Lesley Roy will represent Ireland with ‘Story of My Life’ at Eurovision

RTÉ invited established songwriters and artists to submit a song for consideration and made a shortlist from which 'Story of My Life' was chosen.

Roy is a singer-songwriter from Balbriggan in Co. Dublin, who splits her time between New York City and Ireland. She released her debut album, Unbeautiful, in 2008, and has written songs for artists including Adam Lambert, Miss Montreal and Jana Kramer.

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

Lesley said her mindset for the coming months is “to train, rehearse, prepare, perform, execute and hopefully bring Eurovision glory back to Ireland once again.”
“I’m very lucky that I am from the era of Niamh Kavanagh, Paul Harrington, Eimear Quinn and Riverdance years,” Roy added. “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.”

Speaking in the official press release, Ireland’s Head of Delegation Michael Kealy says: “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 of THISISPOPBABY, the theatre and events production company that will work on the staging and the creative direction of Ireland’s entry, said: "We want to encourage Irish artists to get involved in future years – to show them that this contest is modern and fun and an incredible platform for their creativity."

Roy will perform in the first semi-final at the Song Contest on Tuesday May 12 at the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena. Should Ireland progress to the finals, Roy will again perform again on Saturday May 16.

As of now, the shows are set to go ahead amid a growing number of mass gatherings being cancelled or postponed to try and stop the spread of Covid-19.

Read our 2006 interview with Lesley here.