The fear is that the song is too good and we might actually win!
The two guys were simply the best two dancers. It is simply reflective of modern Ireland
RYAN O’Shaughnessy has a swagger about him despite the daunting task ahead... to spare Ireland’s blushes in the Eurovision Song Contest. The country will be cheering Ryan on on on Tuesday in the first semi-final in Portugal, which has been dubbed ‘a bloodbath’ due to the large number of favourites participating.
We have failed to make it out of the semifinal stages since Ryan Dolan crept through back in 2013 but the Britain’s Got Talent contestant and former Fair City actor appears unfazed by both the weight of expectation and history.
‘We have a shocking history when it comes to qualifying,’ he says. ‘The way it is looking this year is that there are a lot of up-tempo songs. We are in this so-called semi-final of death. I don’t take too much heed of the Eurovision fan blogs. There are eight bangers in our semi-finals and there is space for a couple of ballads to sneak in and I think we have the strongest ballad.
‘I can see us getting though. If we don’t then we don’t. But I can see us winning the thing outright. Considering we are an underdog, we have a little thing with the video and how that has been received. There is a conversation stirring there.’
Skerries native Ryan is the youngest of three children and has an older brother, Graham and a sister, Apryl. He was a student in DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) and undertook a music course at BIMM Dublin. He joined the Billie Barry Stage School when he was four, and he plays guitar, piano and saxophone.
He played Mark Halpin in Fair City for nine years, from 2001 to 2010. But he became an international name when he reached the final of Britain’s Got Talent in 2012, finishing in fifth place.
However he is acutely aware that his latest challenge is a mammoth task.
‘It is insane the amount of money some countries throw at it’, he says. ‘They say the simplest things are the hardest things to pull off. A lot of the other countries are going for these big extravagant productions. We are not. We are aiming for something really simple and it is all about the lighting and there will be different scenes happening and a bit of a flow to it.
‘I have been heavily involved to make sure that is tasteful and not like Dustin the Turkey in a trolley. People are still saying it to me about Dustin.
‘It is so easy to forget how successful we were at Eurovision. It has changed completely now. The year Dana won it that was in the Gaiety in a 1500- seated theatre. If we were to host it we have nowhere to put it on.
‘I have seen it in some of the acts I have met over the last few weeks. Their countries don’t put as much money into it because they don’t want to win it. If you win it you are f **** d. It is going to cost you a lot of money to put it on. [Australia don’t though]
‘The whole point is that we can’t win it in Ireland. Because if we do we can’t afford it. So I am at a disadvantage already at the start.
‘The fear is that the song is too good and that we might actually win it and I think that might actually be the case here. It has been received so well. It is a truthful song that can resonate with a crowd like that.
‘You can never pan off a good song and replace it with something that is dishonest. The honesty will always pull through with a song and that is all I try to do when I am writing a song.’
There is little doubt that O’Shaughnessy’s song is making waves for all the right reasons within the Eurovision community. The video features a male couple dancing in Dublin’s Temple Bar.
However there has been speculation that the video violates Russia’s strict anti-gay ‘propaganda’ ban and against the backdrop of protests they have refused to show the video which could heavily impact on Ryan’s chances .
Again not moved by this potential backlash from one of the other competitors, the powerhouse Russians, Ryan believes that the song is representative of modern Ireland.
‘I wanted two dancers for this video and two of the best we could find were Kevin and Alan, two lads. It wasn’t like we were casting two guys, just the best two dancers.
‘Then when people started to ask why there were two guys in the video, it made me think that it is a bit different but why not?
‘If it was a guy and a girl nobody would have said anything. But it is two guys and it highlights how much we are ahead of other countries and more liberal and accepting of others.
‘It is simply reflective of modern Ireland. People were shocked and a few people have asked me if it was me and my boyfriend in the video.
‘It’s funny how people read too much into things. But in general a lot of people have come up to me and congratulated me and thanked me for highlighting same-sex relationships.
‘It hasn’t been done and RTÉ said to me that the video is separate to the staging and they are two separate beasts. There still has to be a theme that is reflective all the way through. And more people watch the Eurovision than the Super Bowl. So it is a great platform for my song.’
Over 300 songs were submitted to RTÉ for consideration with a panel of experts choosing the winning track. RTÉ first approached Dublin twins Ellie and Louise McNamara, known as the Heathers. However, they declined as the station wanted
them to perform a song by others songwriters.
‘Ryan agreed to perform the song Together, which he co-wrote specifically for the Eurovision, after weeks of negotiating with RTÉ.
‘I could have just turned up and sang but I would have ended up singing in a turkey suit or a balloon,’ he says. ‘I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to my art. I need to be really able to trust who I am working with.
‘It takes a long time to build trust and because this is a short relationship, I needed to take control. I have built trust now with RTÉ but it took nearly a month and I had to make sure that my two cents were heard.
‘When it comes to working with other music producers and songwriters I have loads of people who I trust. I like to be in control until I have built that relationship. And now RTÉ have a get out of jail card if it all goes wrong, they can just blame me. Or other members of the team who have been outsourced, but I don’t mind that.’
Ireland have won Eurovision more than any other nation with seven wins in total, we are the only country to win three in a row and won again in 1996, meaning four victories in five years. But that is in the dim and distant past.
For Ryan to win, he will have to forge his own destiny, but if he does the rewards are huge.
He knows that this is a great chance to get his own music to a global audience if he can make the grand final and a TV audience in excess of 200 million.
‘The industry for me these days is flawed’, he says. ‘You have to be a sure thing before anyone in a label works with you.
‘Songwriting is a great way to work with artists who already have the respect of the labels. Working in the background is a lot easier and I love studio work. But the Eurovision for me is a big opportunity to get some songs out that I have been working on for the last three years that nobody has heard.
‘I am not just working on the staging and performance. I am also working on what will happen for me after the contest.
‘It is a huge opportunity to display your music in Australia, Israel and all these different countries.
‘That three minutes, and hopefully we will get six. There is a big financial benefit if we get to the final. I will be making a bit of money off the royalty side of it.
‘If someone else was to sing it and maybe not to perform it as well as I can it wouldn’t have been as beneficial to me financially. That’s another reason why I decided to do it.’
Despite our rich Eurovision history Ryan says he has deliberately avoided seeking former winners and mining advice.
As is the case with such unbridled confidence, he has decided to plough his own field, whatever the consequences.
‘It is probably terrible but I haven’t researched the past’, he says. ‘It is important to focus on something new. You can take inspiration and I have, from a few different things that have happened in the past.
‘But I took huge inspiration from last year’s winner. The voting for novelty acts decreased last year. It came back to something very sweet and a well thought-out bit of song writing.
‘That was the main reason why I entered the song this year.
‘There has been a shift and from 2000 until now all bets were off with political voting and novelty acts.
‘This year I believe there will be a few shocks and countries believe they can vote for a song they like rather than what they are supposed to vote for.
‘Australia has a great song this year. They can win it and they don’t have to host it, that’s a great scam, maybe we should try that.
‘I can be quite stubborn and follow my own path. I took some advice form Brendan who sang for Ireland last year. I just wanted to ask him what the whole buzz was like before I entered. He told me that it was such fun that I would regret it if I didn’t do it.
‘In the end I have these three minutes to sell it to the world and that’s it.
‘And 99% of people watching won’t have heard any of the songs until the night.’ ÷The Eurovision is on RTÉ2 on Tuesday at 8pm
I was told that it is such good fun that it would regret it if I didn’t do it