IRELAND 2021

The Irish song was revealed on February 26h, via its premier play on the radio channel 2FM and then its first performance on The Late Late Show later that evening. Back in December RTE revealed that their 2020 representative, Lesley Roy, had been selected again for 2021. Her song is called "Maps" 

Lesley's video is all filmed outside. Through different parts of the song she is running through forests and scrubland and singing in clearings. There are plenty of action shots but also lots of views, especially from the air. Being the Irish countryside, it's not all bright cloudless skies, sunlit shadows and long shots of the horizon - this is much more gritty. Although the colour palette is muted, it still shows a charm and strength which kind of goes arm in arm with the heart of the song. It ends with Lesley looking out onto a windswept beach. 

This song follows a much more conventional song structure compared to some of the songs I have already reviewed this Eurovision. There is a short string led intro which sets up up for the really full backing track about to hit us. We have a verse/prechorus/chorus repeated twice which takes us easily to just before the 2 minute mark. The verses have a steady beat accentuated by the odd sprinkling of strings, as the prechorus comes in the galloping drum beat gathers pace and volume and song starts to fill out. During the chorus the backing track feels like a wall of noise and accentuates the optimistic and positive outlook of the song. At the end of the song we have a bridge which helps lower the pace, change the rhythm before one last chorus.

Lesley has been in the business since 2008 when she released her solo album "Unbeautiful" with some success in America. However from here she changed tack and focused more on song writing for other artists, including a song on Adam Lambert's "Trespassing" album. Lesley's song for Eurovision 2020 had many fans, having had a Katy Perry-esque vibe to it. After the contest was cancelled she kept up her online profile with the Eurovision community and many were relieved to see that she had been reselected again.

I am pleased to see that Lesley has gone in a slightly different direction from last year and this song seems a lot more emotional and positive in a kinder but unconventional way. "Story of my life" was not one of my personal favourites and so the bar was low in order to better it this time round. The galloping drum beats during the chorus is a really simple and effective way to make the song stand out as well as giving it a real primal urge. I also hope that the sights of Ireland from the video are used somehow in the backdrop as it ties in really well with the song. Obviously we have not seen her sing the song live yet - and her first public performance of her 2020 did not go very well - but I think she will be less nervous this time around and she will know that a lot of people around the world are supporting her this time round.

ARTIST - Lesley Roy
SONG - Maps
WRITING CREDITS - Emelie Eriksson, Lukas Hällgren, Lesley Roy, Philip Strand