Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "22", performed by Sarah McTernan and written by Janieck Devy, Marcia "Misha" Sondeijker, and Roel Rats. The song and the singer were internally selected in March 2019 by the Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) to represent the nation at the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	Ireland
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	8 March 2019
Selected entrant	Sarah McTernan
Selected song	"22"
Selected songwriter(s)	Janieck van de Polder Marcia "Misha" Sondeijker Roel Rats
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to Qualify (18th, 16 points)
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

Background

Main article: Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Ireland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 51 times since its first entry in 1965.[1] Ireland has won the contest a record seven times in total. The country's first win came in 1970, with then-18-year-old Dana winning with "All Kinds of Everything". Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter). In 2011 and 2012, Jedward represented the nation for two consecutive years, managing to qualify to the final both times and achieve Ireland's highest position in the contest since 2000, placing eighth in 2011 with the song "Lipstick". However, in 2013, despite managing to qualify to the final, Ryan Dolan and his song "Only Love Survives" placed last in the final. The Irish entries in 2014, "Heartbeat" performed by Can-Linn featuring Kasey Smith, in 2015, "Playing with Numbers" performed by Molly Sterling, in 2016 "Sunlight" performed by Nicky Byrne, and in 2017 "Dying to Try" performed by Brendan Murray all failed to qualify to the final. Ireland once again qualified for the final in 2018 with the song Together performed by Ryan O'Shaughnessy, placing 16th in the grand final.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 8 March 2019, RTÉ announced Sarah McTernan as the Irish entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "22".[2]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[3]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Ireland was set to perform in position 2, following the entry from Armenia and preceding the entry from Moldova.[4]

Semi-final

Ireland performed second in the second semi-final, following the entry from Armenia and preceding the entry from Moldova. At the end of the show, Ireland was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final.It was later revealed that country placed last (eighteenth) in the semi-final, receiving a total of 16 points: 3 points from the televoting and 13 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Ireland would have ranked 17th with 3 points.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[5]

Points awarded to Ireland

Points awarded to Ireland (Semi-final 2)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
		United Kingdom
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
		Italy
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Moldova

Points awarded by Ireland

Semi-final 2 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Lithuania  Sweden 10 points  Norway   Switzerland 8 points  Netherlands  Netherlands 7 points  Russia  Norway 6 points   Switzerland  North Macedonia 5 points  Sweden  Azerbaijan 4 points  Malta  Malta 3 points  Azerbaijan  Denmark 2 points  Denmark  Armenia 1 point  Romania  Croatia

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Norway  Sweden 10 points  Australia   Switzerland 8 points  Netherlands  Netherlands 7 points   Switzerland  Azerbaijan 6 points  Iceland  Norway 5 points  Russia  North Macedonia 4 points  Italy  Australia 3 points  United Kingdom  Russia 2 points  Sweden  Germany 1 point  Estonia  Italy

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Irish jury:[5]

• Paddy McKenna – Chairperson – singer, songwriter, band lead singer, broadcaster
• Emma Reynolds – singer
• Jennifer O'Brien – music and entertainment journalist
• Aidan O'Connor – songwriter
• Ronan Hardiman – composer, songwriter

Split voting results from Ireland (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		P. McKenna	E. Reynolds	J. O'Brien	A. O'Connor	R. Hardiman	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Armenia	16	11	4	10	7	9	2	16
02	Ireland
03	Moldova	15	13	13	14	14	16		13
04	Switzerland	8	1	2	1	6	2	10	5	6
05	Latvia	17	15	16	17	10	17		11
06	Romania	14	9	12	15	11	15		10	1
07	Denmark	7	3	17	12	9	8	3	9	2
08	Sweden	3	2	3	2	1	1	12	6	5
09	Austria	13	12	15	3	17	12		17
10	Croatia	6	8	7	13	12	10	1	12
11	Malta	5	14	10	5	8	7	4	7	4
12	Lithuania	9	17	8	7	16	13		1	12
13	Russia	12	10	9	11	5	11		4	7
14	Albania	4	16	14	16	15	14		15
15	Norway	1	7	6	4	13	4	7	2	10
16	Netherlands	2	4	1	8	4	3	8	3	8
17	North Macedonia	11	6	5	9	2	5	6	14
18	Azerbaijan	10	5	11	6	3	6	5	8	3

Split voting results from Ireland (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		P. McKenna	E. Reynolds	J. O'Brien	A. O'Connor	R. Hardiman	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	13	16	17	6	9	11		15
02	Albania	11	24	21	25	24	22		25
03	Czech Republic	23	12	20	14	10	19		16
04	Germany	3	23	11	19	16	9	2	23
05	Russia	15	7	10	16	7	8	3	6	5
06	Denmark	10	9	25	18	15	14		12
07	San Marino	24	18	26	23	22	25		22
08	North Macedonia	9	6	5	8	3	6	5	17
09	Sweden	6	2	1	2	1	1	12	9	2
10	Slovenia	25	20	23	26	25	26		19
11	Cyprus	18	17	13	9	20	18		20
12	Netherlands	2	3	2	10	4	3	8	3	8
13	Greece	26	15	24	11	23	21		26
14	Israel	22	25	18	3	18	12		18
15	Norway	1	8	6	4	14	5	6	1	12
16	United Kingdom	12	19	12	13	12	16		8	3
17	Iceland	17	10	15	12	21	17		5	6
18	Estonia	19	13	22	7	17	13		10	1
19	Belarus	14	22	16	24	19	23		21
20	Azerbaijan	5	5	7	5	2	4	7	13
21	France	16	21	8	22	11	15		14
22	Italy	7	14	9	20	8	10	1	7	4
23	Serbia	21	11	19	15	13	20		24
24	Switzerland	4	1	3	1	5	2	10	4	7
25	Australia	8	4	4	17	6	7	4	2	10
26	Spain	20	26	14	21	26	24		11

OGAE Poll

Further information: OGAE

OGAE is an international organisation founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen.[6] It consists of a network of over 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profit company.[7] In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll took place before the main Eurovision Song Contest allowing members from over 40 clubs to vote for their favourite songs in the contest.

In OGAE Poll 2019, 45 clubs have voted. At the end of the voting, Ireland ranked 30th (last) joint with 0 points.

Points awarded to Ireland

Points awarded to Ireland (OGAE Poll)
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point

Points awarded by Ireland

OGAE Poll
Score	Total
12 points	Netherlands
10 points	Switzerland
8 points	Sweden
7 points	Italy
6 points	Iceland
5 points	Azerbaijan
4 points	Cyprus
3 points	Norway
2 points	Russia
1 point	Greece

References

1. "Ireland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
2. "Ireland's Eurovision contestant and song revealed". RTÉ. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
3. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
4. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
5. Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
6. OGAE (15 June 2012). "Eurovision Fanclub Network". ogae.net. OGAE. Archived from the original on 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
7. "Klubi-info: Mikä ihmeen OGAE?" [The club info: What on Earth is OGAE?] (in Finnish). OGAE Finland. 5 June 2012. Archived from the original on 10 August 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2012.