Ireland: Head of Delegation open to a national selection for Eurovision 2022

Ireland: Head of Delegation open to a national selection for Eurovision 2022
Thursday, 27 May 2021

  • Ireland's Head of Delegation has left open the option of a national selection for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest. 

    The Irish head of Delegation, Michael Kealy, talking to the Irish Sun, revealed that it's is possible that RTE will opt for a national selection giving the chance to the public to have a say on act that will represent the nation at Eurovision 2022 in Italy. This statement comes after this year's last semi final 1 placing for Lesley Roy, which is the second successive one for Ireland.

    Kealy stated precisely: 

    “I feel it’s time we reverted to giving the public their say in what we do but we must find an effective and cost effective way of doing that.” 

    And went on further saying: 

    “Other countries are able to invest significantly more money and resources in their selection processes, staging and support teams than a small chronically underfunded broadcaster like RTE, that’s unfortunately a fact of life we can’t ignore.”

    Following Ireland's recent poor results in the competition, past participants and acts have come forward asking for a return of a televised show that will determine the country's hopeful, giving the public the power to influence the final decision. Notably, the Eurovision record winning nation has achieved only once to reach the Grand final since RTE swtiched to an internal selections. Namely the country qualified to the final with  Ryan O’Shaughnessy in 2016, marking the first time since the 2013 contest in Malmo. 

     

    The Eurovision Story so far 

    Ireland is a country of records when it comes to the Eurovison Song Contest. It participated for the first time in 1965 and has won the competition 7 times, more than any other country. (1970, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996).It is the only country that has won the contest three successive years (1992, 1993, 1994) while Dublin is the only city to have hosted the event two consecutive years. (1994,1995).

    During the decade of 90’s the country had a row of 4 vicotries in a 5 year time  (1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997) and Dublin became host city three times.Irish act Johnny Logan is the only one to have won the contest twice (1980, 1987).

    In 2018 the country selected internally  Ryan O’Shaughnessy to represent the country with his song Together, which finished 16th in the grand final. In 2019 internally selected  Sarah McTernan represented the country with her entry “22” which failed to qualify to the grand final.

    Lesley Roy was selected to represent the nation in Rotterdam for Eurovision 2020 with the song "Story of my life" but never reached the stage as the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. Lesley was reinvited for the 2021 edition in Rotterdam where she performed "Maps" which sadly finished in the last place of the 1st Semi Final.