Last night he promised a “big announcement” and today we found out what it was. Ryan O’Shaughnessy will represent Ireland at Eurovision 2018.
After almost 24 hours of speculation, RTÉ confirmed the news shortly after midday. In the official press release, we learn that his song will be called “Together”. It’s a ballad co-written with Mark Caplice, Laura Elizabeth Hughes and Ryan himself.
However, the final version of the track remains in production and will be released at a later date, along with a music video.
The entry was written with the song contest in mind, and was submitted along with 300 other entries during RTÉ’s open call for songs last autumn.
Reacting to the news, Ryan says the song will hark back to “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids”, Ireland’s Eurovision winning song from 1994. He also echoes the sentiments of Salvador Sobral’s winning speech in Kyiv, promising an “honest piece”.
“As one of three songwriters on Together, I’m delighted it has been chosen to represent Ireland in Eurovision 2018, and on top of that, to be asked to perform for my country is an absolute honour.
I plan on doing Ireland proud by bringing a song and performance to Eurovision that we haven’t seen since the days of ‘Rock and Roll Kids’.
Last year’s winning song from Salvador Sobral was a beautiful, melodic piece, and I think it may have carved the way for the Eurovision to revert back to being a song contest where true songs can flourish. I can’t wait to get onto that stage and perform an honest piece for millions of people.”
Ryan will give his first interview on RTÉ Radio One’s Ray D’arcy Show, shortly after 4 pm Irish time.
WHO IS RYAN O’SHAUGHENESSY?
The former child actor turned pop star is no stranger to singing competitions. He competed in both the Voice Of Ireland and Britain’s Got Talent in 2012, causing a whole load of drama when both shows clashed.
(Un)luckily for him he was eliminated during the first live show of the Voice, enabling him to continue on to the final of BGT. Afterwards he released two singles and an EP which cracked the top ten in both Ireland and the UK.
He also appeared on the Irish version of The Hit in 2013. His most recent album Back To Square One came out in 2016.
If he is destined for Eurovision, he’ll be hoping to do better than his Uncle Gary, who came third from bottom in 2001 with “Without Your Love”.
But first he would need to make it to the grand final. Ireland last reached that milestone in 2013.
If reports are to be believed, Ryan and “Together” were not RTÉ’s first choice for Lisbon. Apparently the preferred option was folk-pop duo Heathers. However, they were unwilling to sing a song written by someone else.
Former Sex Pistols front man John Lydon also made it down to the final shortlist but TV bosses felt his effort was not right for Portugal’s “back to basics” approach to the contest.
What do you think? Is Ryan a good choice for Ireland? Let us know in the comments below.
We cannot say for certain until we hear the song but you can’t help but feel this is another wasted oppertunity!
We have some grear talent here in Ireland with the potential to deliver something individual yet contempary….. check out Róisin Ó ‘warns me of silence’…. this is the kind of thing we should be sending, a talented up and coming artist with the potential to stand out!
Considering our recent jury votes, with high points for blanche/loic nottet/aminata… you would think Róisin Ó is more in line with the route RTE should go down
Well, welcome to the contest, Ryan. I am hoping for a good song, of course, but we’ll see.
Happy to see a young talented singer for Ireland! It’s time the island comes back to successful results! Hope for a good song because their semi is difficult.
I’m surprised more people in the comments haven’t been annoyed by his pretentious statement : “I think it may have carved the way for the Eurovision to revert back to being a song contest where true songs can flourish” – why does he feel the need to pay such a backhanded compliment? As a longstanding fan of the contest, I can tell him that there has always been “true” songs, every year without fail. What a way to dismiss recent years, and if he has not been paying attention then that’s his loss. What recent winner would he categorize as… Read more »
Actually I don’t feel like it was pretentious! I agree that all types of music are equally as good in regards to those who listen to them, I don’t necessarily like rap but I’m not going disregard it when I know others enjoy it and the artists put equally the same effort into their “trade” and enjoy what they do! However, I feel like some countries in Eurovision in the past have sent gimmicks and yes that also includes us sending Dustin! I don’t think he’s stating that previous winners haven’t been as good as Sobral last year, I think… Read more »
Ireland seems to be copying itself these last few years. Not sure it will work..
But I chose to be positive. If they treat it seriously(not like last year) and it isn’t just an average standard formulaic ballad it cold be good. Cause formulaic ballads fell out of fashion a long time ago.
I would love a semi-repeat of Tom Dice’s “Me and My Guitar”!
I don’t care if Ireland is going to make the finals or not… at least this is a decent and pleasant ballad…..I’m certain it will be a great moment for a nice calm down.
