Ireland in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Country Ireland
National selection
Selection process
  • Artist: Junior Eurovision Éire
  • Song: Internal selection
Selection date(s)
  • Heats
  • 12 September 2021
  • 19 September 2021
  • 26 September 2021
  • 3 October 2021
  • Semi-Final
  • 10 October 2021
  • Final
  • 17 October 2021
    Song:
    16 November 2021
Selected artist(s)Maiú Levi Lawlor
Selected song"Saor (Disappear)"
Selected songwriter(s)Niall Mooney
Lauren White Murphy
Brendan McCarthy
LA Halvery
Anna Kearney
Anna Banks
Cyprian Cassar
Finals performance
Final result18th, 44 points
Ireland in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
◄2019 2021 2022►

Ireland participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021, held in Paris, France.[1] Maiú Levi Lawlor was selected by TG4 through a televised national final, with his song, "Saor (Disappear)", being internally selected.

The country returned to the contest after a break of one year from the 2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background

Prior to the 2021 contest, Ireland had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest five times since its debut in 2015.[2] In 2019, Anna Kearney represented the country with the song "Banshee", finishing 12th out of 19 entries with 73 points.[3] Despite having initially confirmed their participation in the 2020 contest in Warsaw, Poland in January 2020,[4] TG4 announced in August 2020 that they would not participate in the contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

Before Junior Eurovision

Junior Eurovision Éire

Junior Eurovision Éire returned to select the Irish act. Eoghan McDermott, who hosted the selection from 2015 to 2019, did not return to host the selection. He was replaced by Louise Cantillon, a Dublin-based radio presenter.

All songs were performed in Irish.

Jury members

As in previous editions, the results of each show were decided by an in-studio jury of two permanent members and revolving guest judges. The two permanent judges were:

Guest Judges
Artist ESC Year(s) Song(s) Place
(SF)
Points
(SF)
Place
(Final)
Points
(Final)
Linda Martin 1984 "Terminal 3" No semi-finals 2 137
1992 "Why Me?" 1 155
Niamh Kavanagh 1993 "In Your Eyes" 1 187
2010 "It's for You" 9 67 23 25
Mickey Joe Harte 2003 "We've Got the World" No semi-finals 11 53
Brian Kennedy 2006 "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" 9 79 10 93
Jedward 2011 "Lipstick" 8 68 8 119
2012 "Waterline" 6 92 19 46
Lesley Roy 2021 "Maps" 16 ◁ 20 Failed to qualify

Heat 1

Detailed jury voting results [6]
Draw Artist Jury Votes Total
Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3
1 Eva Norton 9 10 8 28
2 Ronan Spencer 9 9 9 27
3 Lilyella Buckley 10 10 9 29
4 Orla McDermott 9 9 10 28
5 Katie Hardiman 8 9 9 26
6 Aimee and Grace Gillard 7 8 9 24
7 Saoirse Garrihy 7 8 7 22

The first heat of Junior Eurovision Éire was broadcast on 12 September 2021, with Niamh Kavanagh as the guest judge.[7]

Draw Artist Song Stars Result
01 Eva Norton "This Is Me" (Keala Settle) 28 Final duel
02 Ronan Spencer "Always" (Gavin James) 27 Eliminated
03 Lilyella Buckley "Someone You Loved" (Lewis Capaldi) 29 Semi-Final
04 Orla McDermott "Ghost" (Luan Parle) 28 Final duel
05 Katie Hardiman "Catch and Release" (Matt Simons) 27 Eliminated
06 Aimee and Grace Gillard "Feel It Again" (Hudson Taylor) 24 Eliminated
07 Saoirse Garrihy "Shape of You" (Ed Sheeran) 22 Eliminated
Final duel
Draw Artist Song Votes Result
01 Eva Norton "This Is Me" (Keala Settle) 2 Semi-Final
02 Orla McDermott "Ghost" (Luan Parle) 1 Eliminated

Lilyella Buckley received the highest number of stars, and advanced directly to the semi-final. Eva Norton and Orla McDermott both advanced to the final duel stage and performed their covers a second time. After their second performances, the jury members selected Eva as the winner, granting a spot in the semi-final.[7]

