Lesley Roy
Lesley Roy (born 17 September 1986) is a singer-songwriter from Balbriggan in Dublin, Ireland. She was signed to an independent Irish label and in 2006, licensed to US label, Jive Records. She released her debut album, Unbeautiful in 2008, which was executive produced by Max Martin. Until switching her focus to songwriting, and attracting the attention of Marc Jordan, the manager credited for launching the career of Rihanna and owner of Rebel One Management & Publishing. As a songwriter Roy has experienced international success with releases for artists including Adam Lambert, Miss Montreal, Medina, Jana Kramer, and Marlee Scott.
Lesley Roy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 September 1986 Dublin, Ireland |
| Origin | Balbriggan, Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Alternative rock, pop rock |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Labels | Jive Records |
| Website | myspace |
Unbeautiful (2008–2009)
Jive Records A&R Jeff Fenster noticed Roy's work at HitQuarters,[1] and agreed to jointly finance Roy's first album project. The debut album, titled Unbeautiful was released on 30 September 2008.[1] According to Soundscan Unbeautiful sold 45,000 albums and 350,000 digital downloads. The album peaked on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart at No. 5.[2] Her first single "I'm Gone, I'm Going" was the 48th most played song on Hot AC radio stations for the week ending 24 June 2008,[3] then charted at No. 36 on Billboard's Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks and No. 61 on Billboard's Pop 100 Airplay chart.[2] "I'm Gone, I'm Going" was the theme tune for MTV's show Exiled, and was featured on an episode of The Hills.[4] Roy appeared on FNMTV on 18 July 2008, to release the track's video.[1] "I'm Gone, I'm Going" was highlighted as a downloadable track in Rock Band 2. Her second single was "Unbeautiful", the title track from the album. It peaked on Billboard's Pop 100 Airplay chart at No. 39 and was also featured on an episode of The Hills.[2][4] "Thinking Out Loud" was also featured on an episode of The Hills.[4] The song "Slow Goodbye" was co-written by Katy Perry.[1] Other songwriters who collaborated on Unbeautiful with Roy include Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha, Desmond Child, Dave Hodges, Emanuel Kiriakou, Kara DioGuardi, Greg Wells, Mitch Allen and Andreas Carlsson.[4] Also notable is that Unbeautiful was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. In early 2009, Roy provided tour support on a 32-city tour for American Idol runner-up and hit recording artist David Archuleta. In late 2009, Roy paid tribute to her Irish roots by recording a cover of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Names" for a video montage featured in the New York City Marathon airing worldwide.
Songwriting (2010–present)
Under the management of Benjamin Tischker at Wide Eyed Entertainment, Roy signed to Marc Jordan's Rebel One Publishing then placed three songs with Wal-Mart's debut artist, Ashlyne Huff, for her album, Let It Out, released on 7 June 2011. While working on Huff's album, Roy teamed up with some of the industry's biggest talents including, The Writing Camp, Eric Bellinger and Jerrod Bettis. On 13 April 2012, Dutch singer-songwriter, Miss Montreal, released I Am Hunter which Roy co-wrote three songs including the title track and single, "I Am Hunter", that reached No. 28 on the Dutch Top 40 chart.[5] Roy also co-wrote the proceeding single "Better When It Hurts" and "Everything". On 15 May 2012, American singer, Adam Lambert released Trespassing, his second studio album, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, marking Roy's first co-write on a No. 1 album for the track "Pop That Lock" included on Trespassing. Roy collaborated with Danish production team, DEEKAY, Tim McEwan and Johannes Jørgensen on "Waiting for Love" for Danish singer, Medina's album, Forever, released on 1 June 2012, in Europe through EMI. Also in June 2012, Roy released two country music co-writes. "Goodbye California" with American actress of One Tree Hill and country music singer, Jana Kramer, for her self-titled debut album. Then joining back up with Desmond Child to co-write, "Rhinestone in the Rough" for Canadian country singer-songwriter Marlee Scott's album Beautiful Maybe. In 2016 she provided the lead vocals for the entrance theme of wrestler Ember Moon in collaboration with CFO$ for the song "Free the Flame". The song is as of 2020 still used for Ember Moon.
Eurovision Song Contest 2020
On March 5, 2020 it was announced by RTE that Roy was chosen to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song ”Story of My Life”.[6] She would have performed in the first semi final on May 12, 2020, however on March 18, 2020, the event was cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak. It is currently unknown if Roy will represent Ireland in the 2021 event.
Personal life
Roy has been married to her American wife since 2010.[7]
Discography
Albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat. | |||
| Unbeautiful |
|
5 |
|
Singles
| Single | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Pop |
US Main. |
US AC |
SWE | VE | GER | DU | NOR | |||||||||||||
| "I'm Gone, I'm Going" | 2008 | — | 85 | — | 48 | 28 | — | — | — | — | Unbeautiful | ||||||||||
| "Unbeautiful" | 114 | 53 | 31 | — | 6 | 2 | 15 | 16 | 5 | ||||||||||||
| "Hang On" | 2016 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | ||||||||||
| "Blood on Your Hands" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| "Free the Flame (Ember Moon)" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| "Story of My Life" | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Gold" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Songwriting discography
| Year | Artist | Album | Song | Co-written with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Ashlyne Huff | "Let It Out" | "Let It Out" | Ashlyne Huff, Jerrod Bettis, Shari Short, Noel Zancanella |
| "Own the Night" | Eric Bellinger, Evan "Kidd" Bogart, Gregory Ogan | |||
| "Runaway" | David "DQ" Quiñones, Evan "Kidd" Bogart, Ramon Reo Owen | |||
| 2012 | Adam Lambert | Trespassing | "Pop That Lock" | Adam Lambert, Robert Marvin, Josh Crosby, Nate Campany |
| Miss Montreal | "I am Hunter" | Nate Campany, Sanne Hans | ||
| "Better When It Hurts" | Sanne Hans | |||
| I Am Hunter | "Everything" | Nate Campany, Josh Crosby Sanne Hans | ||
| Medina | Forever | "Waiting for Love" | Tim McEwan & Johannes Jørgensen | |
| Jana Kramer | Jana Kramer | "Goodbye California" | Jana Kramer, Josh Crosby and Catt Gravitt | |
| Marlee Scott | Beautiful Maybe | "Rhinestone in the Rough" | Desmond Child & Barry Dean |
References
- Leggett, Steve. "Lesley Roy Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- "Glenn Herlihy interview". HitQuarters. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
- "Lesley Roy chart listings". Billboard magazine. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2008.
- "'FNMTV' Sneak Peek: The Buzz on Lesley Roy". MTV. 18 July 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2008.
- "Miss Montreal – I am Hunter". acharts.us.
- "🇮🇪 Lesley Roy will wave the Irish flag at Eurovision 2020 with the song "Story Of My Life"". 5 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- Martin, Megan. "Who is Lesley Roy? Balbriggan native, music career, wife and Eurovision". RSVP Live. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
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