Back in May she told us that she’d be returning to Eurovision 2021, so long as she had the right song. And it seems that Ireland’s Lesley Roy has created exactly that. RTÉ have confirmed that she will sing at Eurovision 2021.
According to the broadcaster, the Irish-born, New York-based singer has had an intense few months crafting the perfect song for the contest. She was digging down deep in Stockholm — and from those depths she’s landed what promises to be a fierce songwriting collaboration.
“Lesley has spent the past three months in studio working on a new song to represent Ireland with, and Ireland’s Eurovision 2020 song has now been chosen and will be revealed in the New Year. The song was written and produced by Lesley, along with Eurovision producer Lukas Hallgren (“She got me”, 4th place ESC 2019), Philip Strand producer/songwriter Normandie, Deepend and Emelie Eriksson known as (EEVA) Stockholm based songwriter at Baggpipe Studios.”
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Lesley is stoked. She said:
“It was a real shame we didn’t get to showcase Story of My Life on the Eurovision stage, but had the show not been cancelled this new song would never have emerged. I’ve been working on new material 24/7 and this song was clearly the strongest out of all of the demos. I believe that it is even bigger than Story of My Life, and will reach an even wider audience. I am just so excited to finally get my shot on the Eurovision stage after months and months of work and can’t wait to reveal more information about our song in the New Year.”
“I’m very lucky that I am from the era of Niamh Kavanagh, Paul Harrington, Eimear Quinn, Riverdance years.”
“I feel like the back-to-back years watching it live from the Point Depot with Gerry Ryan hosting and the explosion of Riverdance left a very deep impression on me as a kid. I definitely made a mental note that this is something I would love to do for Ireland when I grew up. I think I have a very high standard of what a Eurovision song should be because of those memories and that definitely informed the type of song I would send.”
Michael Kealy, Head of the Ireland Delegation for Eurovision 2021, said: “We were all very excited about bringing Lesley and Story of My Life to Rotterdam this year so it was a real shame that it wasn’t to be. However, Lesley’s new song is every bit as catchy as the last one and I can’t wait for her to perform it in Rotterdam next May to the biggest live music audience on the planet”.
The broadcaster continues:
“Details of the song and the first airplay will happen at a date to be announced early in the New Year. Ireland will perform in the first semi-final at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday, May 18th at the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena with the final taking place on Saturday, May 22nd.”
What do you think? Are you excited for Lesley’s return to Eurovision? What sort of song would you like to hear her perform? Tell us your thoughts below!
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Can’t wait to see what the song is! It will definitely be bigger than SOML. I think that Ireland would’ve qualified in 2020 and I feel the same about 2021 😉
I think what’s good about Lesley is that unlike the last few Irish acts, she isn’t aiming for middle of the road respectability. She has a distinct 2000s pop rock vision and is embracing all the camp associated with it. It may crash and burn but she’ll go out with a bang rather than a whimper.
Very, very happy for her and very deserving! Seeing how hard she’s trying to search for a song
(even if, you know, the Swedish team of songwriters thing)and finally getting to represent Ireland once again, made me so excited!I wonder if ThisIsPopBaby will be on board too. Raving we didn’t see what they had planned.
They where the real entry last year I think. I hope RTÉ get them back on board.
As for Lesley, I’m not her biggest fan, but I do think it’s fair that she gets her shot (like the rest of the 2020 class). The team behind her 2021 entry is strong and promising though.
At the end of the day all 2020 artists should be going next year but anyway..
No hopes for her new song after the “Euphoria 2.0” that was hyped up to come and then were presented with an over rated junior Eurovision entry. But let’s sit back and see what happens.
So happy for her. Glad to see more and more 2020 artists coming back.
Last year the song was overhyped and it was a real let down when I heard it first…..and honestly I’m not positive about this year either. I’m just not confident in Lesley’s abilities tbh. Her vocals are awful and I’m really not here for the ‘2000’s rock’ vibe. I’ll still hope that the song will be ok but I’m just making my predictions early.
Happy for her! I can reluctantly understand the countries that have national finals dropping their 2020’s artists, but those who selected internally don’t have the same excuse. In the end, it seems Ireland told Lesley she could come back if she presented them a good song. Sounds fair. And I wouldn’t mind if she brings a Katy Perry vibe again.
This is great news for Ireland as Lesley is such a charismatic performer. SOML is a bop but I did fear that it was a borderline qualifier. She’s one of the entries I think did benefit from the whole situation in that she now has a second chance and didn’t have an epic 2020 entry that is pretty impossible to follow up. For some entries, they set a massively high bar with their 2021 entry that I fear they’ll always be compared unfavorably to (Iceland, Lithuania). I think we’re starting to see this now with Israel which is too bad… Read more »
I think Benny will benefit the most (without changing too much), from the situation around him, the type of music people buy, and the relatively medium bar set for him, but Lesley could also benefit lots too because her style can get lots of fans.
Yaay! I hope for another 2000’s teen punk revival to take me back to my teens! “Story of My Life” was a bop and I still claim that it would have brought Ireland it’s best result since Jedward. I hope her new song will have the same effect..
i hope she has a katy perry-esque song again, but rather than teenage dream i’d rather have cry about it later vibes
A rock-ish CAIL vibes song will be cool!
Maybe we could get some modern pop-rock song from Ireland, that would be good!
Good luck Lesley!
And what about the news of Hurricane returning?
It has been covered a week or two ago. They are back, yes.
