Lesley Roy is a singer-songwriter from Balbriggan in Dublin, Ireland. She was signed to an independent Irish label and in 2006, licensed to US label, Jive Records. She released her debut album, Unbeautiful in 2008, which was executive produced by Max Martin. Until switching her focus to songwriting, and attracting the attention of Marc Jordan, the manager credited for launching the career of Rihanna and owner of Rebel One Management & Publishing. As a songwriter Roy has experienced international success with releases for artists including Adam Lambert, Miss Montreal, Medina, Jana Kramer, and Marlee Scott.
''Unbeautiful'' (2008–2009)
Jive Records A&R Jeff Fenster noticed Roy's work at HitQuarters, and agreed to jointly finance Roy's first album project. The debut album, titled Unbeautiful was released on 30 September 2008. According to Soundscan Unbeautiful sold 45,000 albums and 350,000 digital downloads. The album peaked on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart at No. 5. Her first single "I'm Gone, I'm Going" was the 48th most played song on Hot AC radio stations for the week ending 24 June 2008, then charted at No. 36 on Billboard's Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks and No. 61 on Billboard's Pop 100 Airplay chart. "I'm Gone, I'm Going" was the theme tune for MTV's show Exiled, and was featured on an episode of The Hills. Roy appeared on FNMTV on 18 July 2008, to release the track's video. "I'm Gone, I'm Going" was highlighted as a downloadable track in Rock Band 2. Her second single was "Unbeautiful", the title track from the album. It peaked on Billboard's Pop 100 Airplay chart at No. 39 and was also featured on an episode of The Hills. "Thinking Out Loud" was also featured on an episode of The Hills. The song "Slow Goodbye" was co-written by Katy Perry. Other songwriters who collaborated on Unbeautiful with Roy include Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha, Desmond Child, Dave Hodges, Emanuel Kiriakou, Kara DioGuardi, Greg Wells, Mitch Allen and Andreas Carlsson. Also notable is that Unbeautiful was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. In early 2009, Roy provided tour support on a 32-city tour for American Idol runner-up and hit recording artist David Archuleta. In late 2009, Roy paid tribute to her Irish roots by recording a cover of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Names" for a video montage featured in the New York City Marathon airing worldwide.
Songwriting (2010–present)
Under the management of Benjamin Tischker at Wide Eyed Entertainment, Roy signed to Marc Jordan's Rebel One Publishing then placed three songs with Wal-Mart's debut artist, Ashlyne Huff, for her album, Let It Out, released on 7 June 2011. While working on Huff's album, Roy teamed up with some of the industry's biggest talents including, The Writing Camp, Eric Bellinger and Jerrod Bettis. On 13 April 2012, Dutch singer-songwriter, Miss Montreal, released which Roy co-wrote three songs including the title track and single, "I Am Hunter", that reached No. 28 on the Dutch Top 40 chart. Roy also co-wrote the proceeding single "Better When It Hurts" and "Everything". On 15 May 2012, American singer, Adam Lambert released Trespassing, his second studio album, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, marking Roy's first co-write on a No. 1 album for the track "Pop That Lock" included on Trespassing. Roy collaborated with Danish production team, DEEKAY, Tim McEwan and Johannes Jørgensen on "Waiting for Love" for Danish singer, Medina's album, Forever, released on 1 June 2012, in Europe through EMI. Also in June 2012, Roy released two country music co-writes. "Goodbye California" with American actress of One Tree Hill and country music singer, Jana Kramer, for her self-titled debut album. Then joining back up with Desmond Child to co-write, "Rhinestone in the Rough" for Canadian country singer-songwriter Marlee Scott's album Beautiful Maybe. In 2016 she provided the lead vocals for the entrance theme of wrestler Ember Moon in collaboration with CFO$ for the song "Free the Flame". The song is as of 2020 still used for Ember Moon.
On March 5, 2020 it was announced by RTE that Roy was chosen to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song ”Story of My Life”. She would have performed in the first semi final on May 12, 2020, however on March 18, 2020, the event was cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak. It is currently unknown if Roy will represent Ireland in the 2021 event.
Personal life
Roy has been married to her American wife since 2010.
