Ireland: RTE confirms participation in ESC 2016

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 4,598 views

RTE, the Irish national broadcaster has confirmed to ESCToday that Ireland will participate at the forthcoming 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden next year.

Hence Ireland is the 7th country to confirm its participation at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest and thus joins Estonia, Latvia, Belgium, Finland, Denmark and host country Sweden all of whom have confirmed their participation in Sweden next year.

Ireland opted for an open national selection/national final Eurosong 2015 where Molly Sterling was awarded the golden ticket to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest with her entry Playing with numbers. Despite a great performance Ireland failed to qualify to the grand final in Vienna.

It is yet unclear the mechanism and method RTE will use to select for Eurovision 2016 is yet to be determined. The Irish broadcaster will reveal its plans for the 2016 Irish Eurovision project in the coming months.

Ireland debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965. Ireland has won the Eurovision Song Contest a total of 7 times ( 1970,1980,1987, 1992,1993, 1994,1996) and is the country that has won the event the most times.

Ireland holds many Eurovision records: The Emerald Isle is also the only country that has won the contest 3 years in a row ( 1992, 1993, 1994) and has hosted it 3 years in row too ( 1993, 1994,1995). Eire is also the country that has won the event twice with the same singer, Johnny Logan (1980 and 1987).

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest’s preliminary dates have been set on 10, 12 and 14 of May. Next year’s event will be taking us back to Sweden for the 6th time in Eurovision history.

Stay tuned to ESCToday.com for the latest news on Ireland and the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest!