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Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s advice for new singers

Ryan advises against taking part in reality TV

Ryan O’Shaughnessy, Ireland’s representative from this year, expressed his advice about reality TV, to Irish media at the end of last month. He is however known for taking part in Britain Got Talent in 2012. He states now that it’s maybe not the best way to success in the music industry.
[yotuwp type=”videos” id=”6KdviedF9iM” ] His Britain got Talent  audition video from 2012 has gotten more than 47 million views.

Don’t do it

He expressed to The Herald; “I would advise people not to do it. As a talent, you have a lot more to give than just being a snippet on a TV show”. He also stated that many people have difficulty maintaining the fame afterwards: “There’s only one or two that push hard and make a career out of it”.  Because he knows that the music industry is not easy and people need to work hard to make it.
"There is no easy way in the entertainment industry. You really
have to graft and work hard if you want to do anything."

He adds to this that: “There are no handouts and I find with these shows, there’s a little bit of a handout. There’s a stage, there’s a platform, do it. But you didn’t work that hard to get there.”

Before focusing on his music, Ryan had been acting at RTE’s Fair City, for six year. He therefore had some connection previous to the shows. And about his own experience on reality TV he says:

"I have little or no regrets when it comes to my career. I've done alright out of it.
"But from my experience of it, I wouldn't be advising people to go and do it" 

Ambassador for a Youth Empowered program

Ryan is now an ambassador for the Coca-Cola Hellenic #YouthEmpowered programme. Their focus is to help young people aged 18-30 across Ireland and Northern Ireland who are no longer in education, do not have employment and lack training to improve their skills. So the program aims to work on their skills and confidence.

His role is to help people get to know the industry better and give them an opportunity to meet people in their field of interest. “Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know” he says.

"My role is to be there to help anyone with any questions of queries
and I can hopefully find them a mentor.  I’ll be helping out directly
in the area of music and I can also pass people on to people better at
business or technology or whatever their area of interest."

Furthermore he expresses the need to go and make connections, which connects to his opinion on reality TV. You need to go and work on your career. “If you can go out and network and meet people you will end up going forward with projects.  You’re not going to do it sitting at home sending out emails,” Ryan says.

"You have to be proactive and introduce yourself. If someone laughs at you, so be it.
If you put out your hand to say hi and they turn up their nose, so be it. 
Learn from these mistakes.  If you never try you never know."

Ryan O’Shaughnessy continues with music

Ryan is quite happy with his performance and how he did, and has made some jokes about it. O’Shaughnessy  however, has stayed busy after singing “Together” at the Eurovision Final.

As well as being an ambassador, he has started working on a new single called “Civil War”. Focusing on one single at a time, since that is how he feels like the music world is turning to:”It’s all about pushing individual songs,” says Ryan “The way the industry has gone it’s very hard to hold people’s attention for longer than three minutes.  It’s quite sad but it’s just the way it is and you have to roll with it”. He still wants to release an another album one day in the future.

"I'll definitely do another album at some stage, just not right now"

He is also likes to contribute his experience and therefore runs songwriting camps for writers, producers and artists.

Reality TV and Eurovision

 
A few countries have been using reality TV shows to pick their performers for Eurovision including Israel and Spain this year. Which has, as you can tell, given quite different results. And now Malta has decided to make use X-Factor to be their selection process for their 2019 Eurovision singer. This has resulted in several opinions being expressed, some positive and some negative, for example from songwriters.
Do you agree with Ryan O’Shaughnessy about reality tv shows not being a good platform for new singers? Would you sing at a reality TV show? How do you feel about reality talents shows and Eurovision connections?

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