Clodagh Rodgers: British ESC legend has died

Clodagh Rodgers (1947-2025) is dead. The singer who represented the UK in 1971 at the Eurovision Song Contest died at the age of 78. This was shared by her son, Sam Sorbie. Accordingly, Rodgers died of an illness on Friday that she suffered over the past three years. She was surrounded by her family.

“My mother lived an incredible life, full of love and happiness,” writes Sorbie. She had a “fantastic career”, traveled around the world and devoted her life to her two sons. She was the heart of the family. “Life without it will not be the same, but she will finally find her peace with dad, grandma and grandpa. We all love and miss it terribly.”

Clodagh Rodgers, who came from Northern Ireland, began her singing career as a teenager and became known nationwide in the late 1960s in the Great Britain. In 1971 she represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in Ireland – for the performance she received death threats from IRA as a Catholic woman from Northern Ireland, which she classified as a traitor. With her song “Jack in the Box”, Rodgers took fourth place behind Monaco, Spain and Germany.

After the successful ESC participation, Clodagh Rodgers continued her career in the show business, published other singles and regularly appeared on British television. In the 1970s she was considered one of the most popular entertainers in the country.

Despite her popularity, Rodgers increasingly withdrew from the spotlight in the 1980s to concentrate on her family. Rodgers was the mother of two sons: Son Matt Morris comes from her first marriage to her manager. With her second husband Ian Sorbie, who died in 1995, she had son Sam.