RTÉ REVEALS EUROVISION 2019 SONG AND VIDEO “22” PERFORMED BY SINGER SARAH MCTERNAN
RTÉ has revealed the act, song and accompanying video that will represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The song entitled “22” will be performed by Sarah McTernan and was written by Janieck, Marcia “Misha” Sondeijker and Roulsen.
Speaking about being selected to represent Ireland, Sarah said, “It’s like an early birthday present! My 25th birthday is next Monday and if you’d told me last year that I’d be chosen to represent my country at Eurovision, performing the song for the first time on Dancing with the Stars this Sunday, and then flying to Tel Aviv on my birthday to record a postcard, I would have told you – you were crazy! My Mom, Nana, family and friends are super excited for me – they’re shocked and very proud. I can’t wait to teach my biggest fan – my 2 ½ year old daughter Mia- all the lyrics to “22”!”
Irish Head of Delegation Michael Kealy said, “We received a huge amount of entries for this year thanks in part to Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s great performance in Lisbon last year. Sarah has an amazing voice which stood out the minute I heard it and she fits perfectly with our chosen song “22”. I think the Eurovision audience will love her, now it’s full steam ahead preparing for her performance in Tel Aviv in May.”
The song will receive its first airplay at 9am on Friday morning on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1. Sarah will be interviewed on The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene on 2FM at 12:30pm on Friday, and by Ray D’Arcy on RTÉ Radio 1 at 3pm. Sarah will perform the song for the first time on Dancing with the Stars on RTÉ One on Sunday March 10th as part of a special Eurovision Song Contest themed programme, which will also feature a performance from Eurovision legend Johnny Logan.
Sarah McTernan will compete in the second Eurovision Semi Final in Tel Aviv on Thursday May 16.
Filmed on Dollymount Strand the video for “22” was directed by Christian Tierney who has worked with artists including Hozier, Niall Horan, The Weeknd, Macklemore, Demi Lovato, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, The 1975, James Bay as well as for organisations like TIDAL, Universal, Sony and Warner Music. Christian directed the video for Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s Eurovision 2018 entry “Together.” (See video link at the end of press release) http://christiantierney.com/about/
In August of 2018, RTÉ held its second annual Eurovision Song Contest Forum and invited key industry professionals, songwriters and performers to come to RTÉ to gain a deeper insight into the present day contest from international Eurovision experts and key RTÉ decision makers. Over 430 songs were submitted to RTÉ for consideration before the November deadline. Several panels comprising music experts, journalists, Eurovision fans and students from BIMM shortlisted the entries received and ultimately the song “22” was selected as Ireland’s entry.
The Eurovision Song Contest semi finals take place in Tel Aviv, Israel this summer on Tuesday May 14 and Thursday May 16 with the grand final taking place on Saturday May 18. Sarah will perform “22” in the second semi final on Thursday in the Pavilion 2 of Expo Tel Aviv which has a capacity of up to 10,000.
The ESC is the largest entertainment show in the world and is consistently one of the most popular annual television events both in Ireland and across Europe. Last year’s Eurovision, hosted by RTP in Lisbon, Portugal reached a total of 186 million viewers. The final of the Eurovision Song Contest on RTÉ One in May ranked 11th in the most watched television programmes of 2018 with an average viewership of 701,900 viewers and a 51% share.
ABOUT SARAH MCTERNAN
Sarah McTernan (born 11 March 1994) is an Irish singer songwriter from Scariff, County Clare. She came in third place in the fourth series of The Voice of Ireland in April 2015. At her blind audition she sang “Who You Are“, and all four judges turned their chairs. Her coach and mentor was Rachel Stevens of S Club 7 fame. In the first live show, Sarah sang “What I Did For Love” by David Guetta featuring Emeli Sande.
Sarah is an only child and has a 2 ½ year old daughter Mia who also loves to sing. After graduating from secondary school in 2011, Sarah took a pre-nursing course in Ennis, County Clare. She then went on to study Music Technology at Limerick Institute of Technology after which she took a break from education and worked as a retail employee in Penneys (Primark).
