Just less than half a million people tuned in to watch RTE’S Eurosong special.
Wild Youth were eventually chosen to represent Ireland at the song contest this May in Liverpool, beating 19-year-old student Jennifer Connolly by just two points on the leader board.
Figures released by RTE revealed that 481,00 people tuned in on Friday.
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A spokesman for RTE said: “Friday night's Late Late Eurosong Special, which saw Wild Youth named as Ireland's entry to this year's Eurovision Song Contest, was watched by almost half a million (481,000) viewers across RTÉ One (inc RTÉ One +1) with an average of 44% share. Plus, RTÉ Player has generated 52,600 streams for this episode to date."
Speaking about being chosen to fly the flag for Ireland at the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, Wild Youth frontman Conor O'Donohoe described it as a huge honour.
He said: "We hope everyone gets behind the song and we hope everyone gets behind us.
"We have been around for a while and we wanted to take a risk. Everyone who performed tonight has a great future ahead of them."
They beat off competition from John Lydon and Public Image Ltd, Andrew Carr (also known as ADGY), Jennifer Connolly, Leila Jane, and the duo K Muni & ND, made up of Kofi Appiah and Nevlonne Dampare.
Jennifer Connolly finished second in the overall vote with her song, Midnight Summer Night. Connolly won the international jury votes but Wild Youth won the public vote and national jury vote to claim their spot on the plane to Liverpool.
Speaking about why Wild Youth have put themselves forward to represent Ireland, Conor said: “I’ve always been a big fan of the Eurovision, but covid and having time off gave me a lot of time to think.”
“It just gave me time to think about taking risks and trying different things, and this kind of came up and I thought it would be quite a cool thing for us to do.”
Revealing whether he thinks Wild Youth can emulate the success of 2021’s winners Måneskin, the songwriter said: “I mean it would be very cool for sure.”
“I think right now we’re just focusing on the Eurosong, we’re focusing on – if we get to it – the Eurovision, and just taking it step by step.
“We’re just going to enjoy the whole experience, touching back on what I said about going through Covid and everything – it’s about being more present in situations and enjoying all the opportunities that this crazy job has been able to give us.”
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