Johnny Logan: Life after the Eurovision

The final of the Eurovision is this Saturday and Ireland's hopes are high with young Dublin boy Ryan O Shaughnessy flying the flag for the country. We first appeared in the song contest in 1965 and have competed 52 times since with a total of 7 wins, the most ever won by a country in the competition.

Johnny Logan is arguably the most famous of the singers put forward to represent the country, bringing home gold for Ireland not once, but twice. Logan gave Ireland it's second victory in 1980 with "What's Another Year." He then went onto write the 1984 entry "Terminal 3", which finished second, performed by Linda Martin. In 1987 Logan became the first and only performer to win the contest twice, when he won with the self-penned "Hold Me Now". Then in 1992, Ireland won for the third time with singer Linda Martin singing a Johnny Logan original "Why Me?"

After the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest, the glitter, glamour and good times came to an abrupt end for Logan, and life became hard. Tied to a record label which took him down a route he did't want to go down, he became an alcoholic and was drinking extortionate amounts of booze daily which took a toll on his marriage. Eventually Logan filed for divorce and in the nineties he even considered quitting the music industry altogether.
The singer soon had a change of heart and started to rebuild his life.

Logan has been in the music industry for over 5 decades now and a lot has changed since he first came into the spot light. With these changes came certain freedoms, one being able to self fund his latest album; "It Is What It Is." Self-producing an album does not come cheap confessing it has cost him €60,000 to create and another €20,000 to promote however he isn't bound to any contract or additional company. He recently said that the only reason he could afford to do this was because a giant car factory used "Hold Me Now" as background music for one of their commercials.

Now that Logan has his new album ready and is in a positive place both professionally and personally, he prepares to hit the road this Autumn. In a recent interview with Eurovision TV he confessed that he had to quit drinking altogether as their were weeks where he wouldn't remember the nights and he didn't want his children not knowing their father.
Whilst the life after the Eurovision has certainly been rocky and tumultuous, he remains a proud supporter of the song contest; "I have a very loyal fan base all around Europe and I want to see them again."

In theme with the Eurovision final coming up this Saturday night, Johnny Logan will be appearing on The Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy this Friday. Logan and Secret Garden will be singing "You Raise Me Up", the worldwide hit penned by Secret Garden's Rolf Lovland and another Irish Eurovision winner, Brendan Graham.