Heat 2

Detailed jury voting results [8]
Draw Artist Jury Votes Total
Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3
1 Shannon Copeland 9 8 9 26
2 Cora Harkin 9 8 8 25
3 Sienna Hopkins 8 8 9 25
4 Zara Alexander 7 7 8 22
5 Riaghan Boardman 8 8 7 23
6 Rainne Isibeal Marzo 6 7 6 19
7 Grace Nic Giolla Channáin 6 7 5 18

The second heat of Junior Eurovision Éire was broadcast on 19 September 2021, with Brian Kennedy as the guest judge.[9]

Draw Artist Song Stars Result
01 Shannon Copeland "Halo" (Beyoncé) 26 Semi-Final
02 Cora Harkin "Catch Me If You Can" (Walking on Cars) 25 Final duel
03 Sienna Hopkins "Nervous" (Gavin James) 25 Final duel
04 Zara Alexander "Stay with Me" (Sam Smith) 22 Eliminated
05 Riaghan Boardman "Bruises" (Lewis Capaldi) 23 Eliminated
06 Rainne Isibeal Marzo "Pompeii" (Bastille) 19 Eliminated
07 Grace Nic Giolla Channáin "September Song" (JP Cooper) 18 Eliminated
Final duel
Draw Artist Song Votes Result
01 Cora Harkin "Catch Me If You Can" (Walking on Cars) 2 Semi-Final
02 Sienna Hopkins "Nervous" (Gavin James) 1 Eliminated

Shannon Copeland received the highest number of stars, and advanced directly to the semi-final. Cora Harkin and Sienna Hopkins both advanced to the final duel stage and performed their covers a second time. After their second performances, the jury members selected Cora as the winner, granting a spot in the semi-final.[9]

Heat 3

Detailed jury voting results [10]
Draw Artist Jury Votes Total
Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3
1 Sadbh Breatnach 8 9 8 25
2 Alison McGrath 9 10 8 27
3 Kayden Spooner 7 9 8 24
4 Sophie Lennon 10 10 10 30
5 Cathal Mulvey 7 9 7 23
6 Ciara Hassan 8 8 7 23
7 Maya and Lia Sheils 7 8 7 22

The third heat of Junior Eurovision Éire was broadcast on 26 September 2021, with Jedward as the guest judges.[11]

Draw Artist Song Stars Result
01 Sadbh Breathnach "Perfect" (Ed Sheeran) 25 Final duel
02 Alison McGrath "Castles" (Freya Ridings) 27 Final duel
03 Kayden Spooner "Lonely World" (Luan Parle) 24 Eliminated
04 Sophie Lennon "Circle of Life" (Elton John) 30 Semi-Final
05 Cathal Mulvey "Take My Hand" (Picture This) 23 Eliminated
06 Ciara Hassan "Dancing with a Stranger" (Sam Smith) 23 Eliminated
07 Maya and Lia Sheils "The Cup Song" (Anna Kendrick) 22 Eliminated
Final duel
Draw Artist Song Votes Result
01 Sadbh Breathnach "Perfect" (Ed Sheeran) 1 Eliminated
02 Alison McGrath "Castles" (Freya Ridings) 2 Semi-Final

Sophie Lennon received the highest number of stars, and advanced directly to the semi-final. Sadbh Breathnach and Alison McGrath both advanced to the final duel stage and performed their covers a second time. After their second performances, the jury members selected Alison as the winner, granting a spot in the semi-final.[11]

Heat 4

Detailed jury voting results [12]
Draw Artist Jury Votes Total
Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3
1 Julie Cole 9 9 8 26
2 Kate Skelton 8 7 8 23
3 Maiú Levi Lawlor 7 9 8 24
4 Victoria Foster 7 7 8 22
5 Ruby Maher 8 9 8 25
6 Neala Graham 6 5 6 17
7 Katie Coyle 7 6 6 20

