Ryan O'Shaughnessy
Ryan O’Shaughnessy will represent Ireland at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Together'.? Download or stream this song via your favourite platform.
Ryan O’Shaughnessy was born in 1992 into a musical family. When he was 8 years old an opportunity arose for Ryan to play the character Mark Halpin in RTÉ’s long-running soap opera Fair City, a role he played for almost a decade. He matured as Damien Halpin’s younger brother and spent his teenage years on Irish Television screens. But by the age of 17, music had become his main priority and he left Fair City to pursue a career in music.
In 2012, while studying songwriting at college in Dublin, Ryan penned his first collection of songs. It was a busy year for him as he also appeared on the finals of both The Voice of Ireland and Britain’s Got Talent. In his opening audition on Britain’s Got Talent, Ryan performed his now well known, self-penned song No Name which has had over 45 million hits on YouTube. Ryan was signed to Sony UK and released an EP which reached No.1 in Ireland and No.9 in the UK charts. During this time Ryan toured the length and breadth of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
In 2013, Ryan took part in RTÉ's new Irish songwriting competition The Hit, competing against (and beating) his former Voice of Ireland coach and 2006 Eurovision finalist Brian Kennedy. Being placed on the global songwriting map at a young age, Ryan has had the pleasure of writing and working with some of the world’s greatest musicians and songwriters. In the last three years O’Shaughnessy has toured the USA and Canada extensively.
About the song writers and composers
Together was penned by Ryan O'Shaughnessy, Mark Caplice and Laura Elizabeth Hughes. The song was purposefully written for the Eurovision Song Contest by the three writers working in The Nucleus, a new Irish songwriting team and hub, founded by Hamlet Sweeney. The Nucleus brings the international model of collaborative songwriting to Ireland.
Ryan said: "As one of three songwriters on Together, I’m delighted it has been chosen to represent Ireland in Eurovision 2018, and on top of that, to be asked to perform for my country is an absolute honour. I plan on doing Ireland proud by bringing a song and performance to Eurovision that we haven’t seen since the days of Rock and Roll Kids. I can’t wait to get onto that stage and perform an honest piece for millions of people."