You're reading: Eurovision winner Dana to seek Irish presidency

DUBLIN (AP) — Former Eurovision Song Contest winner Dana Rosemary Scallon has announced she's running to be Ireland's next president.

Scallon joins a crowded field of candidates to become Ireland’s ceremonial head of state in the Oct. 27 election.

Others in the race include former government arts minister Michael D. Higgins and former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.

The 60-year-old Scallon is known universally in Ireland by her stage name, Dana, following her 1970 Eurovision win for the ballad "All Kinds of Everything."

Scallon is a Catholic conservative and a critic of European Union integration.

She ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1997, finishing third. She also represented western Ireland in the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004.