By Anna O'Donoghue
RTÉ has announced that Lesley Roy and her song Story of My Life will represent Ireland in Rotterdam this May.
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.
A lifelong fan of Eurovision, the 33-year-old 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.
For the first time in Irish Eurovision history, RTÉ have also decided to enlist acclaimed theatre and events production company THISISPOPBABY to work on staging and the creative direction of this year’s entry.
Lesley Roy will give her debut TV performance of the entry on The Late Late Show on RTÉ One tomorrow evening.
Ireland will perform at the first semi-final at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday, May 12 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 16.
Could this be the year Ireland restores Eurovision glory?