Nicky Byrne Makes A Statement Following Last Night's Eurovision Semi-Final

As you may have heard, Ireland failed to make it through to the Eurovision final.

Even though we are still the country who hold the most Eurovision titles we have failed to win the song contest in twenty years. In recent Eurovision history we have struggled to make it out of the semi-finals for the last three years with Nicky Byrne being one of our more certain bets that we would make it into the final due Westlife's popularity in Europe.

Last night Nicky took to the stage in The Globe Arena in Stockholm but despite a great performance, unfortunately he failed to make it through to the final.

Following his exit from the competition Nicky released a statement:

“Obviously I'm disappointed - I really would have loved to represent Ireland at the final on Saturday, but sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to. I went out there and gave it my absolute best shot. I've had such an amazing time in Stockholm and I'm so glad I had the honour of representing Ireland at Eurovision. I've had some brilliant experiences and met fantastic people so I'll take those special memories with me. I have no regrets - life is short and it was an incredible opportunity to represent my country in front of a global audience. I would recommend it to any music act to take on the challenge next year - there is no bigger platform. Over 200 million people watch the Eurovision and with America broadcasting the for the first time this year and Justin Timberlake performing during the interval act it just goes to show how popular and loved it is. I want to thank Team Ireland - Ian, Jay, Janet, Jennifer and Johann for all their hard work. It was brilliant to have such a great team with me. Thanks and love to Georgina, the kids and my family, thanks to friends, colleagues,my management team Tim and Joanne, RTE and Universal for all the support in recent months. There are too many people to thank - you know who you are and I'm very grateful for all the support you've shown me. Thanks to all the fans and everyone around the world who voted. When I get home I'm looking forward to promoting the new album Sunlight. I'm so proud that I had the opportunity to fly the flag for Ireland at Eurovision 2016.”