In 1992, the writer Walsh, who was based in New York, recorded a demo of the song in a studio there. One of the engineers suggested a girl singer that he knew, who could record it. A then-unknown Idina Menzel came in and listened to the song. She suggested a key change for the chorus as she found it rather flat. Walsh was concerned that this would make the song too difficult to sing, but Menzel insisted she could do it. She duly recorded the demo and this was sent out to Niamh Kavanagh, who was recommended to Walsh as being a singer who could handle the difficult ranges within the song. Kavanagh loved the song, but was unsure of wanting to compete in the Eurovision. Eventually, Walsh said that he would withdraw the song if she didn't do it, so she agreed to enter with it. Kavanagh had a home win, since the contest took place in Ireland due to Linda Martin's win the previous year. It was the second of Ireland's three victories in a row in the early Nineties. The song was performed fourteenth on the night. At the close of voting, it had received 187 points, placing 1st in a field of 25. Despite winning the Irish national songcontest, Kavanagh found it difficult to find a record label willing to release the record due to its association with the contest. Eventually, she partly funded the recording of it herself and released it in limited numbers in Ireland under a made-up label name, Eureyes Music. During the run up to the contest, she met with Simon Cowell, who was present with the UK entrant Sonia. He signed her up to Arista Records and the song was released internationally through them. "In Your Eyes" became the best selling single in Ireland for 1993. It also reached No. 24 in the UK Singles Chart and became a minor hit in the Netherlands and Germany. The song was succeeded as winner in 1994 by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan, also representing Ireland, singing "Rock 'n' Roll Kids". Niamh Kavanagh also returned to the Contest in 2010 with "It's for You", which came 23rd out of 25 countries, with 25 points in the final. It wasn't until 2017, during a documentary on the Irish winners, that Kavanagh learned that the singer on the demo she had heard all those years ago was a young Idina Menzel, who was by then internationally famous.
