The official music video for “Súile Glasa”, the Irish entry for this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest, has been released on the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest Youtube channel.
The song was composed and written by Muireann McDonnell, making her song the only song in this year’s contest to be completely written by a contestant with no help from any adults. The song is sung completely in Irish.
Muireann McDonnell was selected to represent Ireland through the national selection, Junior Eurovision Éire. 32 songs competed across four semi-finals. In each semi-final, a judging panel consisting of Bláthnaid Tracey, Fiachna Ó Braonáin and a different guest judge every week, chose two acts to advance to a final duel, from which one act was selected to advance to the final. The guest judge for the final was Linda Martin (Ireland 1983 and 1992). In addition to the four semi-final winners, two wildcards were selected from the acts that did not win their semi-finals.
Competing in the final were:
- Úna Ní Mhistéil – Álainn (Beautiful)
- Muireann McDonnell – Súile Glasa (Green Eyes)
- Mini Mix (wildcard) – Cairde Go Deo (Friends Forever)
- Sinéad Carr – Cén Fáth? (Why?)
- Gwenaelle Noval – Lig Dom Lonrú (Let Me Shine)
- Judy Langan (wildcard) – Draoícht an Cheoil (Magic of Music)
Gwenaelle Noval and Muireann McDonnell were chosen by the judging panel to advance to the final duel. Muireann received the majority of votes from the panel and was awarded the Irish ticket to Tbilisi.
Ireland in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Ireland debuted in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest at the 2015 contest in Sofia, Bulgaria. The countries participation is organised by the Irish language broadcaster, TG4. At the 2015 contest in Bulgaria Ireland was represented by Aimee Banks with the song “Réalta na Mara”, she finished 12th in the final. At the 2016 contest in Malta, Ireland was represented by Zena Donelly with the song “Bríce ar Bhríce”. She finished 10th in the final scoring a total of 122 points, including receiving the countries first 12 points in the contest.
I had a feeling she’d be off to Tbilisi right now. Good luck, Muireann! 🙂