Balbriggan (and the rest of Ireland) was crestfallen on Tuesday night after its home-grown star, Lesley Roy, failed to make the Eurovision final for Ireland with her song Maps, writes Rachel Cunningham
Ten of the 16 acts went through to Saturday’s battle grand final for the first semi-final with the second taking place this Thursday (May 20).
Ms Roy, who was just nine when Ireland last won Eurovision with Eimear Quinn’s The Voice in 1996, has had top 10 success in the U.S. with songs she has written for artists including Katy Perry, Adam Lambert and Miss Montreal.
She was very optimistic about making the final with her upheat rendition but unfortunately for a country which could do no wrong in Eurovision for so long, we now appear to do little right when it comes to garnering votes.
There had been great hopes for Maps even since Leslie premiered her song on The Late Late Show and since then it has amassed almost a million views on YouTube.
Ms Roy is currently the artist in residence of the Irish Institute of Music and Song (IIMS), which is located in Balbriggan.
Although now based in Manhattan in New York, the promising Irish candidate grew up in the town and honed her musical skills there before landing a record deal with Sony.
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