Much better than the others so far.
That’s not his eurovision song.
Please don’t sing a boring ballad.
just tell everyone that sobral likes bruno mars
How many ballads will we have, this is a trap. Spain is lucky they dont have to go through semi finals. Luisa even said she doesnt want the contest to become a balladfest otherwise everyone would fall asleep. I know many people dont think this way but i also consider Frances a ballad…Swedens and Czechia chances of winning this are becoming more likely.
The songs from France and Albania aren’t ballads, so we have only Spain and Ireland confirmed so far. There are always many ballads every year, nothing new in this camp. And last year we had A LOT.
People are complaining too much! Just send a good song Ireland I hope see you in the finals this year.
I don’t care what anyone says. I’ll ALWAYS love ballads! 🙂
Brendan and Molly both had good songs, Molly’s was one of the best of it’s year. Both of their voices were fine live too, Brendan’s obviously distinctive, but Molly really failed to connect for me, and Brendan’s staging was pretty weak. So for this year I’m not too worried about the song, but they really need to get it right on stage, 2014 shower them not nailing it either, despite having a modern song with culturally-Irish elements. I’m not writing it off but step up Ireland!
“Hey Mamma” came second”??? In which contest?
I’m sceptical, but I’ll wait until I hear the song. I’m not against all ballads – I just don’t like those sugary sweet ballads. Last year I absolutely loved Amar pelos dois. I also liked Bulgaria’s song. Who knows? Maybe this will also be amazing.
We already know it isn’t gonna be totally back to basics. Not if Mikolas and Jessica Mauboy are among the competitors.
I think with “back to basics”, he may have meant that they’re nor going with the flow as most participants do and send a song that is reflective and true to their musical identity.
Kinda like how Portugal have always been stubborn about sending a song that’s completely in English as they wanna keep it true to themselves by keepong their entries in Portuguese wholy or partially.
What’s worrying me is that it’s still under production. How can you fully judge a song without being finished. It may loose or gain qualities both negative and positive that you won’t know about until it done. It’s why I really hate it when songs need revamping after a national selection. How do we know another song wouldn’t have had a better revamp than other. We don’t. Unless all the songs either internally or publicly picked are finished you are taking too big a risk as you can’t 100% be certain of the final product. And also written specifically for… Read more »
The song is written, it came through a selection process like lots of countries do whether they’re selecting Internally or via National Selection. They don’t produce final versions of all the songs before deciding, so there’s nothing wrong with them still finishing the song.
Unless I’m missing something, where does it say it was written specifically for the contest, I agree that’s a recipe for a weak and generic song, but we don’t know for sure that’s the case here do we?
*finishing the production/final version of the song
It clearly says so in the article!! Duh!!
I predict the Irish famine will continue through yet another long winter.
Wow. Do you also make Holocaust references on the posts relating to German entrants?
h o l o h o a x
Aww look. Eurofans making jokes about the holocaust and irish famine, when the whole world makes fun of ESC and your sexual orientation and says yall should be stoned to death.
I think it’s still way too early to be afraid of that this year becoming a snoozefest. Also, Ireland is a country that usually likes to go with ballads, so this is kind of expected.If at the end we end up with 30-35% of the songs being ballads and low tempos, that will be more or less similar to past years…
We don’t know the song yet, so it is too soon to judge. And as Luisa Sobral herself said on Spanish TV, too many ballads will make us sleep… Having said that, the thruth is that for ever and ever Ireland has done much better with ballads, because they do them bloody well! Granted – the best recent place was with Jedward. But this was a novelty act, as the Yodel or the Russian Grandmothers were. So, extra points for that. But Ireland can do much better, without resorting to a novelty act. Also, ballads can be modern. Everybody is… Read more »
I don’t understand why some people are so negative. I mean we haven’t even heard the second of his song. LOL. Good luck, Ireland. Let’s see what you got this year. 🙂
Will Ireland ever learn that retreading old successes (theirs or someone else’s) doesn’t lead them anywhere? Brendan and Molly also had “honest ballads” and look where that got them. And with that title… I feel a snoozefest incoming.
At least Louis Walsh had nothing to do with this one. That alone is an improvement
I prefer to think of it as playing to our strengths. Sweden are experts at pop, Armenia are strong at blending folk and modern music, the Dutch are very good at country music and Ireland’s strength is with ballads.
I think our strength is “songs that won’t qualify”. Already so pessimistic about this announcement
^Portugal’s songs didn’t qualify to the final since 2012, but came back with an entry that bagged them the win.
A honest piece of music and “written with eurovision in mind” is an unusual combo.
