Ryan Dolan (born 22 July 1985) is an Irish pop singer from

Strabane Strabane ( ; ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Strabane had a population of 13,172 at the 2011 Census. It lies on the east bank of the River Foyle. It is roughly midway from Omagh, Derry and Letterkenny. The River Foyle mark ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

. He is known for representing Ireland in the

2013 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

with "

Only Love Survives "Only Love Survives" is a song recorded by Irish singer-songwriter Ryan Dolan and was selected to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The song was performed at the first semi final and successfully advanced to ...

Career

2013–2014: Eurovision Song Contest and ''Frequency''

His song "

" won Ireland's Eurosong 2013 song contest, and Dolan went on to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...

, Sweden. He performed the song in the first semi-final at

Malmö Arena Malmö Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Malmö, Sweden, and the venue for home games of SHL ice hockey club Malmö Redhawks. It is the largest arena in the SHL, and the second-largest indoor arena in Sweden. Apart from hosting Redhaw ...

on 14 May 2013, and qualified for the final after finishing in the top ten. In the final, held on 18 May 2013, Dolan finished last in the final, receiving only five points from three countries. He released his debut album ''Frequency'' on 13 May 2013. On 7 March 2014, he released his second single "Start Again" after his coming out on

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

. Its music video is a story of suicide of a gay boy. It has been watched more than one million times on YouTube. He gained attention from LGBT communities and sang in some

pride festivals A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The even ...

including Pride in Newry 2014 and

Bristol Pride Bristol Pride is an annual festival in the city of Bristol, championing equality and diversity across South West England. Since 2010, the Bristol Pride festival has been organised by the charity 'Bristol Pride' (UK registered charity: 1166817). T ...

2015. On 20 June 2014, he released his third single "Fall to the Floor". It performed moderately in music chart, charted at 88 on

Irish Recorded Music Association The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) is a non-profit association set up in 1999 to promote certain interests of the music industry in Ireland. It is particularly active in addressing copyright issues, and it compiles the official music ...

2015–present: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 and Under the Covers, Vol.1

In the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

, he was one of the five members of the Irish jury. On 20 November 2015, he released his fourth single ''Uptown Downtown''. He uploaded his cover of " Hello" by

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a rec ...

on YouTube on 18 December 2015 and from then, he's uploading several cover songs like " Pillowtalk" by

Zayn Malik Zain Javadd Malik ( ; born 12 January 1993), known mononymously as Zayn, is an English pop and R&B singer. Zayn auditioned as a solo contestant for the British music competition television series ''The X Factor'' in 2010. After being eliminate ...

and " Hands to Myself" by

Selena Gomez Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress and producer. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring a ...

. On 19 February 2016, he released a cover album ''Under the Covers, Vol.1''.

Personal life

During an interview on

in February 2014, Dolan

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

as gay. He said, "In school I was confused about who I was, and it was really hard for me growing up because of that. It was hard to deal with because I knew that I was gay, but I couldn't get the courage to talk to someone about it". In November 2019, Dolan bought a pub in County Tyrone with SDLP MLA

Daniel McCrossan Daniel Christopher McCrossan (born 20 October 1988) is a Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician, who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for West Tyrone since 2016. Education McCrossan attended Liverpool Jo ...

Discography

Albums

Singles

;Notes A Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts. Added 50 position to actual Ultratip position.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolan, Ryan Living people Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2013 People from Strabane Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Ireland Male singers from Northern Ireland 1985 births Gay singers LGBT songwriters from Northern Ireland LGBT singers from Northern Ireland Gay songwriters Gay musicians from Northern Ireland Musicians from County Tyrone 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people