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 13,507 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th Open Government Li ...

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. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. He is known for representing Ireland in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest with " Only Love Survives".

Career

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

His song " Only Love Survives" won Ireland's Eurosong 2013 song contest, and Dolan went on to represent Ireland in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 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 (Loreen song), Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the Europea ...

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

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

Malmö Arena Malmö Arena is a multi-purpose List of indoor arenas, indoor arena in Malmö, Sweden, and the venue for home games of Swedish Hockey League, SHL ice hockey team Malmö Redhawks. It is the largest arena in the SHL, and the List of indoor arenas ...

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 () 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 the station in 2010 w ...

. 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 event, pride festival, pride march, or pride protest) is an event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The eve ...

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). ...

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 Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Early uses ''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the '' Norwich Cou ...

" by

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. List of awards and nominations received by Adele, ...

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

Zayn Malik Zain Javadd "Zayn" Malik ( ; born 12 January 1993) is an English singer-songwriter. He auditioned as a solo contestant for the British music competition television series ''The X Factor'' in 2010, where he ended up being a part of five-piece b ...

and " Hands to Myself" by

Selena Gomez Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, and businesswoman. Gomez began her career as a child actress, appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), 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 LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

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 The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs ...

MLA Daniel McCrossan.

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