NOAMH KAVANAGH & 'IN YOUR EYES', IRELAND AGAIN

Niamh Kavanagh won Eurovision in 1993

Today, The Grandma has been talking with The Watsons about Niamh Kavanagh, the Irish singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest representing her country in 1993 singing In Your Eyes.

Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 53 times since making its debut at the 1965 Contest in Naples, missing only two contests since then (1983 and 2002). The contest final is broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ One.

Ireland is the most successful country in the contest, with a record total of seven wins, and is the only country to have won three times consecutively.

This is the last week The Grandma is going to talk about Eurovision with The Watsons. She has offered them lots of information about artists, songs and constests to have enough material to work in a good candidature for Rennette Watson. After this week, The Watsons are going to finish their confinment and they are going to go out and enjoy the city again.

The Grandma will return with them next July. They deserve some free days to rest and return with more energy.

Before talking about Niamh Kavanagh, The Grandma has offered a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example to The Watsons.

Download Cambridge KET Exam Speaking Models (22)

Niamh Kavanagh (born 13 February 1968) is an Irish singer who sang the winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993.

The 1993 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Millstreet, County Cork, Republic of Ireland. She sang In Your Eyes to clinch a second consecutive win for Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The singer represented Ireland again in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, with the song It's for You. She performed at the semi-final on 27 May 2010, finishing 9th in a field of 17 contestants, thus qualifying for the Grand Final on 29 May 2010. In the final, she finished 23rd in a field of 25 contestants, having received 25 points.

More information: Twitter

Kavanagh is highly regarded among fans of the Eurovision Song Contest, and the OGAE Ireland, official Eurovision fan club, president Diarmuid Furlong, said: A lot of us would regard Niamh as one of the best vocalists who's ever won the Eurovision Song Contest.

While she has enjoyed success in Europe Kavanagh remains relatively unknown in the United States. However, the singer recorded an album in that country following her initial Eurovision success.

Kavanagh was born in Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland. Her father was a singer and a saxophonist. She often sang songs at family parties as a child. Her influences include Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Blood, Sweat and Tears, all of whom she listened to from a young age, as well as Bonnie Raitt.

N. Kavanagh in Eurovision, 1993

Kavanagh performed as a lead and backing vocalist on the film soundtrack for The Commitments in songs such as Destination Anywhere and Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.

In spite of this, Kavanagh was not prepared for the boost in recognition she received for her later entries in the Eurovision Song Contest.

On 14 March 1993, twenty-five-year-old Kavanagh performed in RTÉ's National Song Contest, which selected the Irish entry for the larger Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Millstreet, County Cork, later that spring.

Opening the show at Dublin's Point Theatre, Kavanagh performed In Your Eyes, lyrics and music by Jimmy Walsh. At the close of voting, Kavanagh handily won the National Song Contest with 118 points from the ten regional juries, a 39-point margin over the runner-up. This win meant Kavanagh and In Your Eyes would go on to represent Ireland on the Eurovision stage in Millstreet.

At the Eurovision on 15 May, Kananagh performed In Your Eyes near the middle of the show, as the fourteenth act out of twenty-five. This time, the voting was much closer, and Ireland exchanged the leading position with the United Kingdom several times throughout the announcement of the results.

With 187 points, a record at the time, Kavanagh went on to win the competition in a nail-biting finish, as the result was decided by the final maximum score awarded by the last country to vote.

In Your Eyes went on to be the best-selling single in Republic of Ireland for 1993, and reached number 24 in the UK Singles Chart. It went on to become a double-platinum success and Kavanagh was recognised by people on the street. She recorded an album in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, and this album was produced by John Jennings. She later left music to spend more time with her children.

More information: Extra

In Your Eyes is a ballad sung by Irish singer Niamh Kavanagh that won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993 for Ireland with 187 points.

The song is a love song written and composed by Jimmy Walsh, where the singer tells how, after being lonely, she has found love and heaven in her lover's arms and how it had changed her.

In 1992, the writer Walsh, who was based in New York, recorded a demo of the song in a studio there. One of the engineers suggested a girl singer that he knew, who could record it. A then-unknown Idina Menzel came in and listened to the song. She suggested a key change for the chorus as she found it rather flat.

Walsh was concerned that this would make the song too difficult to sing, but Menzel insisted she could do it. She duly recorded the demo and this was sent out to Niamh Kavanagh, who was recommended to Walsh as being a singer who could handle the difficult ranges within the song.

N. Kavanagh in Eurovision, 1993

Kavanagh loved the song, but was unsure of wanting to compete in the Eurovision. Eventually, Walsh said that he would withdraw the song if she didn't do it, so she agreed to enter with it.

Kavanagh had a home win, since the contest took place in Ireland due to Linda Martin's win the previous year. It was the second of Ireland's three victories in a row in the early Nineties.

The song was performed fourteenth on the night, following Sweden's Arvingarna with Eloise and preceding Luxembourg's Modern Times with Donne-moi une chance. At the close of voting, it had received 187 points, placing 1st in a field of 25. Despite winning the Irish national song contest, Kavanagh found it difficult to find a record label willing to release the record due to its association with the contest. Eventually, she partly funded the recording of it herself and released it in limited numbers in Ireland under a made-up label name, Eureyes Music.

During the run up to the contest, she met with Simon Cowell, who was present with the UK entrant Sonia. He signed her up to Arista Records and the song was released internationally through them.

In Your Eyes became the best selling single in Ireland for 1993. It also reached No. 24 in the UK Singles Chart and became a minor hit in the Netherlands and Germany.

The song was succeeded as winner in 1994 by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan, also representing Ireland, singing Rock'n'Roll Kids.

Niamh Kavanagh also returned to the Contest in 2010 with It's for You, which came 23rd out of 25 countries, with 25 points in the final.

It wasn't until 2017, during a documentary on the Irish winners, that Kavanagh learned that the singer on the demo she had heard all those years ago was a young Idina Menzel, who was by then internationally famous.

More information: The Sun

Showing no emotion, my feelings locked inside
I made myself an island, trying to take my heart and hide
I built a wall around me, afraid of letting go
But suddenly an open door I never saw before.

Niamh Kavanagh