The fourth and final heat of Junior Eurovision Éire was broadcast on 3 October 2021, with Mickey Joe Harte as the guest judge.[13]

Draw Artist Song Stars Result
01 Julie Cole "I’ll Be There" (Jess Glynne) 26 Semi-Final
02 Kate Skelton "Grace" (The Wolf Tones) 23 Eliminated
03 Maiú Levi Lawlor "Hold Back the River" (James Bay) 24 Final duel
04 Victoria Foster "Shut Up and Dance" (Walk the Moon) 22 Eliminated
05 Ruby Maher "Hold Me While You Wait" (Lewis Capaldi) 25 Final duel
06 Neala Graham "Lullaby" (Sigala & Paloma Faith) 17 Eliminated
07 Katie Coyle "Lost Without You" (Freya Ridings) 20 Eliminated
Final duel
Draw Artist Song Votes Result
01 Maiú Levi Lawlor "Hold Back the River" (James Bay) 2 Semi-Final
02 Ruby Maher "Hold Me While You Wait" (Lewis Capaldi) 1 Eliminated

Julie Cole received the highest number of stars, and advanced directly to the semi-final. Maiú Levi Lawlor and Ruby Maher both advanced to the final duel stage and performed their covers a second time. After their second performances, the jury members selected Maiú as the winner, granting a spot in the semi-final.[13]

Semi-final

The semi final of Junior Eurovision Éire was broadcast on 10 October 2021, with Lesley Roy as the guest judge.[14]

Draw Artist Song Result
01 Shannon Copeland "New York" (Paloma Faith) Eliminated
02 Maiú Levi Lawlor "Grace" (Lewis Capaldi) Final duel
03 Alison McGrath "Ghost" (Ella Henderson) Eliminated
04 Lilyella Buckley "Lost Without You" (Freya Ridings) Finalist
05 Cora Harkin "Shut Up and Dance" (Walk the Moon) Eliminated
06 Sophie Lennon "Hold Me While You Wait" (Lewis Capaldi) Finalist
07 Julie Cole "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" (The Script) Final duel
08 Eva Norton "Hold My Hand" (Jess Glynne) Eliminated
Final duel
Draw Artist Song Votes Result
01 Maiú Levi Lawlor "Grace" (Lewis Capaldi) 2 Finalist
02 Julie Cole "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" (The Script) 1 Eliminated

Lilyella Buckley and Sophie Lennon were both chosen by the jury to advance directly to the final. Maiú Levi Lawlor and Julie Cole were both chosen to go through to the final duel stage and performed their covers a second time. After their second performances, the jury members selected Maiú as the winner, granting a spot in the final.[14]

Final

The final of Junior Eurovision Éire was broadcast on 17 October 2021, with Linda Martin as the guest judge.[15] Each artist performed two songs before the jury decided on two of them to advance to the final duel. In the final duel, Maiú Levi Lawlor was selected as the winner of Junior Eurovision Éire 2021.[16]

Draw Artist Song 1 Song 2 Result
01 Sophie Lennon "Circle of Life" (Elton John) "It's for You" (Niamh Kavanagh) Eliminated
02 Maiú Levi Lawlor "Hold Back the River" (James Bay) "Only Love Survives" (Ryan Dolan) Final duel
03 Lilyella Buckley "Someone You Loved" (Lewis Capaldi) "Rock'n'Roll Kids" (Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan) Final duel
Detailed jury voting results
Draw Artist Jury Votes Total
Linda Martin Niamh Ní Chróinín Fiachna Ó Braonáin
1 Lilyella Buckley X 1
2 Maiú Levi Lawlor X X 2
Final duel
Draw Artist Song Votes Result
01 Lilyella Buckley "Lost Without You" (Freya Ridings) 1 Runner-up
02 Maiú Levi Lawlor "Grace" (Lewis Capaldi) 2 Winner

Song release

Lawlor's song, "Saor (Disappear)" (English: Free) was released on 16 November 2021, along with a music video. It was written by Niall Mooney, Lauren White Murphy, Brendan McCarthy, LA Halvery, Junior Eurovision 2019 entrant Anna Kearney (who also provides backing vocals), Anna Banks and Cyprian Cassar, who wrote entries for Malta in 2018, 2020, 2021, and for Ireland in 2019.[17]

At Junior Eurovision

After the opening ceremony, which took place on 13 December 2021, it was announced that Ireland would perform eighth on 19 December 2021, following Russia and preceding Armenia.[18]

At the end of the contest, Ireland received 44 points, placing 18th out of 19 participating countries.

