Wild Youth will represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool this May after winning Ireland's Eurosong Contest on Friday night.
The group's song "We Are One" was chosen by the combined votes of a public vote, an international jury, and a national jury.
Wild Youth singer Conor O'Donohoe said it would be a huge honor to represent Ireland at the competition in May.
"We hope everyone gets behind the song and we hope everyone gets behind us," O'Donohoe said after the group was crowned Eurosong winners on Friday night.
"We have been around for a while and we wanted to take a risk. Everyone who performed tonight has a great future ahead of them."
The group will take part in the Eurovision semi-finals in Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena on May 9 or 11 and will take place in the Eurovision final on May 13 if they qualify.
The competition is taking place in the UK because last year's winners Ukraine are unable to host the competition due to the ongoing war with Russia. The UK, which came second last year through Sam Ryder's entry "Spaceman", was thus selected to host Eurovision 2023.
Wild Youth prevailed over pre-competition favorite Connolly and four other artists to win Friday night's competition.
Former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon - AKA Johnnie Rotten - and his group Public Image Ltd. finished fourth in the competition with their entry "Hawaii", which is dedicated to Lydon's wife, who suffers from Alzheimer's.
Speaking before the competition, Lydon said his Irish parents would be "ever so chuffed" that he was competing to represent Ireland at Eurovision.
"In many ways, they're with me right now," Lydon said ahead of the competition on Friday night.
Lydon said he wrote the song because he wanted to be "poignant" about the catastrophe that his wife Nora is going through.
"It’s very, very tearjerking for me to even talk about it… I’m even shaking now thinking about it because it means the world to me," Lydon said.
Comments