Ryan O'Shaughnessy

Ryan O'Shaughnessy (born 27 September 1992) is an Irish singer and former actor from Loughshinny, Skerries, Dublin.

Ryan was born in 1992 in Loughshinny, a small village in North County Dublin, Ireland.

He is the youngest of three children.

He has an elder brother named Graham and sister named Apryl.

The Halpin family was gradually introduced in the early 2000s.

O'Shaughnessy was introduced into the series at age 9 as a child actor portraying Mark.

He had two siblings in the series, brother Damien played by Maclean Burke and sister Laura Halpin played by Liana O'Cleirigh.

In the series, his mother Tess becomes a victim of domestic abuse and is ultimately strangled by her husband Marty who goes on to commit suicide after killing her.

The children Mark, Damien and Laura are orphaned but continue on the series.

He portrayed Mark Halpin in the popular TV series Fair City for nine years (2001–2010).

His uncle Gary O'Shaughnessy represented Ireland in Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song "Without Your Love".

Ryan studied at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), also undertaking a music course as part of BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) in Dublin, Ireland.

He describes himself as a "versatile singer".

He joined the Billie Barry Stage School when he was 4, and believes this is where he learnt his craft.

He plays guitar, piano and saxophone while producing and writing for various artists.

O'Shaughnessy played the role of Mark Halpin, the young son of Marty Halpin (played by Paul Lee) and Tess Halpin (played by Sabina Brennan) in the long-running Irish soap series Fair City.

O'Shaughnessy continued to act as Mark Halpin in Fair City for nine years from 2001 to 2010, when he was retired at age 18.

He was replaced in the series by the actor Cal Kenealy who continued as Mark Halpin, as O'Shaughnessy said he needed to quit preferring to continue with a musical career after nine years of appearing in the series.

At his audition recorded in October 2011 and broadcast in January 2012, he sang "The Power of Love" from Huey Lewis and the News with only one of the four jury chairs, that of Brian Kennedy turning and he defaulted to Kennedy's team.

For the battle shows recorded in November 2011 and broadcast in February 2012, Kennedy put him up against teammate Colin Hand.

They both performed "One" by U2 with Kennedy opting for Ryan and sending him to the live shows.

In January 2012, he appeared in the inaugurative season of The Voice of Ireland and in May 2012, he took part in sixth series of Britain's Got Talent making it to the final and finishing in fifth place.

O'Shaughnessy entered The Voice of Ireland in series 1 broadcast on RTÉ One from January to April 2012.

In the first day of the live shows broadcast on 4 March 2012, he performed "Baby" from Justin Bieber, but was eliminated by public vote finishing in 23/24th place in the series.

After the battle rounds but before the live shows of The Voice of Ireland, O'Shaughnessy auditioned for Britain's Got Talent.

He performed a self-written song called "No Name".

The inspiration behind the song was a girl he had a crush on.

He received yeses from all three judges, Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams.

The audition aired after his elimination from The Voice of Ireland.

At that time, O'Shaughnessy was contracted to record company Universal Records.

One week before the live shows of The Voice of Ireland, the Britain's Got Talent call-backs were held.

The judges were going to send O'Shaughnessy through to the live shows, but owing to his place on the live shows on The Voice of Ireland and contract with Universal, he was disqualified.

It was later announced that O'Shaughnessy would appear in the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent after being released from his contract with Universal.

He performed in the last semi-final where he performed another original song entitled "First Kiss".

He received the most votes and was automatically sent through to the final.

For the final, he performed "No Name" a second time and placed 5th in the competition, with 4.8% of the vote

On 19 May 2012, it was announced O'Shaughnessy had signed a record deal with Sony Music.

His first single "No Name" was released on 5 August, and he released his debut mini-album Ryan O'Shaughnessy on 13 August 2012.

The mini-album contains six songs which are all penned by O'Shaughnessy himself, which includes the song "First Kiss", which he performed on Britain's Got Talent.

He represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Together" finishing 16th.