Story of My Life (Lesley Roy song)

The Irish broadcaster RTÉ invited established songwriters and artists to submit songs from which they, in conjunction with 2FM, made a shortlist and chose their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. For the first time in Irish Eurovision history, RTÉ selected acclaimed theatre and events production company THISISPOPBABY to work on staging and the creative direction of Ireland's entry. Head of the Ireland Delegation for Eurovision 2020 Michael Kealy said "We are extremely excited about Lesley Roy and this year's Irish entry, Story Of My Life. The song is fresh and uplifting, it's a banger, and we are very much looking forward to working with Lesley and THISISPOPBABY in preparation for our performance on the biggest music stage in the world in Rotterdam in May." Creative Director Phillip McMahon added "We are thrilled and proud to be asked to be on Team Ireland for Eurovision 2020. It's a celebration of Irish creativity and we couldn't be more excited for Rotterdam. As Creative Directors, our vision is simple, we want to encourage Irish artists, musical and visual, to get involved in future years - to show them that this contest is modern and fun and an incredible platform for their creativity." Lesley Roy continued "We wanted something uptempo and triumphant, which centres around overcoming your difficulties in life and getting back up again."[2]

The song was meant to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, after Lesley Roy was internally selected by the national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). On 28 January 2020, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. However, on March 18th 2020, the EBU announced the cancellation of Eurovision 2020 as a direct result of the Coronavirus pandemic in Europe.

A music video to accompany the release of "Story of My Life" was first released onto YouTube on 5 March 2020.[3] The video was directed by Kate Dolan. When talking about the music video, Roy said, "The music video was so fun to shoot. Kate Dolan totally came up with a treatment that would work in showing the triumphant energy that here we are shining bright and ready to have fun. It completely captures what I wanted to create in the song. Kate understood that it wasn't supposed to show people being angry or sad, but show that we can and we will defy them, rise up and throw a massive dance party to celebrate!"[2]