Reiley – Eurovision 2023 Denmark

Rani Petersen (born 24 November 1997), known professionally as Reiley, is a Faroese-Danish singer, a social media influencer and a TikTok star

Early life and family

Reiley was born in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands in a family of an engineer father and a bioanalyst mother. He has two sisters. Reiley was first introduced to music at the age of six when he began taking piano lessons. His passion for performance came, when he was cast in a local production of Grease.

TikTok Fame

Reiley is an extremely popular person on the social media TikTok, where he has more than 10 million followers. Prior to TikTok, Reiley posted content on Instagram. His first video on TikTok has gotten 10 million views, which brings him 250K followers in a one-two weeks. Reiley’s content mainly consists of him singing covers of song in front of a solid-colorful background, although he has also posted content such as trends.

Music Career

Reiley’s popularity on TikTok led him to signing a record deal with Atlantic Records. His debut single ‘Let It Ring’, which was released on March 26th 2021, is reported to have gone viral in South Korea. Reiley co-directed the song’s accompanying music video. The song is about Reiley not being able to cut off a person who wasn’t good for him, with ‘let it ring’ referring to a phone call not being picked up. The song features the first licensed sample of the official iPhone ringtone.

Other Singles from Reiley

• “Let It Ring” (2021)
• “Superman” (2021)
• “Blah Blah Blah” (2022)
• “Moonlight” with (2022)
• “Breaking My Heart” (2023)

Reiley also has been very successful in South Korea, where he’s both performed and recorded music with popular K-pop bands. In 2021 he performed a cover of Smino and Monte Booker’s “Kolors”. 

Melodi Grand Prix and Eurovision 2023

Reiley’s road to the Melodi Grand Prix 2023 crown wasn’t easy. At the end of January the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reported that young TikTok star was in danger of being disqualified from this year’s competition, because the song had been performed at a concert in Seoul, South Korea back in October 2022.

At the Slow Life Festival the Reiley performed the song with a different title and lyrics, and while the performance was after the cut-off point of 1 September 2022 in the EBU rules about Eurovision entries, it could be a breach of the rules DR set for participation in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, that participating song can’t be promoted before release. Despite this, it was later confirmed that he would not be disqualified and would compete.

Reiley was announced on 19th February 2023, as one of the eight competitors of the Melodi Grand Prix 2023, the Danish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, with the song “Breaking My Heart”.

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2023 took place on Saturday 11 February. After first round of voting, three songs from the eight competing acts advanced to the Superfinal, determined solely by the public viewers via app/SMS throughout the week and during the show: Reiley, Micky Skeel, and Nicklas Sonne.

In the Superfinal, the top 3 performed again and the winner was determined through a jury and public vote split 50/50. Reiley with “Breaking My Heart” got 43% votes (Tele: 15% – Jury: 28%) and was crowned as the winner of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2023. He is the first Faroese winner of the contest ever.

About Reiley’s “Breaking My Heart” Song

“Breaking My Heart” was written by Reiley himself, along with Bård Mathias Bonsaksen, Hilda Stenmalm, and Sivert Hjeltnes Hagtvet.

Reiley says about his song and staging:

“Breaking My Heart” is a kind of toxic love story where I romanticise someone who makes me feel great, even if the relationship is not good for me.

I think it’s a colourful song and it has a lot of great possibilities as far as staging and performance and I hope to bring that to life on the big stage. I think there would be definitely that “Riley look” and the “Riley vibe”, but we are gonna bring so many new things to stage and do things that we weren’t able to do at the Danish show, because it’s a bigger stage, a bigger production, so I’m really exited.

Musical Inspirations

Reiley has many musical inspirations, as Lizzo, Bruno Mars, Charlie Puth, he was growing, watching Justing Biber. And of course he is a huge fun of the whole big K-pop world.

Reiley is also a big Eurovision fan himself, and his favourite song is Loreen’s “Euphoria”. Just after winning Melodi Grand Prix, he said:

I’m proud to present both – Denmark and Faroe Islands, it’s the Kingdom of Denmark. I feel honoured just in general being able to do this and represent Denmark on the big stage. It’s fantastic to represent your home country.

Interesting Facts about Reiley

• He has been doing photography and videography since he was 12.
• He has a dog called Bianca.
• He moved to London to do a year of college.

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