Voting

The same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition was used, where the results were determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country had a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represented. The rankings of those jurors were combined to make an overall top ten.[19]

The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 17 December 2021 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances was shown on the contest's website Junioreurovision.tv before the viewers could vote. After this, voters also had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on 17 December at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and began right after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers were able vote for three songs.[20] They were also able to vote for their own country's song. These votes were then turned into points which were determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song received 10% of the votes, it received 10% of the available points.

Detailed voting results

Detailed voting results from Ireland[21]
Draw Country Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Average Rank Points Awarded
01  Germany 2 13 9 6 12 7 4
02  Georgia 18 18 14 5 9 13
03  Poland 1 1 1 1 1 1 12
04  Malta 12 10 6 8 13 11
05  Italy 7 5 5 7 4 3 8
06  Bulgaria 8 4 17 9 5 8 3
07  Russia 14 9 8 11 18 15
08  Ireland
09  Armenia 3 7 2 10 14 4 7
10  Kazakhstan 15 15 10 4 11 12
11  Albania 11 11 11 2 3 5 6
12  Ukraine 5 3 3 3 8 2 10
13  France 6 14 15 18 10 14
14  Azerbaijan 13 6 4 17 15 10 1
15  Netherlands 10 17 13 15 7 16
16  Spain 9 12 12 16 17 18
17  Serbia 16 2 7 14 16 9 2
18  North Macedonia 4 8 18 13 2 6 5
19  Portugal 17 16 16 12 6 17

References

  1. ^ "Junior Eurovision 2021". TG4. 9 February 2021. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021.
  2. ^ Granger, Anthony (23 March 2015). "Ireland: Debuts At Junior Eurovision". Eurovoix.
  3. ^ "Final of Gliwice-Silesia 2019". Junioreurovision.tv. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019.
  4. ^ Herbert, Emily (14 January 2020). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision 2020 Participation Confirmed". Eurovoix. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  5. ^ Farren, Neil (4 August 2020). "Ireland: Withdraws from Junior Eurovision 2020". Eurovoix.
  6. ^ "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 1 Results". ESC Plus. 12 September 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  7. ^ a b Farren, Neil (12 September 2021). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 1 Results". Eurovoix. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 2 Results". ESC Plus. 19 September 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  9. ^ a b Farren, Neil (19 September 2021). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 2 Results". Eurovoix. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  10. ^ "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 3 Results". ESC Plus. 26 September 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  11. ^ a b Farren, Neil (26 September 2021). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 3 Results". Eurovoix. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  12. ^ "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 4 Results". ESC Plus. 3 October 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  13. ^ a b Farren, Neil (3 October 2021). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Heat 4 Results". Eurovoix. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  14. ^ a b Farren, Neil (10 October 2021). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Semi Final Results". Eurovoix. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  15. ^ Granger, Anthony (17 October 2021). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Final". Eurovoix. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  16. ^ Farren, Neil (17 October 2021). "Ireland: Junior Eurovision Éire 2021 Final Results". Eurovoix. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  17. ^ "Maiú Levi Lawlor | Saor Official Music Video". TG4. Archived from the original on 15 November 2021 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ "Junior Eurovision: Running order revealed… 🇫🇷". Junioreurovision.tv. 13 December 2021. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
  19. ^ Granger, Anthony (15 November 2018). "Junior Eurovision 2018 – How Does The Voting Work?". Eurovoix.
  20. ^ "You can vote on the winner of Junior Eurovision! 🗳". Junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 13 December 2021. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
  21. ^ a b c "Results of the Final of Paris 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 19 December 2021.