(Photograph Courtesy of escwebs.net)

Ireland has just selected their representative for Eurovision 2013 and it will be Ryan Dolan. Ryan performed the song “Only Love Survives” that he co-wrote with Wez Devine. In a jam-packed show displaying lots of fresh new Irish Talent, it was a very close race between all the 5 acts. Each of them gave sterling performances at the Eurosong contest on The Late Late Show this evening.

With an interval act that included 2006 Eurovision Winners Lordi from Finland it was then down to the business of voting. There were 5 regional juries that awarded points 4/6/8/10 and a maximum 12 points. The juries were based in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Dundalk and Dublin.

After the jury vote the results were as follows

Act 1 Inchequin – 34 points

Act 2 Aimee  – 54 points

Act 3 Zoe – 24 points

Act 4 Ryan – 52 points

Act 5 Kasey – 36 points

Then came the all important Public Vote. They were as follows

20 Points to Act 1 – Inchequin

30 Points to Act 3 – Fire

40 Points to Act 5 – Kasey

50 Points to  2 – Aimee

60 Points to Act 4 Ryan 

When the Jury and Public Votes were combined this gave a grand total of

1st Place – Ryan Dolan – 112 Points

2nd Place – Aimee – 104 Points

3rd Place – Kasey – 76 Points

4th Place – Zoe – 54 Points

5th Place – Inchequin – 54 Points

Therefore Ryan Dolan was successfully chosen to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with his song “Only Love Survives” which is an extremely popular choice among the audience and our readers. Ryan is mentored by none other than Stuart O’Connor of Spotlight Productions. Stuart is no stranger to Eurovision as he has worked with Eurovision Stars Jedward, Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh and Johnny Logan throughout his career. We have great hopes for Ireland/Ryan and Stuart this year at the contest in Sweden. Not only that but the lovely Leanne Moore will be back at Eurovision for her 3rd time in a row, as she is one of Ryan’s backing singers like she was with Jedward.

(Photograph Courtesy of www.limerickleader.ie)

Congratulations to all the performers, composers and mentors tonight. It was certainly one of the highest quality Eurosong Finals in some years. We will certainly be meeting up with Ryan over the coming weeks as he prepares for Eurovision in Sweden.

It was interesting to see that Ryan narrowly came second in our on-line poll. Inchequin had taken the lead in our poll in the closing day but was good to see the strong support for Ryan throughout the week.

“Only Love Survives” is available to download on i-tunes so make sure you do and let’s make it another Eurosong #1 in the Irish charts. Also we must mention that all of the tonight’s amazing songs are available to download. Let’s help support our Irish Talent and get them all into the Irish Top 10.

(YouTube Video Courtesy of Ryan Dolan)

Source : Eurovision Ireland