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OGAE SONG CONTEST 2003 - IRELAND QUALIFYING HEAT

    Luan Parle

With a lot more Irish fans taking part, 2003 saw a great diversity of entries with even Simon Casey from You're A Star entering. Westlife were in for their 4th year in a row. Unknown Luan Parle beat off some serious competition, particularly from Pop Idol style contestants Sinead Quinn and Six. She achieved a very respectable position in the final in the UK.

Details of the artists as printed in the programme booklet accompanying the song contests are reproduced below.

Six were the winners of the Irish Pop Idol show who were formed into a six piece group called, naturally, Six. They went on to have the biggest selling single of 2002 – a cover version of the Guys And Dolls song There’s A Whole Lotta Lovin’. The Man That Made Me A Woman comes from their hit album This Is It. Ronan Keating began as the lead singer of Boyzone which went onto become the biggest boy band of the late 90s. Branching out as a solo singer, much to the disappointment of his fellow boyband members, he soon became an international singing superstar with massive hit singles and albums around the world. I Love It When We Do is a hit single taken from his second album Destination. Luan Parle is a new singer from County Wicklow who had a hit with her first single When I See You Smile written by Diane Warren. More Than A Ghost was written by herself along with Rick Barraclough and Oskar Paul (not Paul Oscar I hope!) and was her widely acclaimed second single. Marc Roberts sang for Ireland in the 1997 ESC where he came second with Mysterious Woman. Following the release of his first album, he became the song writer for Daniel O’Donnell and was touring last year with a tribute show. When I Found You is also one of his compositions and is on his newly released album. Relish hail from Downpatrick and are widely acclaimed as the next big thing. Following on from their successful album Wildflowers comes their new single Father Brother Lover & Son. Dawn Kenny is a new rising Irish artist as is Macafoy (aka Brendan McEvoy) who have written their respective entries in this competition. Sinead Quinn came second in the BBC ‘Pop Idol’ programme Fame Academy. Sinead, from Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh then released a self-penned single I Can’t Break Down, which went to number 2 in the UK charts and was a top 20 hit in Ireland. Fifth Avenue are a boy/girl band who have had massive success in Ireland and some success in Europe too. Infidelity is one side of a double A side which made the top 5 in the charts. Westlife are the world’s biggest boyband having had 14 number one singles and 3 top selling albums. Unbreakable is another number one single and was released to launch their greatest hits album. D-Side are a new Irish boyband. Following their single Stronger, Speechless was the single which launched them world-wide and gave them a massive hit. Their next single Invisible, a ballad, is due out in June. Bellefire had a monster single with Perfect Bliss in 2001, followed by another hit single, a cover of U2’s All I Want Is You. Surrender is from their album After The Rain which went on limited release in 2002. Simon Casey was an entrant on You’re A Star, the Irish version of OT, which RTE used to pick their Eurovision singer for 2003. Simon repeatedly came top each week but at the very last show came second to Mickey Harte who had a stronger song for Eurovision. I Don’t Know Why was written by Simon himself. U2 need no introduction being the biggest rock group in the world. The Hands That Built America is taken from the soundtrack of the film The Gangs Of New York and was on their Best Of album. U2 represented Ireland in the OGAESC in 1998 when Mofo came a lowly 21^st. Sharon Lousie Geddis is getting a lot of media attention with her first disco-style single. Samantha Mumba, a protégé of Louis Walsh, had a mega-hit with Gotta Tell You which went on to be a world-wide smash and launched her music and film career. A string of hit singles and a brilliant album followed. I’m Right Here is a new single. Six with the luck of the draw have ended up with the first and last song in the Irish pre-selection. Let Me Be The One was their second single which went to number one. Six are currently embarking on their world-wide launch and have achieved top ten singles in Norway and New Zealand.