After several quiet months, the Irish broadcaster RTÉ has finally announced their representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, and it’s Sarah McTernan who will represent Ireland in Tel Aviv with “22”.
According to RTÉ, they have received a huge amount of entries for this year, thanks to Ryan O’Shaughnessy‘s success in Lisbon last year. Also, over 430 songs were submitted to them for consideration, from which they ultimately chose the winning song, written by Janieck, Marcia “Misha” Sondeijker and Roulsen.
As for Sarah, she is a 25-year-old Irish singer-songwriter, who rose to fame after coming third in The Voice of Ireland 2015. So far, she has released one single called “Eye of the Storm”, written by Linda Persson and Ylva.
The music video for “22” was directed by Christian Tierney who has worked with artists including Niall Horan, The Weeknd, Macklemore, Demi Lovato, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, The 1975, Hozier and James Bay.
Watch the official music video for “22” below:
After failing to qualify four times since 2014, Ryan O’Shaughnessy finally took Ireland back to the final last year. There he finished 16th out of the 26 songs. Now, will they qualify to the Grand Final again?
Ireland will compete in the second semi-final on the 16th of May.
Announced acts so far for this years Eurovision Song Contest are Srbuk for Armenia, Tamta for Cyprus, Jonida Maliqi for Albania, Eliot for Belgium, Miki for Spain, Serhat for San Marino, Duncan Laurence for The Netherlands, Tamara Todevska for North Macedonia, Michela Pace for Malta, Bilal Hassani for France, Lake Malawi for the Czech Republic, PÆNDA for Austria, Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman for Finland. Michael Rice for the United Kingdom, Sergey Lazarev for Russia, Mahmood for Italy, Kate Miller-Heidke for Australia, D-Moll for Montenegro, Kobi Marimi for Israel, Katerine Duska for Greece, Joci Pápai for Hungary, Jurijus for Lithuania, Leonora for Denmark, S!sters for Germany, Ester Peony for Romania, Victor Crone for Estonia, Roko for Croatia, Carousel for Latvia, Tulia for Poland, Hatari for Iceland, Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl for Slovenia, KEiiNO for Norway, Nevena Bozovic for Serbia, Conan Osíris for Portugal, Oto Nemsadze for Georgia, Anna Odobescu for Moldova, Luca Hänni for Switzerland, John Lundwick for Sweden and Zena for Belarus. The other countries are expected to reveal their acts in the forthcoming days.
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted at the Expo Tel Aviv in Israel after Netta won last year with the song “Toy”. The two Semi-Finals will take place on 14 May and 16 May with the Grand Final taking place on 18 May. A total of 41 countries will compete in the contest.