song “Story of My Life”. Lesley seems to be a nice person and she didn’t deserve that. The song “Maps” isn’t great either but way better than “Story of My Life”.
Fully agree.
Is that a real question?
Lesley should be proud of the two entries she has submitted to Eurovision, they are both really good. As to my favourite, this was a difficult choice and very marginal. I went for Story of My Life, I find it just a tiny bit more raucous and upbeat, although both are very uplifting. Best of luck Lesley, I personally believe you deserve a place in the final, let’s hope you get there!
Both are nice, but I prefer Maps a bit. Lesley’s positive energy is really shining through both songs. Will it be enough for her to qualify? Maybe. Songs that are based around unpretentious positivity have had various degrees of success in the contest. Some did way better than projected, because people found them too cute to resist. Some went fairly unnoticed, because there was not enough splash to them. I really couldn’t tell how Maps will go, but best of luck to Lesley.