Ireland: Jessica McKean releases her Junior Eurovision 2023 entry “Aisling

• Jessica McKean, representing Ireland in the upcoming Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Nice, France has released her entry 'Aisling' (Dream).

  Jessicas wass selected to fly the flag in Nice after winning Junior Eurovision Éire 2023. Following her victorious participation in the show “Aisling” was composed specially for her.

  On the composition team of the song we see people with past experience from Junior Eurovision and Eurovision. Namely  Niall Mooney, Ken McHugh, Will Weeks, Niamh Mooney and Sophie Lennon are the compoers behind Jessica's entry 'Aisling'. Niall was a co-writer of Ireland’s Eurovision 2009 & 2010 songs and was on the team behind the Junior Eurovision 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021 & 2022 entries. Ken co-wrote Ireland’s entry at Junior Eurovision 2022 while Sophie represented the nation at Junior Eurovision 2022 with “Solas” which achieved the country's best placing coming 4th. 

  Along with the song 'Aisiling' the official music video has been published also. The song itself is very ethereal with a spiritual sound taking us in the world of fairy tales and castles, images of which feature the music video. 

   

  Ireland in Junior Eurovision 

  Ireland has participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest five times since their first appearance in the 2015 contest. The Irish language broadcaster, TG4, is responsible for the country's participation in the contest, and uses the national final Junior Eurovision Éire to select the Irish entries.

  Ireland debuted in the contest when TG4 participated in the 2015 contest in Sofia, Bulgaria, when the song "Réalta na mara" performed by Aimee Banks placed 12th in a field of 17 countries.  Ireland has achieved one top ten placing, in 2016 when the song "Bríce ar bhríce" performed by Zena Donnelly placed 10th.

  In Gliwice-Silesia at JESC 2019 Anna Kearney represented Ireland with her song "Banshee"  which finished 12th receiving 73 points. Despite having initially confirmed their participation in the 2020 contest in Warsaw, Poland in January 2020, TG4 announced in August 2020 that they would not participate in the contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  In 2021, Maiú Levi Lawlor represented the nation with “Saor (Disappear)”. He finished 18th with 44 points. Sophie Lennon and her song “Solas” finished in 4th place with 150 points in 2022 edition of the contest achieving the best place for Ireland so far.

   

  News Source: TG4

  Image: Aisiling YT video

   

   

   

AUTHORS

Angelos D.
Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.