Noel Kelehan (born 26 December 1935, Dublin) is an Irish musician, former conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and former musical director of Radio Telefís Éireann. He retired as conductor in 1998.
As well as being an accomplished jazz pianist, he is most famous for being the conductor of many Irish entries to the Eurovision Song Contest, beginning in 1966 and ending in 1998. He conducted five winning Irish entries, in 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, and 1996. The winning Irish entry of 1970 was conducted by the Dutch host conductor Dolf van der Linden. In 1994, the winning song was performed without orchestral accompaniment. Still, an entry rated 2nd that year, To nie ja! performed by Edyta Górniak from Poland was conducted by him. In total, Kelehan conducted 29 Eurovision entries, 24 of them Irish. Incidentally in 1999, after Kelehan retired, the use of an orchestra was discontinued at the Contest.
Kelehan has several records to his credit. Most notably, he wrote the string arrangements for U2's 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire.[1]
| Preceded by Rogier van Otterloo |
Eurovision Song Contest conductor 1981 |
Succeeded by Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Preceded by Jo Carlier |
Eurovision Song Contest conductor 1988 |
Succeeded by Benoit Kaufman |
| Preceded by Anders Berglund |
Eurovision Song Contest conductor 1993-1995 |
Succeeded by Frode Thingnæs |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||