John Lydon ‘shaken’ ahead of bid to become Ireland’s Eurovision entry
Former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon said he was still “scared of miscommunication” from performing, as he prepared to compete to be a Eurovision participant of Ireland.
are the band Public Image Ltd, also known as PiL, are among six artists competing to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Liverpool this May.
Other artists include Andrew Carr (also known as ADGY), Jennifer Connolly, Wild Youth, Leila Jane, and the duo K Muni & ND, featuring Kofi Appiah and Nevlonne Dampare.
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Marty Whelan and Ryan Tubridy with members of Public Image Ltd (Brian Lawless/PA)
Top RTE TV show The Late Late Show will host a special on Friday night in which Ireland’s entry for Eurovision 2023 will be selected.
Eurovision hopefuls gathered at the RTE TV studio in Dublin on Thursday, where they met with competitors and talked about their anxiety and excitement ahead of the selection process.
“This is something I watched as a kid with my parents,” said Lydon of the Eurovision contest. “I miss Johnny Logan, I miss Cliff Richard, I miss Sandy Shaw – and now Johnny.
“It’s as good as any other way of listening to music, I don’t have any preconceptions about things like that.”
He added that he chose Ireland “because I am as Irish as anyone else by blood”.
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John Lydon at The Late Late Show Eurosong Special Preview (Brian Lawless/PA)
Lydon, formerly known as Johnny Rotten, said his Hawaiian song, dedicated to his wife of nearly 50 years, Nora, who has Alzheimer’s disease, offers an opportunity to raise awareness about the disease’s impact on many people.
“I don’t know what I’m going to go through doing this today. Now I even shiver when I think about it.
“It means the whole world to me, these are our last years together. And I miss her like crazy.
“I miss her my, if you keep voting for me, I will miss her even more.”
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He said he’s still “frightened of screwing it up, getting it wrong, letting people down – mostly letting Nora down”.
Kofi Appiah and Nevlonne Dampare, from Co Longford, told the PA news agency they were unwittingly competing to be the Irish entry.
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K Muni and ND (Brian Lawless/PA)
Kofi said: “My youngest brothers are two huge fans of Late Late Toy Show and they really wanted to be on the show.
“So I thought ‘How can I be the best hyung and invite these guys to the show?’ So I looked up the application form on the RTE website and I was filling out the form and I thought ‘I don’t want to fill out this form so I’m leaving it’.
“So I clicked out of it and then I saw ‘Join Eurovision 2023’.”
He said that as a “joke” he would file something and “completely forget about it”.
“A few days after my birthday, I got a call – I wasn’t going to answer either,” he said, adding that it was a “complete shock.”
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Conor O’Donoghue of Wild Youth (Brian Lawless/PA)
Conor O’Donohoe from Wild Youth says that two of the band’s members are from Tallaght in Dublin.
“There is no pub or coffee shop without a poster somewhere. The support was amazing,” he said.
Jennifer Connolly, who turned 19 a few days ago, said she was nervous but also excited.
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Jennifer Connolly (Brian Lawless/PA)
“My mother told me I should apply. I looked up, checked in, didn’t hear back for months, and then got a random phone call.”
She says her mother is “ecstatic”, and that the community on the Irish-speaking island where they live is ecstatic.
“It’s a lovely community, and the whole of Connemara has been so nice to me, so supportive,” she said, adding that students from her old elementary school had sent her a video. good luck to you.
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/john-lydon-shaking-ahead-of-bid-to-become-irelands-eurovision-entry-42325787.html John Lydon ‘shaken’ ahead of bid to become Ireland’s Eurovision entry