Jonathan Currinn
Ireland recently announced their Eurovision 2018 representative, and it’s quite a familiar face for people in Ireland and The UK. Ryan O’Shaughnessy was announced as the Irish contestant, yesterday. He will be singing a ‘power ballad with a gospel feel’, according to the male singer-songwriter, which is titled “Together”.
There has been plenty of rumours around RTE One’s decision on who would represent Ireland at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. High on the list was Heathers, who we actually interviewed recently. Apparently, if reports are to be believed, the sister duo were unwilling to sing a song that they didn’t write themselves.
“Together” was actually chosen as the song, roughly a month ago. Ryan O’Shaughnessy co-wrote the song with Mark Caplice and Laura Elizabeth Hughes. The final production of the song will be officially released at a later date.
Ryan O’Shaughnessy first appeared on the first series of The Voice Of Ireland, where he was eliminated in the first week of live shows. He next auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent, series six in 2012, where he sang his original song “No Name”. He was later disqualified as he was contracted to Universal Records due to being on The Voice Of Ireland; luckily, he was sent to the Semi-Finals of Britain’s Got Talent, after being released from his contract. He went on to place fifth on the show. The following year, he appeared on new Irish songwriting show The Hit; where he made it to the final. He’s released a bunch of singles, an EP in 2012, and his debut album was released in 2016.
Check Out RTE One’s Announcement Of Ryan O’Shaughnessy As Ireland’s Eurovision 2018 Representative Here:
RTÉ is delighted to announce the ballad Together penned by Ryan O'Shaughnessy, Mark Caplice and Laura Elizabeth Hughes…
Posted by RTÉ One on Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Ireland will be hoping to defeat their curse of a streak in 2018 with Ryan O’Shaughnessy with the song “Together”. The last four years has seen Ireland fail to qualify for the Grand Final. Ryan Dolan in 2013, was the last representative to make it to the Grand Final, and even then he came last place, 26th, with only five points. The last two years, Ireland has sent a male solo singer, making Ryan O’Shaughnessy the third male solo singer from Ireland in a row, can he do better than Nicky Byrne and Brendan Murray?
To do so, he’ll have to place within the top ten of the first Semi-Final. We hope he even does well at the Grand Final, but it does all depend on staging and the song itself. He’ll be competing against Sennek for Belgium, Saara Aalto for Finland, Waylon for the Netherlands, AISEL for Azerbaijan, Cesar Sampson for Austria, Jessica Mauboy for Australia, Eugent Bushpepa for Albania, Iriao for Georgia, Madame Monsieur for France, Julia Samoylova for Russia, Alfred & Amaia for Spain, and Mikolas Josef for the Czech Republic.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 will be hosted at the Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal; with the two Semi-Finals taking place on 8 May and 10 May and the Grand Final taking place on 12 May. A total of 43 countries will compete in the contest.