They already confirmed the news with Hurricane like a month ago I Think
Yeah, but it wasn’t official back then
well, if this years’ “It’s bigger than Story of My Life” is the same as last years’ “Better than Euphoria”, i have high doutbs
That’s just not what was said last year. They said it was a banger. And someone asked if it’s like Euphoria. And they replied with “yea it’s up there”
And that is the sense of delusion you get from the Irish delegation
I’m so excited about Lesley Roy going to represent Ireland at Eurovision because she was one of my favourites last year and thought she so underrated (and no I am not being bias because I’m from the UK) I wonder though whether her new song will sound like story of my life or a completely new sound we have to wait and see!
The republic of Ireland has been independent of the UK for nearly a hundred years, so don’t worry, we know your feelings are for real…
These song-writes look fire, one of them is connected with esc (he also wrote Talking in my Sleep by Paul Rey), and other have no connection with it – especially that band who have great songs, which I find great since it means more originality. I’m quite excited for the entry, it may actually qualify, tho the semi final 1 is super strong, Israel probably won’t qualify, when I’m making an early prediction.
Sadly I agree that Eden is in trouble
🙁
If Shoulders (or maybe Ue La La) wins and gets a great revamp, Israel will qualify.
Them, Russia and the UK. Also, at this point nothing about the precise representative / method of selection has been reported for Belarus, Poland and Armenia.
We also don’t know if little big will return
I’m waiting for Armenia (even though there have been long running rumours of a first refusal that is deserved, though has probably been held back due to various Covid and political related manners that are among reasons why Athena hasn’t been there since the contest was cancelled) and UK (James said that he was submitting ideas with Iain James and Ed Drewett in August, and it’s hard to trust my country with what they aim for due to its secrecy on ESC).
This is a great news! Lesley totally deserved to go and I am hoping for a good song. Btw, I really find the Irish accent quite cute. 😉
There were rumours saying that he’s working on a song with Borislav Milanov.. but yeah, you never know.
Hope for an announcement soon.
Good news !! I am happy for her second chance and hope for a great song !! Good Luck Lesley !!
Good luck to her, but I really hope Lesley really works hard on her vocals. If you watched her performance of Story of My Life on The Late Late Show back in March, you’ll know that she REALLY wasn’t good at all. Depending on the song, she may be opening the show in Rotterdam and we need to make the most powerful impact in that first semi-final, and Lesley can ONLY do that if she does a lot of work on her vocals. Everything else with Story of My Life was fine, but her live vocals MUST be much better… Read more »
Exactly. I’m shocked RTE are sticking with her. She is a dreadful live singer.
They want her to have her chance, and actually the fact that backing vocallists are now allowed on the backing track in 2021 may help her, but let’s not get our hopes up too high.
I really hope she takes the time to work hard on her vocals, because the song might actually be good, and if it is good and her live vocals have improved SIGNIFICANTLY, she may make a very powerful impact in May.
Here’s hoping.
Yes!! Happy for her!
Btw, Hurricane are also officially confirmed right now.
I really want to see as many 2020 acts as possible.
Eh.. why I am being downvoted?
Bring it on home Lesley! Can’t wait to hear the new song!
Good news. I hope they will have learned from previous mistakes – like don’t talk it up so much that expectations become impossible to live up to.
People have made WAY too much of a single comment by a member of production. Neither Leslie nor the broadcaster claimed it was on par with Euphoria, just one excited team member did.
That’s exactly my point and why I’m telling them to be careful.
Although Lesley already seems to be doing that a little…stop, please…
I mean… it’s not weird, is it? Of course she loves her own song? 🙂
Ace news, and I’m sure she will do well. Story of my life was Ireland’s most interesting since Lipstick. I’m now waiting on Athena (who will release a power ballad tomorrow, which she cannot perform at Eurovision due to singing it in Hannover in the past – I bet she considered sending it over before choosing THAT song, and I have long suspected that there has been a preliminary agreement that Athena May not be able to sign until she is able to go to Armenia in person, hence the delay and complete secrecy from AMPTV) and James (please UK,… Read more »
I’m from MKD and I don’t want Vasil to represent our country 🙁
They have better acts, but I think it is just good form. I’m not as fussed about Vasil as for Athena (my fave of 2020) or for my country’s act James (though we can do better, and I wouldn’t mind him writing for another act if that act has a better song and concept than he can do), but he can certainly bring new stuff to the table. You was hard to dislike but it was a bit too dated so would not have fared too well.
Actually UK was in my top 10 for 2020. I really like it. On the other hand, Vasil wouldn’t even make it to my top 30. I appreciate his work and his effort to be different but that’s it. I think we have many better artists and much more to offer. It’s important since we cannot ‘waste’ one more year, having in mind that we qualified last year for the first time in 7 years.
That’s true. I have often wanted NM to do well because of its distinct flag and that they were always in the final in the earliest contests I remember even when they didn’t bother to design a proper costume for their act. To be fair there was a lot I liked to James, My Last Breath’s content and dynamic, and that I have wanted Iain James (who was behind Azerbaijan’s win in 2011, and later provided key songs for the careers of Emeli Sandé and Little Mix) to co write our entry for a long time, which he does for… Read more »
Congrats to her, I was so looking forward to this! And also, Hurricane are back for Serbia as well!
Great! Love to see Ireland making the right choice (not that they don’t have immense talent to pull from, but Lesley deserves to go first). I actually had SoML in my qualifiers (only just, tbh) but I don’t think it would have qualified, so here’s hoping Lesley reveals something even better! Good luck
yes. and please bring to us another bop, but better than this past year.