Ireland’s Eurovision team is riding a wave of momentum. Back in Malmö, Bambie Thug took Ireland all the way to sixth place with their entry “Doomsday Blue” — the country’s best finish since 2000.
Now the team at RTÉ are ready to do it again. They’ve today opened the call for Eurovision 2025 songs. They want to hear from ambitious songwriters and artists and they want finished products — “no demos, unfinished work or substandard recordings will be accepted.”
In the name of clarity, we’re publishing their entire press release — and notes for submitting songwriters — below.
Ireland accepting Eurovision 2025 song submissions until November 18 deadline
Would you like to perform onstage in front of a global viewing audience of over 160 million people?*
Do you have the voice, the personality, musical passion and creativity to represent Ireland and win the Eurovision Song Contest 2025? If so… RTÉ wants to hear from you!
RTÉ is pleased to announce that Ireland will take part in the 69th Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in Basel, Switzerland in May 2025.
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 an invaluable 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.
RTÉ Eurovision Head of Delegation Michael Kealy said, “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!”
The Eurovision Song Contest is the world’s biggest live music show and one of the most popular annual television events on the planet. The contest reaches hundreds of millions of viewers in Europe and worldwide on social media platforms and is particularly popular with youth audiences and younger adult viewers.
The closing date for submissions is 8 weeks from today – 6pm on Monday 18th of November 2024.
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 an invaluable 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.
RTÉ Eurovision Head of Delegation Michael Kealy said, “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!”
The Eurovision Song Contest is the world’s biggest live music show and one of the most popular annual television events on the planet. The contest reaches hundreds of millions of viewers in Europe and worldwide on social media platforms and is particularly popular with youth audiences and younger adult viewers.
The closing date for submissions is 8 weeks from today – 6pm on Monday 18th of November 2024.
Additional information on song submissions
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 over 160 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.
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 over 160 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/
DO NOT SUBMIT A SONG WHICH EXCEEDS THE 3 MINUTE MAXIMUM DURATION ALLOWED
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 September 1st 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 8 weeks from today – 6pm on Monday 18th of November 2024.
The first success last year was Eurosong finally picking a range of diverse and interesting songs. This built excitement and I hope they release a song a day like last year in the build up to the Eurosong final. There was a real buzz last year which somewhat made up for the Late Late show studio.
Bambie was great and please get her in the panel of the Eurosong show- she deserves to have a voice in the show.
offtopic yet fun to share meanwhile our second edition of Regio Songfestival (our own take on eurovision) begins in one week and one month from now
my province Brabant has one notable name in their composer team Jochem Fluitsma, co-writer of our esc entries of 1993 (Vrede) and 1998 (Hemel en Aarde) this time for a new talent from waalwijk Dominique de Bont, her style is a mix between Anouk & Kane
held in Maastricht (one of hopeful host city choices back in 2020 when it lost out to rotterdam)
and similar to esc, we also have different dialects (languages) and cultures being represented Frysian, Gronings, Drents, Schevenings (Dutch with a soft G – Brabant) (Dutch but more similar to flemish dutch – Limburg) also a lot of genre diversity either, a dutch dua lipa alike sound (Gelderland’s Emma Luca – Illusie) we also have a green room for the artists, styled with flags of each province at their tables, scoreboard wise is similar to esc (juries of each province + televoting) and interval acts (also depending on where it is hosted showcasing that province’s culture) also postcards for each… Read more »
I feel sorry for the contestant who will be compared with Bambie. You cannot surpass Bambie’s legacy easily .
Let’s try the Irish language maybe? It’s been ages since that’s been on Eurovision and it’s beautiful in JESC entries.
I agree!
More creative and artistic wonderment please. Winning ESC isn’t important… Winning fans is. Run-of-the-mill stuff can be done by anyone… Let’s create!!!
Alina Pash (Ukraine) featuring Bambie Thug just dropped… Love it… And love how Bambie is making ESC work for them: https://youtu.be/LcPZW_NNf5Q?si=ke3nMovhWjPhUCMh
we love Alina!
Ukraine the real victims, not Israel
i would love for them to send someone like Clannad or Altan
Really hope we don’t slip back into our old ways and continue to build on what we achieved last year.
Though let’s not lie and say RTE weren’t bricking it incase we won last year.
I’m nervous to be honest.
Linda Martin is already waiting with her stock show of support for whatever boybland Louis Walsh puts forward: “They’re young, good-looking and they can sing. I think they can go all the way.”
I Hope they dont go for another deranged woman Who claims to be something weird.
That doesn’t really narrow it down
i want one of
I know it is a million to one chance – but I wouldn’t mind something distinctly Irish.
I’m sorry Ireland, but your record of wins was in ancient times. Both the Uk and Ireland did good because of the english language when people weren’t allowed to sing in another language but your own. People understood the songs.. Now it’s very tough to win Eurovision. More countries with different rules. And when we appreciate other languages and cultures more these days because we don’t want everything to sound the same.
I think Ireland will fall back to the same boring songs before Bambie Thug.
I hope Bambie Thug started something good for Ireland and it will motivate RTE to raise the production level of their show. Let’s be honest, their 2024 show was as bad as every other year. The difference is that for once they chose a song with a lot of potential and a motivated artist which made a stunning work to prepare for Eurovision.
Don’t let us down RTÉ! You’re in your slayance era so you better slay again next year
Seems like not much has changed. Like RTE are simply hoping that Bambie’s success will inspire somebody else with talent. Chances are it won’t. Especially with the whole Israel thing. Oh well… Bambie was unique, so my advice to long-suffering Irish fans is don’t raise your expectations TOO high. A pessimist is never disappointed.
Achieving a good result for the first time in years was a wonderful thing for Ireland, but now comes the real challenge: backing it up. Netherlands did it in 2014, but the UK couldn’t in 2023.
We can’t go backward.
AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, KEEP LOUIS WALSH AND LINDA MARTIN WELL AWAY FROM EUROSONG 2025.
See, this is what worries me about us at modern Eurovision… A LOT! Ireland, in 21st Century Eurovision, seems to have a habit of taking one step forward one year, and then two steps back the next. In 2006 we came 10th and Brian Kennedy and automatically qualified for the final in 2007, but then we finished last (almost getting 0 points) and we all know what happened in 2008. Nothing more to say there. After Jedward in 2011 and 12 we came last in 2013 and failed to qualify four times after that. We qualified comfortably in 2018 with… Read more »
Saw rumours on social media that they might ditch the Late Late and have a separate show, fingers crossed. With the way RTE is financially though, I have my doubts
The Late Late show has been confirmed for the Eurosong 2025 in February.
What, is Ireland participating in Eurovision? Through all these years, I thought it was Ivory Coast. The flag is so similar.
We have been pretending to be Ivory Coast since 1965. You will find lots of flags are similar (we are not Italy either in case you were worried).
No way! I’m pretty sure it is Ivory Coast. And I’m also pretty sure we had Chad for a while but they withdrew last year.
Missing Burkina Faso and Herzegovina
Ireland went back on course this year: it was long overdue for them. I hope Bambie’s amazing result will be the start of something good for Ireland at ESC.
Come on Irish Renaissance!