In November 2014, after getting through the blind auditions on The Voice of Ireland, without ever doing any gigs, Sarah set up her own band called “The Jeds”. The band performs at weddings and gig around Clare and Munster. Sarah plays traditional violin, guitar, ukulele, piano and tin whistle.
Sarah also worked as a makeup artist with the Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics brand in Brown Thomas Limerick before her daughter was born.
In November 2017 Sarah competed to represent San Marino for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon. Sarah entered a song called “Eye of the Storm” written by Swedish song writers and identical twin sisters Ylva and Linda Perssons.
SONGWRITER BIOGRAPHIES
Singer-songwriter and guitar soloist Janieck, first known for his worldwide hit ‘Reality’ alongside Lost Frequencies, is currently bridging the gap between dance and pop music in his very own style. After making his acting debut in 2004, playing the lead role in the Dutch movie ‘Pluk van de Petteflet’ (2004) Janieck played roles in the movies ‘Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek’ and ‘My Queen Karo’. During those movies he started playing the guitar in order to kill time on the set.
The song “Reality” he co-wrote with the Belgian DJ Lost Frequencies, rocketed Janieck’s career at the age of 20, topping the European sales and airplay charts in 2015 (197 million views on You Tube). Following this success Janieck got signed to Spinnin’ Records in 2016, where he released his successful solo singles such as ‘Feel The Love’ and ’Does it Matter”. In 2017 the song ‘Little Hollywood’, a collaboration between Janieck and the German DJ Alle Farben, became the #1 airplay song in Germany (22 million views on You Tube). The single was eventually nominated for the 1Live Award for best single of 2017. The year 2018 started with the release of the single ‘You Don’t Have To Like It”, a collaboration between Janieck and DJ act Lucas & Steve, and a single collaboration entitled “To Rome” with the artist Deepend.
Marcia “Misha” Sondeijker is a songwriter/vocalist hailing from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She kicked off her songwriting career by participating with a songwriting contest ‘The Hit’ on Dutch television where she came second in DJ Chuckie’s team with her song ‘Go Ahead’. With songwriting credits for the BBC Eurovision ‘You Decide’ show in 2018, three of her songs made it to the top 10. Her recent DJ collaborations include ‘Home’ with Madison Mars (Billboard top #30 USA).
Born Roel Rats in Utrecht, Roulsen has been surrounded by music from an early age. He cut his teeth learning to play the piano that, a few years later, evolved into working as part of the DJ duo RoulnDoors. The duo was supported by world’s biggest acts and played gigs all over the world including Sensation, Ministry of Sound London and Avicii’s tour. After eight fruitful years of DJing, Roulsen started writing and producing music for artist and acts worldwide.
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For further information please contact:
Eurovision Irish Head of Press: Rayna Connery E: rayna.connery@rte.ie T: 01 2083169/ M: 087 9862902
Editor’s Notes:
VIEWING FIGURES
The ESC is the largest entertainment show in the world and is consistently one of the most popular annual television events both in Ireland and across Europe. Last year’s Eurovision, hosted by Lisbon in Portugal reached a total of 186 million viewers. In addition, there were 6.6 million live streaming sessions in 198 territories across the three shows on the official YouTube channel, an increase of 10% compared to last year. 2.2 million unique viewers tuned in for the Grand Final on YouTube. The Grand Final of the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest was also broadcast by thirteen EBU Radio organisations.
The Final of the Eurovision Song Contest on RTÉ One in May ranked 11th in the most watched television programmes of 2018 with an average viewership of 701,900 viewers and a 51% share.
Source: https://eurovision.tv/story/186-million-viewers-2018-eurovision-song-contest
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The 2018 Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest achieved, on average, around the same TV audience share as 2017 of 35.8% – more than double the average prime-time viewing share for the same group of channels (15.3%).
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PREVIOUS IRISH WINNERS
Ireland still holds the record for most Eurovision wins with seven songs:
1970 Dana All Kinds of Everything
1980 Johnny Logan What’s Another Year
1987 Johnny Logan Hold Me Now
1992 Linda Martin Why Me?
1993 Niamh Kavanagh In Your Eyes
1994 Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan Rock n Roll Kids
1996 Eimear Quinn The Voice