FORMER EUROVISION song contest winner Niamh Kavanagh will once again represent Ireland in this year’s competition having received top points from a combined jury and public vote.
The winning song, It's For You, written by Niall Mooney, Marten Eriksson, Jonas Gladnikoff with lyrics by Lina Eriksson was chosen after a combined jury and public selection process saw the song take top slot in a special Eurosong programme on last night's Late Late Show.
The song defeated Does Heaven Need Much More, performed by Leanne Moore and written by Tommy Moran and Irish Timescolumnist, John Waters, and Baby Nothing's Wrongperformed by Boyzone's Mikey Graham as well as River of Silence, performed by Lee Bradshaw and Fashion Queen, performed by Monika Ivkic.
Ms Kavanagh will now go on to represent Ireland in the Eurovision song contest which will be held in Oslo at the end of May.
The winning song was selected through a new voting process with half the points coming from six regional juries and the other half from a public tele-vote, replicating the recent rule changes to main Eurovision song contest.
In the past two years changes to the competition have seen the winner of the Eurovision song contest final chosen by a 50/50 combination of jury and tele-vote in an attempt to quell criticism levelled at the voting section of the show in recent years due to a perceived increase in political voting.
The new voting system will also apply to this year’s semi-final qualifying stage, which Ireland will compete in, as well as to the competition’s final.
Last year’s Eurovision, hosted by Russia in Moscow attracted 124 million viewers, a 17 per cent increase on the 2008 viewer-ship.
Ms Kavanagh first won the Eurovision song contest in 1993 performing in front of an international audience of more than 350 million people. The winning song, In Your Eyes, went on to achieve double platinum status.
Last night's Late Late Show Eurosong Special, also celebrated singer Johnny Logan's 30th anniversary of his first winning the Eurovision, while Dana also joined the panel to mark the 40th anniversary of her win with All Kinds of Everything.