The song and the singer were internally selected by the Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) to represent the nation at the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter).

In 2011 and 2012, Jedward represented the nation for two consecutive years, managing to qualify to the final both times and achieve Ireland's highest position in the contest since 2000, placing eighth in 2011 with the song "Lipstick".

From 2008 to 2015, RTÉ had set up the national final Eurosong to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ireland, with both the public and regional jury groups involved in the selection, while RTÉ held an internal selection in 2016 to choose the artist and song to represent Ireland at the contest.

The members of the jury that selected the shortlist of songs consisted of former contest winners Linda Martin and Niamh Kavanagh, Irish Head of Delegation Michael Kealy, Irish Assistant Head of Delegation Dympna Clerkin, musician Jim Sheridan and Sony Music Ireland general manager Patrick Hughes.

[8][9] The selected song "Dying to Try", written by Jörgen Elofsson and James Newman, was presented on 10 March 2017 during the RTÉ 2fm programme The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene.

[12] On 14 April, Murray performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.

[17] However, following Russia's withdrawal from the contest on 13 April and subsequent removal from the running order of the second semi-final, Ireland's performing position shifted to 9.

Murray was joined by five off-stage backing vocalists: Alison Vard Miller, Graham Kelly, Jules Edwards, Margot Daly and Shane McDaid.

Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.