RTÉ unveils Lesley Roy and Story of My Life in bid to reclaim Ireland’s Eurovision glory days

2020 marks 50 year’s since Dana Rosemary Scallon’s Eurovision glory for Ireland with All Kinds of Everything in The Netherlands. With six subsequent wins under our belts, and still the holders of the title of most Eurovision wins in history, RTÉ are proud to announce that Lesley Roy and her song Story of My Life will represent Ireland in Rotterdam this May.

This year, RTÉ invited established songwriters and artists to submit a song for consideration to us. RTÉ Entertainment, in conjunction with 2FM, then made a shortlist from which Story of My Life, an uplifting pop number, by Lesley Roy, was chosen. For the first time in Irish Eurovision history, RTÉ have selected acclaimed theatre and events production company THISISPOPBABY to work on staging and the creative direction of Ireland’s entry this year. With a brand new direction, could this be the year Ireland restores Eurovision glory?

Michael Kealy, Head of the Ireland Delegation for Eurovision 2020, said: “We are extremely excited about Lesley Roy and this year’s Irish entry, Story of My Life. The song is fresh and uplifting, it’s a banger, and we are very much looking forward to working with Lesley and THISISPOPBABY in preparation for our performance on the biggest music stage in the world in Rotterdam in May.”

Phillip McMahon, Creative Director at THISISPOPBABY, said: “THISISPOPBABY are thrilled and proud to be asked to be on Team Ireland for Eurovision 2020. It’s a celebration of Irish creativity and we couldn’t be more excited for Rotterdam. As Creative Directors, our vision is simple, we want to encourage Irish artists, musical and visual, to get involved in future years – to show them that this contest is modern and fun and an incredible platform for their creativity.”

Talented Dubliner Lesley will take to the stage in Rotterdam this May to sing Story of My Life, a song she co-wrote and produced. The song had its first airplay this morning on 2fm Breakfast with Doireann and Eoghan. Lesley Roy will give her debut TV performance of the entry on The Late Late Show on RTÉ One tomorrow evening.

Ireland will perform in at the first semi-final at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday May 12th at the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena. Should Ireland progress to the finals, Lesley will once again perform Story of My Life at the arena on Saturday May 16th.

About Lesley Roy
Lesley Roy is a singer/songwriter from Balbriggan Co.Dublin, who splits her time between her home in the East Village in NYC and Ireland. Lesley released her debut album, Unbeautiful, in 2008 on Jive/Sony Records, which was executive produced by Max Martin. As a songwriter, Lesley’s career has been prolific, lending her talents to numbers performed by artists including Adam Lambert, Miss Montreal, Medina, Jana Kramer, Marlee Scott  and Deorro. A lifelong fan of Eurovision, Lesley Roy said that getting to represent Ireland in 2020 with a song she worked extremely hard on has meant that one of her lifetime ambitions has been fulfilled.

“I’m very lucky that I am from the era of Niamh Kavanagh, Paul Harrington, Eimear Quinn, Riverdance years,” Lesley said.

“I feel like the back to back years watching it live from the Point Depot with Gerry Ryan hosting and the explosion of Riverdance left a very deep impression on me as a kid. I definitely made a mental note that this is something I would love to do for Ireland when I grew up. I think I have a very high standard of what a Eurovision song should be because of those memories and that definitely informed the type of song I would send.”

Of her Eurovision ambitions for Rotterdam 2020, Lesley said: “My mindset for the coming months is to train, rehearse, prepare, perform, execute and hopefully bring Eurovision glory back to Ireland once again.”

For more information on RTÉ and Eurovision, visit www.rte.ie/eurovision.

About Story of my Life

Ireland’s entry, Story of my Life, was penned and co-produced by Lesley Roy alongside some of her favourite co-writers in Nashville – Robert Marvin, Catt Gravitt and Tom Shapiro.

“We wanted something uptempo and triumphant, which centres around overcoming your difficulties in life and getting back up again,” Lesley said.