The Voice

"The Voice" is a song by Irish singer Eimear Quinn that was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1996, representing . The music was composed, and the lyrics were written, by Brendan Graham, who had also written and composed "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", the Irish winner from the 1994 contest. The victory, which was Ireland's fourth in five years, was their seventh – and to date last – contest victory, setting a record for the most contests won by a single country that would only be tied by Sweden in with the song "Tattoo". History Brendan Graham had originally submitted "The Voice" for consideration to represent Ireland in Eurovision 1996 via a recording made by the neo-traditional Celtic band Dervish. However, after "The Voice" had been advanced to the final for the Irish national round for Eurovision 1996, known as The National Song Contest, Graham attended a performance by the Anúna chorale at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, where he was struck by the voice of Anúna member Eimear Quinn. Graham was, indeed, so struck by her voice that he recruited Quinn to perform "The Voice" on the final of the National Song Contest held at the Point Theatre in Dublin on 6 March 1996: of the eight songs in the final, "The Voice" was the clear winner, with the participating ten regional juries awarding the song 105 points, 21 more points than the runner-up. Eurovision 1996 featured a pre-qualifying round in which audio tapes of each nation's Eurovision 1996 entrant were sent to juries in each of the twenty-nine nations who had submitted Eurovision 1996 entrants: from these tapes, each jury deemed ten songs worthy of competing in Eurovision 1996 and the resultant tally allowed only twenty-two of the prospective entrants to advance to the Eurovision 1996 final to compete with the Norwegian entrant for Eurovision 1996: "I evighet" by Elisabeth Andreassen (fast-tracked to the Eurovision 1996 final by virtue of Norway having won Eurovision 1995 with "Nocturne" by Secret Garden). "The Voice" was the second highest vote getter in this pre-qualifying round its 198-point tally being bested only by 's "Den vilda" by One More Time whose point tally was 227.