Ireland: It's Sophie Lennon for Junior Eurovision 2022

Ireland: It's Sophie Lennon for Junior Eurovision 2022
Monday, 24 October 2022

  • Ireland has decided to send Sophie Lennon to Yerevan, Armenia to fly the flag at Junior Eurovision 2022.

    Sophie Lennon won the Irish national final Junior Eurovision Éire 2022 and will be representing Ireland at the 20th edition of Junior Eurovision set to take on December 11, 2022 in Yerevan, Armenia. 

    After four qualifying rounds and last week's semi-final heat that determined the three finalists, the final show of Junior Eurovision Éire 2022 took place with the public voting, which opened after the semifinals,  determining the final outcome of the show. The final show will be hosted once again by the duo Louise Cantillon and Darragh Ó Caoimh. 

    Like in the previous rounds the permanent jury panel featured also the final show with Brian Kennedy, who represented the nation in Eurovision 2006 in Athens with the song 'Every song is a cry for love' filling in the third judge's place. The other two permanent jurors were: 

    • Niamh Ní Chróinín – Host of TG4 youth programming Cúla4, headof Irish-language radio station Raidió Rí-Rá for young people
    • Chris Greene – RTÉ 2fm host

    The three finalists performed twice during the final, one cover in Irish of a well known song and one past Eurovision entry. Here are the acts and their respective songs we watched this evening: 

     

    Clare Keeley – “Circle of Life” / “Hold Me Now”

     

    Sophie Lennon – “Leave a Light On” / “Why Me?” 

     

    Niamh Noade – “Pompeii” / “Rock’n’Roll Kids”

    The public voting exclusively declared Sophie Lennon as the big winner and the next Irish Junior Eurovision representative. Sophie's song will be compoesed and released over the following weeks. Watch also below the first song performance by Sophie: 

     

    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.

    Last year Paris, Maiú Levi Lawlor represented the nation with “Saor (Disappear)”. He finished 18th with 44 points.