Eurovision star Ryan Dolan has revealed he’s hoping to be selected to go back to the competition – with the help of Nicki Minaj.
The Tyrone singer told Goss.ie he has put in a track written by the Anaconda star’s writer that he hopes RTE will select as one of their Eurosong finalists.
But Ryan hopes that his previous appearance on Eurovision – in which he came last – won’t count against him.
He said: “I’ve a song written by a few Swedish writers. They’ve wrote for Jessie J, Nicki Minaj and it’s a really good song so fingers crossed it’ll get selected.
“I think it’ll be after Christmas when I hear back, so fingers crossed. I don’t know if being on the Eurovision before will count against me, it’s hard to tell.
“I know a lot of people in Ireland were really disappointed with the results so maybe they would like to see me go back and see if I can do better.”
Eurosong: Ryan on stage in 2013 | RTE
And Ryan revealed that it does annoy him that the track, Only Love Survives, got just five points in 2013.
He said: “It does, but at the same time the exposure and the experience that I got out of the Eurovision was priceless so even though the position wasn’t what I would have liked it still was a good experience for me.
“I’ve been really busy these last two years doing gigs. A lot of them at Eurovision clubs. It’s good that they’re inviting me back all the time to keep doing shows so I got that out of it as well.
“You’re getting on a stage in front of one hundred and twenty million so it’s probably one of the biggest stages you can get on really.
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“I don’t think Ireland really takes it that seriously. In Europe, it’s crazy. Because Ireland and the UK don’t really do so well anymore people started to put it off as a joke competition but it’s still massive everywhere else.”
Now Ryan – admitted that he hasn’t been looking at his Eurovison competition, including Leanne Moore’s girlband – is working on releasing a new album.
He said: “I’m trying to get an album finished so I’m writing away at that, working with different songwriters and doing a lot of writing myself. I wanna get it right, I wanna get the right songs in it.
Stripped off: Ryan in a previous topless shoot
“Just after the Eurovision I released an album and it was a real rush and I wasn’t really happy with the final product myself so I’m not gonna make that mistake again.
“I was pushing myself to get it done. I wanted to have an album finished for the Eurovision because I know people can forget about you really quick so if they see you on the Eurovision stage and you have something that’s there that people can get.
“It was a really dancey album, sort of similar to Only Love Survives and it wasn’t really what I wanted to do myself but you live and you learn. The new album is going be ballads. More of a band sort of sound.”
