Liam Reilly (29 January 1955 – 1 January 2021) was an Irish singer-songwriter and a member of the group

Bagatelle Bagatelle (from the Château de Bagatelle) is a billiards-derived indoor table game, the object of which is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the 19th century) past wooden pins (which act as obstacles) into holes that are guarded by wooden ...

, formed in 1978 by drummer Walter (Wally) McConville along with bass player Ken Doyle and guitarist John O’Brien.

Career

In 1980 while recording the band's debut album, Reilly had received an offer from Gus Dudgeon (Elton John's producer, who has since died) to begin a solo career in return for leaving the other band members to their own devices. However Reilly refused and insisted on sticking by the other members as they had done the same for him until that point. After leaving the group in the mid-1980s he moved to

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

and began a solo career. While in Savannah, he recorded an album entitled ''Savannah Souvenir'' which featured much of Reilly's keyboards and vocals and was produced by Phil Hadaway. In 1988 he was a finalist in the Irish heats of 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 ...

with the song "Lifeline". Reilly came back to arrive second in the event in 1990 with " Somewhere in Europe". He performed this at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1990 The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was the 35th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia, following the country's victory at the with the song " Rock Me" by Riva. It was the only time Yugoslavia ...

staged in Zagreb and was placed joint second out of the 22 entries. As a composer, Reilly returned to Eurovision in Rome in 1991 where his song "

Could It Be That I'm in Love For the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest in Rome, the song "Could It Be That I'm in Love", written and composed by Liam Reilly and performed by Kim Jackson, was chosen to represent Ireland, after it won the national final selection. Composer Liam ...

", performed by

Kim Jackson Kimberly (Kim) Jackson (born 22 August 1965, in Dublin) is an Irish singer who was the Irish representative at the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Could It Be That I'm In Love" composed by Liam Reilly finishing joint 10th with the UK' ...

, was placed equal tenth. In 1990, he co-produced an album with American Producer Phil Hadaway 'Throwing Caution to the Wind' (Polydor 847535-4) recorded at Westland Studios Dublin and Reeltime Recording, Savannah, Georgia, USA. All songs were written by Liam Reilly except 'Georgia on My Mind' and 'Moonriver'.

Death

Per a family statement, Reilly died "suddenly but peacefully" at his home on 1 January 2021, aged 65.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reilly, Liam 1955 births 2021 deaths Irish male singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1990 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Ireland People from Dundalk