Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi Has Song Selected for Eurovision Contest

Eurovision is a long-running song contest dating back to the 1950s in which each participating country selects a song for the annual competition. This year's entry from Armenia just so happens to be co-written by Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi.

The prestigious competition has helped launch the careers of musicians including ABBA and Celine Dion, and a few years ago the metal band Lordi was Finland's entry.

What's Iommi's connection with Armenia? Going back to 1988, he helped raise money and awareness after a devastating earthquake. Recently, he and Ian Gillan from Deep Purple teamed up to raise money for a music school there. They also recruited Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, the late Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord and ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted for the WhoCares project, recording a two track benefit single.

The song, 'Lonely Planet,' is performed by the band the Dorians, but features music written by Iommi. In a message on his website, Iommi commented on the contest:

Well here's something different, one of my demo ideas has been chosen as the Armenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest! It went on a short list and Saturday night was voted as the winner. I did the music and the performing band Dorians wrote the lyrics, it's called 'Lonely Planet'. They're a good band, the singer has a really good voice and the lyrics they've written are in English. It now goes to the semi-final on May 16th in Malmo, Sweden. Glad to be able to be involved with Armenia again, the school is coming along fine, they've got the furniture sorted and it will be opened late summer.

While we don't know how far Iommi's song will advance in the Eurovision contest, we do know Black Sabbath's highly anticipated new album '13' is set to be released in June.

Watch Dorians Perform 'Lonely Planet' (Music Written by Tony Iommi)