Sarah McTernan


Sarah McTernan is an Irish singer-songwriter from Scarriff, County Clare. She is known for taking third place in the fourth season of The Voice of Ireland in April 2015. She represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "22".

Early and personal life

McTernan is an only child. After graduating in 2011, she took a pre-nursing course in Ennis, County Clare. She then went on to study music technology at Limerick Institute of Technology for several months. She always said 'My career will either be to help people or music'. She took a break from education and continued to work as a retail employee in Penneys. In September 2014, she enrolled in University of Limerick to study Voice and Dance, but had to defer until September 2015. She plays guitar, piano and tin whistle.

Music career

The JEDS

In November 2014, after getting through the blind auditions on The Voice of Ireland without ever doing any gigs, McTernan set up a band to gain experience with performing. The four-piece band was made up of guitarist Dwayne Mann, drummer John Moroney, bassist Declan Larkin and McTernan on vocals.

''The Voice of Ireland''

McTernan entered The Voice of Ireland in 2015. At her blind audition, she sang "Who You Are", for which all four judges turned their chairs. She then chose to go on S Club 7 star, Rachel Stevens' team. Sarah's audition video remains the highest viewed video of the series with 90,100 plus hits. For "The Battle" show she competed against Tara Gannon Carr. They performed "Changing" by Sigma, featuring Paloma Faith. Stevens decided to send Sarah through to the Live Knockouts. Sarah sang "Ghost" by Ella Henderson and was up against Paul Taylor and Cian O'Melia. Stevens decided to send Sarah through to the Live Shows while Paul and Cian got sent home. In the first live show, Sarah sang "What I Did For Love" by David Guetta featuring Emeli Sande. Sarah came third, losing out to Emma Humber in second place and Patrick James in first.
In 2018, McTernan submitted the song "Eye of the Storm" to be part of an online vote to represent San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest. At the time McTernan said, "Obviously you want to represent your own country but this is a massive opportunity, it would be amazing to be part of the Eurovision."

Eurovision Song Contest 2019

On 8 March 2019, McTernan was announced by RTÉ as the Irish representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. She performed the song "22" in the second semi-final placing 18th and last place overall in the contest.

Discography

Singles