Linda Martin wants to team up with Johnny Logan again for Eurovision glory three decades after winning the competition.
The Belfast-born singer, who won the contest in 1992 with the Logan-penned ballad Why Me? shows no signs of retiring.
Linda, 70, insists that Johnny – the only performer to win Eurovision twice – would have to write the song to recapture the magic they created 30 years ago.
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She told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “Johnny would have to come up with the song – he’s a master at writing Eurovision songs.
“He’d have to dream up something... he’d like to sing with me but I can’t make it happen.
“He has to go to RTE and say would you be interested.
“But who knows? You can never say never.”
The pair have been best pals ever since Linda, who now lives in the countryside on the Meath/Dublin border, won the Eurovision on its 37th year.
She said: “Johnny doesn’t live too far away from me.
“I owe him a lot, what would I be doing if he hadn’t written Why Me? for me?
“I couldn’t have been on the road, I’d be off it, I don’t know what I’d be working at now.”
She hailed Derry singer Dana for setting the bar as the first Irish Eurovision winner in 1970 with All Kinds of Everything when she was aged just 17.
Linda, a former judge on RTE’s You’re A Star, added: “Dana set the goal for me and I just wanted to win.”
Linda credits her passion for gardening and walking her rescue dogs for keeping her trim – revealing she can still fit into her 1992 Eurovision winning gown.
She said: “I fell for it [dress] straight away. It’s made of curtain fabric and there’s no stretch in it.
“It’s still hanging in my wardrobe.
“Eurovision winners work all over Europe, and often they’d say, ‘Can Linda bring the dress?’ I’ve worn it recently.”
Linda will perform at a special Eurovision night with the RTE Concert Orchestra at the National Concert Hall on Thursday.
She added: “The orchestra gives a certain beauty to anything you sing.
“I’ll be performing Why Me? and then I went for Hopelessly Devoted To You in tribute to Olivia Newton John.”
Most of her performance work is now in Europe where Eurovision stars are “treated like royalty”.
Linda said: “There’s cars at airports waiting for us, everyone knows you.
“I was in Munich recently and it’s like chalk and cheese, the love they have for Eurovision is incredible.”
The showbiz legend insisted age is “just a number” and turning 70 will not slow her down.
Linda added: “I think you’re as old as you feel, I think I’m still 16.
“I don’t want gifts [for my birthday]. It doesn’t bother me. I’m just getting older and grumpier.
“It’s how you behave, I can’t sit around, I’m blessed with energy and I love work.
“I think it’s stood by me all these years. I never stopped except for Covid.
“I listen to young people coming into the business these days, saying, ‘I had to work last night. I’m really tired’. We would work seven nights a week, up and down from Donegal to Cork and I say to the young ones, ‘You’ve no idea what work is’.”
Starring with her pal of 30 years Twink in Menopause the Musical sparked a bitter feud between the pair and they have never rekindled their friendship.
Linda said: “I don’t want to talk about it at all… You have to move on.
“I just feel these days life is too short to dwell on anything, unless it’s good memories, of course.
“You can worry about stuff alright but you have to get rid of it or it will eat you up.”
She is still “good buddies” with Louis Walsh who she has known for 50 years – and he often lets her stay at his Miami bolthole. And she recalled how he asked her to give Jedward a “crash course” in showbiz when they were doing X Factor.
But she said they learned quickly and were total pros by the time she starred alongside them in panto.
She added: “They just picked it up, they’re like sponges really.
“They were perfect for panto because they did anything you wanted. They would have worn anything you wanted... Jedward were tremendous to work with.”
These days when she’s not performing in Europe or tending to her garden Linda devotes most of her time to her other passion, her rescue dogs.
The animal activist maintains her 12 four-legged friends are her family and she keeps her relationship with her long-term partner Ronan strictly private.
Linda said: “They [dogs] really are my babies, some of them have bits missing and some are so traumatised, even though they’ve been here for years.
“If I take a brush up to start sweeping, you can see the fear in them, but I adore them.
“I battle with the public perception of this all the time, people think they get lots of time to run around.”
Linda also revealed having children were never in her plans.
She added: “I didn’t want a family, I wouldn’t be great with children as I am with animals.
“I love their company and I want to be with them.
“I’m a good aunty, I’ve nieces and nephews and I love them.
“They stay with me and then they can go back to their parents, and I always had the good side.
“Showbiz gets in the way. You can’t do both, I chose showbusiness.”
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