"22" is a 2019 single by Irish singer

Sarah McTernan Sarah McTernan (born 11 March 1994) is an Irish singer-songwriter from Scarriff, County Clare. She is known for taking third place in the fourth season of ''The Voice of Ireland'' in April 2015. She represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Co ...

. The song represented

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the 2018 contest with the song " Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broad ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, after being internally selected by

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

, the Irish public broadcaster for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. The song would manage an 18th place finish in the second semi-final, not qualifying for the Grand Final.

Background

"22", according to McTernan, is about a woman struggling to move on from her ex. The number 22 talks about her ex's house number, as the singer speaks about "driving by" their house and wanting to get back with her ex, as she feels empty inside. While some have thought that the song was about a crazed stalker, McTernan claims that the song is about her first love. In an interview,

Head of Delegation Michael Kealy admitted that "22" was instead meant for a male singer, but once hearing McTernan sing the song in a demo, Kealy decided to let McTernan sing the song.

Eurovision Song Contest

Selection

On 4 October 2018, (RTÉ) opened a submission period where artists and composers "with a proven track record of success in the music industry" were able to submit their entries until 23 November 2018. In addition to the public submissions, RTÉ reserved the right to approach established artists and composers to submit entries and to match songs with different artists to the ones who submitted an entry. At the closing of the deadline, 440 entries were received and 70 entries were shortlisted in January 2019. On 8 March 2019, RTÉ announced that they had internally selected

to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv. "22" was eventually released to streaming platforms on 29 March.

At Eurovision

On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Ireland performed in position 2. The song failed to qualify for the final and finished last overall.

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2019 songs 2019 singles Eurovision songs of 2019 Eurovision songs of Ireland Songs written by Janieck Devy