She’s the Irish singer-songwriter who recently released her synth-y single “I’ll Be Fine”. And amid her ongoing tour through the UK and Ireland with Boyzlife, Lesley Roy has proven that she most definitely is.
Earlier this month the “Story of My Life” and “Maps” hitmaker caught up with me and Deban backstage following her gig at Indigo at the O2 in London.
Lesley is known for encouraging healthy discussions about mental health — and sometimes that comes through loud and clear in her music. Her bright and happy release “I’ll be Fine” is all about picking yourself up after you fall. It was born of her sadness in the aftermath of the Eurovision semi-final.
“We wrote that a day, maybe two days after the semi final when we knew we didn’t get through,” she says. “We were dealing with the highs and lows of all of it — the entire experience. [“Maps” co-writers Philip Strand and Emelie Eriksson] and I were still in Rotterdam and still stuck in our hotel room. We said, ‘You know what? Let’s write about it.'”
“‘I’ll Be Fine’ is all about trying to talk yourself into to feeling okay again. And trying to remember what it was like to be okay. You know you were okay at one point. You’re not right there, but you will be.”
“I just wanted to do something dance-y, and simple and synth-y that didn’t have the weight of a country behind it or the pressure.”
Our girl is committed to keep dancing and is moving on to bigger and better things. As she sings: “I’ll be fine / I take the pleasure with the pain / When I dance it off my mind / So I keep dancing on, I keep dancing on / Till I dance it off my mind.”
Lesley’s set at the O2 ended with her two Eurovision songs, and she closed with “Story of My Life” rather than her more recent song “Maps”. We asked her why.
“I was closing with ‘Maps’ a few weeks ago and that was fine. It goes down really well. They love the Eurovision stories, which is just fantastic. But it’s almost like ‘Maps’…it almost needs its own little thing, its own moment for people to digest it who haven’t heard it before. Because ‘Story’ has the na na na part to it it feels like a better closer.”
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It’s not a matter of personal preference — she can’t choose between her two babies.
“Is ‘Teenage Dream’ a better song or ‘Hot n Cold?’ It’s so hard. It’s a different period of your life, of being a songwriter, of Eurovison.”
“‘Story of My Life’ is like a sing-a-long. ‘Maps’ is sing-a long too. But it’s also like, ‘Okay, wait a minute. What am I doing with my life? I’m searching for something. This girl is singing something very emotional. We better take some notes here. It’s a little bit more emo.”
Have you had a chance to see Lesley perform live? Did you attend a Boyzlife concert? Let us know what you thought in the comments box down below!
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I’m glad she’s doing fine. The last place she got in the SF was painful, though her dreadful performance didn’t deserve to go through. Her singing and the staging killed the song 🙁
I love Lesley so much. That staging operator did her dirty and her vocals may not have been the best they could have been but I still feel like last place was undeserved.
I’ve always trusted Lesley can sing, but she struggled in Rotterdam, and whilst I appreciate the effort they took with the staging, would she have sounded better without it? Whilst I loved the song, I was a little bothered that there was a fair bit of autotune. Perhaps, like James Newman, her talents lie more in writing and producing.
Im happy, however, that the contest has given her exposure and seems to have lead to new opportunities for her.
lool the anthem for every esc singer who doesnt qualify
I will get some hate for saying this but the problem with Ireland this year was not the song but the singer (Lesley). Her voice was not strong at all and it was not just the complicated staging. I watched some videos from her gig in O2 and she was also struggling and not sounding the best. Sometimes, songwriters should find better singers to sing their songs. I love both songs a lot, Story of my life was a bop and they prepared a strong staging in 2020 but i am not sure how Lesley would have sounded. Coming last… Read more »
Singing was definitely a problem, it was outright terrible but this song wouldn’t do better with a better singer.
It’s the same case as Embers. It might be a decent song to play on a radio among other songs but it’s bland and unmemorable. No one is going to vote for it.
people should not get hate for saying the truth. Her voice IS terrible. There’s just not much there vocally (if anything at all). She reminds me of katy perry where its the artist who needs to compensate with other things like hair colour or scandals to get by becuase they cant actually perform. And i know everyone is blaming the choreography.. but her performances of story of my life the year before were dreadful too and she was just standing.. nor is story of my life exactly mariah carey’s “emotions”. it is an easy song to sing and she still… Read more »
I might be seeing her in NYC in a few weeks. Can’t wait!
Maps was a great song! I still listen to it, but I can’t help thinking about how great it COULD have been with simple staging and a decent vocalist.
No disrespect to Lesley, but her ability lies in songwriting as opposed to singing. Excellent song writer.
Staging for Maos should have just been projected mountains, a wind machine, strobes and the vocalist in a big jacket ala the music video.
Would have snuck into the final for sure.
This year it was not up to song why Ireland didn’t qualify, it was vocal performance and messy staging that led to flop result. I really appreciate a lot their 2021 entry.
I still don’t get the idea behind the whole paper gimmick. It felt like that was what stressed her in the first place. The song itself was quite lovely.
I think personally the staging for 2021 was originally the plan for 2020. Play SOML over the performance and it makes sense.
Not to mention the whole “story” theme of the Maps performance.
Interesting theory. You might be on to something there.
I doubt it, otherwise thisispopbaby would have gotten credit.
We never fully know what goes on behind the scenes. ThisIsPopBaby and Lesley where hard at work preparing for the staging when 2020 was cancelled.
Apparently she then approached Fredrik Rydman with the idea.
I’m just saying SOML fits with that staging pretty well I think.
I would like to see RTÉ approach ThisIsPopBaby again though just so we can actually see what they would do at Eurovision.
Hmm interesting theory actually. You could be right. The same thing could perhaps be said about Last Dance and Supergirl. Stefania’s staging this year could very well have been made for Supergirl.
Yeah, I always felt that the green screen staging for Greece was probably a carry over from superg!rl.
that isnt even a theory. im more than certain countries like spain azerbaijan ireland and greece used their staging for 2020. azerbaijan literally had a snake on stage when that makes sense with cleopatra? ireland had a pop up book staging which makes sense with story of my life? and greece was literally going to be cheesy and put a literal “supergirl” on stage flying through a greenscreen city LOL the cringe
I wonder if we’ll ever see James Newman’s trumpets again? Or his coat.