I am setting my expectations extremely, extremely low.
And the Olsen brothers. Their winning margin was a mere 40 points.
Still won. The song Ryan’s inspired by best Poland into second place by a considerable margin, was the first song to surpass 200 points, and is still the most successful Irish song in the contest. So he isn’t just picking a random winner: frankly, when the other options (female power ballads, Celtic folk, Johnny Logan) don’t seem to be doing the trick now, that’s the Irish winner I’d take inspiration from.
A mere 40 points? That was quite a large margin for back then, actually. There were only 24 countries voting. Compared to the years before and immediately after it, it is a huge victory. Dana International and Sertab Erener barely won by the skin of their teeth, and today they are considered iconic.
Celine Dion won by one point, Bucks Fizz not much more than that. Margin doesn’t matter, a winner’s a winner.
Love the ignorance here, the only people really bashing him don’t have a clue who he is and are just saying he’ll fail because he is a young guy singing a ballad like Brendan last year…wow
Exactly, ever year is different, so comparing Ryan to Brendan is just completely pointless. I often feel that Ireland gets unfair and unwarranted criticism from other Eurofans and from many Irish people too. When we fail to qualify, many people say it’s Ireland’s fault for not trying hard enough or that RTÉ sends bad songs because they don’t want to have to pay for the costs of hosting the contest next year. Kasey, Molly, Nicky and Brendan all put a huge effort into getting Ireland into the final, but juries and televoters just didn’t vote for them, for a variety… Read more »
Oh dear, mimicking last year’s winner, or even a winner from 24 years ago, is never a good idea. We’re already likely to have 10-12 Sabral-lites. John Lydon (not Lyndon) would have been more imaginative.
Ryan didn’t say he was ‘copying’ Salvador or Harrington & McGettigan. He is an established singer / songwriter with his own distinctive style. Check him out on Youtube, he has written lots of original songs.
I’m not impressed by Ireland record, because it was a time when English language was favoured, but Ireland has the most famous interval act – Riverdance. Why can’t they understand that something that makes them unique is the answer, not Ed Sheeran copycats or ”last year winner”.
How is he an Ed Sheeran copycat?
How come UK or Malta didn’t win as much, then, if it was just because it was in English? There is no doubt that it helped, but each of their winners is a quality song worthy of the title.
I can’t. Why are they reiterating the formula that had them flopping for years?!
Because they don’t have a ton of russian money to waste.
Do note a song by a guy wearing golden shoes joined Sweden in the top ten last time they won. Old habits die hard.
Probz because those in charge of Irish participation don’t care about Eurovision, don’t get Eurovision and have absolutely no idea what succeeds at Eurovision. Just like France pre-Grassi, but maybe even worse, because France had no clue but Ireland has the *wrong* clue. I guess they still think they’ll win if they only send Johnny Logan, lol.
So last year didn’t tell them about how Europe feels about Irish Ballads sung by young men?
Just have a decent National Final already.
Ryan is significantly older than Brendan as the former was born in 1992.
Rock ‘n’ roll kids is my favourite Irish winner, but they’ve been copying their successes now for so long… Ireland: it’s time for something Original!
How? When in the last few years has an Irish entry directly taken inspiration from a past winner? Brendan Murray wasn’t THAT similar to Johnny Logan (for one thing, Logan could sing). Last one I can think of was “It’s for You” (for obvious reasons, and that made the final, even if it didn’t do well). If you stretch, maybe “Playing with Numbers.”
It feels a bit like a Meh-choice. He has a nice voice, but i’m not impressed by his songs. Still im looking forward to hear his song.
We want Sex Pistols! They could make Eurovision wow this year. But they decide to be boring again. Ireland, why?
It would’ve been John Lydon’s other band, Public Image Ltd. The Sex Pistols haven’t really been together since 1978.
They can’t play their instrumentsive though on stage.
Ryan is a very good singer but I just hope the song is good. I’m fine with a ballad but I just hope it’s not too old-fashioned, although the description doesn’t fill me with much hope.
Not a hugely exciting announcement but we must wait to hear the song before judgement.
i havent even heard the song yet and i m already sure it wont reach the final…
i havent even heard the song yet and i m already sure it wont react the final…
Ireland deserves its poor results. Another ballad? After sending so many ballads and failing to impress? I really hope it’s a god damn good one, otherwise Ireland is doomed to stay in the semi!
They had two non-ballads that didn’t do well either, “Sunlight” and “Heartbeat”, in reaching the final.
