Junior Eurovision 2021 Review - Ireland: Maiú Levi Lawlor Saor (Disappear)
The Artist
Maiú Levi Lawlor is 14 years old and is from County Wicklow. Alongside singing, he loves swimming, basketball and is in the Scouts. He won the Irish National Final Junior Eurovision Eire to earn the right to represent Ireland at Junior Eurovision this year.
He has also performed on Britain's Got Talent at the London Palladium and appeared on RTE’s Late Late Toy Show.
The Song
Saor (Disappear) is rock/pop song about how it felt for kids during lockdowns over the last two years of the pandemic. While it’s about a sad topic, the song is very uplifting as we get back to some type of normal. Saor is in Irish Gaelic.
The song is written by Niall Mooney (songwriter for ESC 2009, 2010 and 2019: Sinéad Mulvey & Black Daisy with Et Cetera which came 11th in the semi, and It’s For You by Niamh Kavanagh which came 23rd in the final), Lauren White Murphy, Anna Kearney (JESC 2019) and Anna Banks (sister of Aimee, JESC 2015).
Saor is currently available on our YouTube and Spotify playlists.
Ireland at JESC
This will be Ireland’s 6th appearance at Junior Eurovision since their debut in 2015 and they have been to every contest since except for 2020 due to the pandemic.
Their highest result was 10th in 2016 with Zena Donnelly singing Bríce ar bhríce.
OGAE Australia JESC Team scores and thoughts:
Ally: 8/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩
Oh Ireland, my beloved Ireland, thanks for making me eat my words on this one! I’m reserving full judgement on ‘Saor’ until I hear it live because I wasn’t impressed with Maiú’s vocals in the National Final, but I seriously like this song. The style suits Maiú’s voice, it’s a catchy number and one that fans can easily get behind. I also really love using Anna Kearney as the backing vocalist. I just really hope Maiú can deliver this vocally and the staging is good enough and actually relevant to the song, because Ireland doesn't always get the staging right at JESC.
Blake: 10/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭
Well how fresh and current is this! Maiú's vocals blend seamlessly with the production and the lyrics are great too. We all love a banger with a fantastic message!
Danie: 9/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩
It’s no secret I love rock music and I love a rock moment in the Eurovision landscape. This is almost a soft punk protest-style song and I am here for it. Even though the last couple of years have been so difficult on everyone, we have to remember this was really hard on school kids and this is an anthem for “Guess what? We made it out the other side, we won’t disappear!”.
Kurtis: 8/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩
Ireland’s song this year may be about disappearing, but it has certainly appeared as one of my favourites. I love the pop rock sound. It is super catchy and seems really relatable. I love the dynamism in the song, and Anna’s backing is an extra bonus.
Raquel: 8/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩
I love seeing a rock song in competitions like these because it’s something different! I love that it’s song in Irish! It’s relatable to those in high-school/school and is catchy!
Average Score: 8.6
The JESC Team score does not reflect the views of all OGAE Australia