A war of words broke out between two Irish Eurovision hopefuls before Friday night's RTE Late Late Eurosong special, according to RSVP Live.
Conor O’Donohoe from eventual winners Wild Youth responded to fellow contestant and former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon's comments which labelled Eurovision 'disgusting'.
During a radio interview recently, John stated that the singing competition was “disgusting” and “phoney”.
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Before the pair went head-to-head on the RTE show, Conor said he didn’t think John should be chosen to represent Ireland.
“If that’s how he feels about Eurovision, it would be wrong to let John Lydon go (to Liverpool), as opposed to someone who absolutely loves Eurovision,” he told The Irish Sun.
“Why would you enter Eurovision then slate the competition? No one is forcing you to do it.”
The Wild Youth singer added that he was “shocked” by John’s comments on RTE’s Drivetime last month.
He said: “I think the question everybody is asking is, ‘If that’s how John feels, why does he want to go?’
“I’m also sure fans of Eurovision are not overly thrilled by what John said because it’s the highlight of their year.”
Responding to Conor’s take, John, who was formerly known as Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols, took aim at the band’s name.
He said: “I don’t know anything about Wild Youth but it’s a bit of a brave name Wild Youth isn’t it? It hardly implies longevity?
“Apologies to all if I made a flippant statement but hello young lads in Wild Youth. You will have bad moments too, and I meant no harm. I am under a lot of stress at the moment.
“I do make the odd disrespectful remark because we all deserve them occasionally, but I am fully committed to this competition.”
John opened up to Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield on This Morning earlier this week about taking care of his wife Nora, who is battling Alzheimer’s Disease.
He dedicated his Eurosong Hawaii to her, sharing: “Alzheimer's is enormous, and it's so pervasive and so at the moment...incurable.
I'm having to struggle to find any way of controlling at all, and keeping a relationship with Nora and hopefully the song kind of helps there.”
On Friday night's show, Wild Youth emerged as winners with their song We Are One and will now represent Ireland at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool in May.
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