Looking at the announcement – seems I was right, they _really_ want to copy Salvador Sobral. FFS, if you want to do it at least send a song in Irish, a major part of the Salvador’s appeal was he _didn’t_ sing in English.
Ryan is not talking about copying Salvador or singing an identical song to his. He simply means his song will be a simple ballad without a big production.
I think this is a good option. Ireland has been trying to “do Eurovision” for some years now and they should just do what they do well and hope the song connects with people.
He has a good voice and writes his own material. He should connect with the song and if the sentiment is universal he can break out.
Going to try to stay optimistic for as long as possible, all the way up to when the song is revealed. On a plus side, Gary O’Shaughnessy is one of my favourite Irish Eurovision entries ever!
His name is Ryan.
Never mind. Gary is Ryan’s nephew. What was I thinking? 😮
Ryan is Gary’s nephew* :p
I love so many of Ireland’s entries (of old), but I can not understand how anybody could possible regard Without Your Love as a favourite. Worst Irish entry ever.*
* Apart from Dustin
It already sounds like Ireland won’t make it to the final this year once again ?
How, you’ve heard nothing.
Yeah!! The formulaic ballad won’t cut it!! But atleast they are in Semi-1!!
Ireland just don’t learn do they. These white guys singing a slow boring song and playing a guitar dont work for Eurovision.
Yes. Look at Tom Dice. Only finished 6th.
The classic Eurovision trope of “white guy at a piano/with a guitar” is only as bad as the song itself. It’s worked before (just look at the Olsen Brothers)! Ryan seems like a talented guy, and I’m glad he was involved in making the song and isn’t just a mannequin delivering prepackaged pop like – forgive me – the last two Irish contestants have been.
What the colour has to do with anything?
Shut up I’m white you moron.
So you are self hating. Any race has racists, even self hating.
What has white to do with it?
Let me explain: of course race doesn’t and shouldn’t matter, but nevertheless many a Eurovision competitor has followed the classic pop music trope of “inoffensive white guy at a piano/on a guitar.” Not necessarily bad music, but I’m pretty sure there’s at least a handful of either every single year (just look at Belarus last year). This year, in the aftermath of Salvador, some people just might think of going slow and the average could double.
(And of course women have gotten in on this too. Nicole, anyone?)
“These white guys singing a slow boring song” – I’m sure this is how some people would have described Salvador last year.
No they were like random seizing guy about to die singing something about love!! May not live long let’s vote for him
”Eurovision competitor has followed the classic pop music trope of “inoffensive white guy at a piano/on a guitar.”
Eurovision doesn’t have a trope, is Europe and most people are white. You CAN delete my comment, but Europe is fighting back. You can’t say Europe is wrong being Europe.
Urgh. I retract my earlier comment if it’s going to get associated with others like this…
White nationalism, of course, can piss right off. Eurovision, and Europe in general, is wonderfully diverse, and I only encourage more diversity in Eurovision and throughout the continent.
I’m sure Eurofans will disagree, but I’ve always enjoyed “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids,” so this is absolutely 100% a good thing to me. Here’s hoping he breaks the streak!
Urgh. I retract my earlier comment if it’s going to get associated with others like this…
whoops, wrong thread.
Yes, in my opinion it’s our best winning song.
Well, not very exciting but who knows… Maybe the song will be good.
Apparently he is the nephew of Gary O’Shaughnessy, the irish representative back in 2001 😀
Oh yeah it’s said in the article! My mistake!!
Oh, so his career is a result of nepotism (literally!). Just great.
Calm down, Polyna. I’m not saying that at all.
I didnt think RTE could do any worse than last year but they have excelled themselves again. Harking back to Rock and Roll kids? Living in the past as usual.
Haha Have you heard the song? Where is it, share with us.. 🙂
It’s funny to see such opinions when we even don’t know the song. There are some countries which are underestimated, Portugal was one of that countries… and they won last year when noone expected that.
At least it’s better to win with ”Rock’n’Roll Kids” than with an ice skater and a dull song called ”Believe”
Hear, hear!
That was the public’s favorite. Can’t argue with that.
Yes, the ice skater was really good!
Russia did not win because it was public’s favourite. Don’t make me laugh, please. It won based on those political votes it got, just like in 2016. There were much better songs than “Believe” in 2008. Thank God, we now have jury voting which keeps the balance.
Yes you can when Russia are blatant cheaters in every competition they take part in. Who’s to say they didn’t spam the telephone lines with phoney votes?
RNRK is such an unfair winner. Poland was the blatant favorite, shame they had no arenas in ’94 to host.
Eh, not really, we had already Torwar in Warsaw and Spodek in Katowice, for 90’s contests they would be enough.