‘Fly home for Christmas’ by Mark Leen has been announced as the winner of the Coca-Cola Christmas FM Song Contest 2018. Now in its eleventh year, the song contest on Ireland’s Christmas radio station attracts hundreds of entries each year – all vying to be to be crowned ‘Song Contest winner of 2018’ by Christmas FM’s extensive national and international audience.
Mark Leen is a singer/songwriter from Tralee, Co. Kerry. The inspiration for this song came while he was sick in bed one Christmas day. As he was dozing off watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ he began thinking of the perfect Christmas song which would include a romantic city such as New York, accompanied by a big band sound. When Christmas comes around, this brassy song can be heard on the streets of Tralee town.
Speaking about the song “Fly home for Christmas” winner Mark Leen says: “I’m humble, grateful and thankful to the people who voted for my song and all those involved in it. Hearing it being called out on Christmas FM this morning as being the winner of this year’s song contest was better than winning the lotto – my wife and I were dancing around the kitchen!”
You can listen to ‘Fly home for Christmas’ by Mark Leen and all the runners-up in this year’s Coca-Cola Christmas FM Song Contest at https://christmasfm.com/songcontest/.
Garvan Rigby, Co-founder of Christmas FM says: ‘We were delighted to receive a flood of entries this year. The standards seem to be rising every year we hold the contest, and this year was no exception. We’re thrilled to add ‘Fly home from Christmas FM onto our station this year.’
Christmas FM will be celebrating its 11th year on air this year and, since it began broadcasting, has raised almost €1.5million for a range of charities. The costs of running Christmas FM are covered by various sponsors, ensuring that all on-air fundraising and donations will go directly to Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
This year, Christmas FM is once again generously sponsored by the premier FM sponsors Cadbury, Coca-Cola, and Dunnes Stores. For the sixth year, Christmas FM is broadcasting from the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin who has kindly given the studio space for free.
