Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Eurovision Song Contest 2016
Country  Ireland
National selection
Selection process Internal Selection
Selection date(s) 13 January 2016
Selected entrant Nicky Byrne
Selected song "Sunlight"
Selected songwriter(s)
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2015 • 2016

Ireland will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Sunlight" written by Nicky Byrne, Wayne Hector and Ronan Hardiman. The song will be performed by Nicky Byrne, who was internally selected in January 2016 by the Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) to represent the nation at the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden.

Background

Prior to the 2016 Contest, Ireland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-nine times since its first entry in 1965.[1] Ireland has won the contest a record seven times in total. The country's first win came in 1970, with then-18-year-old Dana winning with "All Kinds of Everything". Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter). In 2011 and 2012, Jedward represented the nation for two consecutive years, managing to qualify to the final both times and achieve Ireland's highest position in the contest since 2000, placing eighth in 2011 with the song "Lipstick". However, in 2013, despite managing to qualify to the final, Ryan Dolan and his song "Only Love Survives" placed last in the final. The Irish entries in 2014, "Heartbeat" performed by Can-Linn featuring Kasey Smith, and in 2015, "Playing with Numbers" performed by Molly Sterling, both failed to qualify to the final.

The Irish national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), broadcasts the event within Ireland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. From 2008 to 2015, RTÉ had set up the national final Eurosong to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ireland, with both the public and regional jury groups involved in the selection. For the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, RTÉ held an internal selection to choose the artist and song to represent Ireland at the contest. This marked the first time that RTÉ internally selected both the artist and song for the contest; previously the broadcaster had only internally selected the artist in 1974, 1975, 2006 and 2007, while the song was chosen in a televised competition. In regards to the internal selection, John McHugh, Head of Entertainment RTÉ Television, stated: "We have a long and proud history with Eurovision, but we've had mixed results over the last few years. Myself and Head of Delegation Michael Kealy took a serious look at our approach, reviewing the entire process and the Eurovision Song Contest itself. The competition is constantly evolving and RTÉ has to be flexible in how we approach it in order to put our best foot forward. Direct selection has proven to be a successful method for other countries and we felt that this year it would give us the best chance at success."[2]

Before Eurovision

Selection procedure

RTÉ confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on 27 May 2015.[3] On 13 January 2016, the broadcaster announced that they had internally selected Nicky Byrne to represent Ireland in Stockholm.[4][2] Byrne was a former member of the Irish boy band Westlife and had previously been the Irish spokesperson at the Eurovision Song Contest, revealing the results of the Irish vote between 2013 and 2015.[4] Unconfirmed rumours of Byrne's selection as the Irish contestant were published by Irish media earlier on 7 January 2016.[5][6]

Along with the announcement that Byrne would represent Ireland on 13 January, the song to be performed by Byrne, "Sunlight", was also released via a lyric video uploaded on YouTube.[2] The song was written by Byrne himself together with Wayne Hector and Ronan Hardiman. Byrne's first live performance of the song is scheduled to take place on 13 February, during the RTÉ One Saturday night programme The Ray D'Arcy Show.[4]

“ The song is called Sunlight and I co-wrote it with two of the music industry's legends; producer and writer Ronan Hardiman and songwriter Wayne Hector. I have always felt this song had something different, something special. I also look forward to re-visiting Sweden, a country where we had so much success with Westlife over the years and I can't wait to be a part of what I’m sure will be an amazing show in Stockholm. Ireland, I will give it my best shot. Sweden… here we come! ”
— Nicky Byrne[2]

The creative team that will work on producing Ireland's performance at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest will be led by Tim Byrne, former Creative Director of Syco Entertainment at Sony Music and includes Lee Lodge, whose production credits include the 87th Academy Awards and the MTV Music Video Awards, and Michael Kealy, the Irish Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest.[4]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[7] On 25 January 2016, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2016, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Ireland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Roxburgh, Gordon (13 January 2016). "Nicky Byrne with the song 'Sunlight' for Ireland". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Jiandani, Sanjay (27 May 2015). "Ireland: RTE confirms participation in ESC 2016". esctoday.com. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "RTÉ Announces Nicky Byrne as Ireland's Eurovision 2016 Entry". rte.ie. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  5. ↑ Fearon, Alana (13 January 2016). "Former Westlife star Nicky Byrne 'to represent Ireland at Eurovision this year'". irishmirror.ie. Irish Mirror. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  6. ↑ O'Reilly, Brian (13 January 2016). "Nicky Byrne to represent Ireland in 2016 Eurovision in Stockholm – reports". independent.ie. Irish Independent. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  7. ↑ Jordan, Paul (21 January 2016). "Semi-Final Allocation Draw on Monday, pots revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Jordan, Paul (25 January 2016). "Allocation Draw: The results!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
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