Eurovision hopefuls Wild Youth have revealed legend Johnny Logan told them that "no one gave him a chance" when he first represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest.
The band are huge fans of the Hold Me Now hitmaker – who won the contest twice for Ireland in 1980 and 1987 - and were stunned when 'icon' Logan asked them back to his dressing room to meet them while they were all performing in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago.
But singer Conor O’Donohoe – who is hoping to have the same success as Logan at the Eurovision with their song We Are One – said Johnny thought nobody backed him at first in 1980 with his song, What’s Another Year.
READ MORE: Ireland's Eurovision entry Wild Youth to dazzle stage with pyrotechnics and gold catsuit
Conor told The Irish Mirror: "We were in Tel Aviv with Johnny Logan. He is unbelievably nice. We got there and we knew he was playing so we were kind of fanning. He’s an icon.
"We were like ‘how will we try to sneak out the back’ and hopefully see him. But when we got there the organiser said that Johnny Logan has asked that you go over to his dressing room.
"So we went over and we were with him for like 15 minutes and he spoke and then he went out and he performed and then he gave us a big shout-out when he was performing. We watched it all from the side of the stage, which was amazing.
"What he said was the first time he was going to Eurovision, he said no one really gave me a chance but no one really knows until you perform on the night so just try to ignore everything and focus on your performance because you never know what could happen so that was great."
The group also said Niamh Kavanagh – who won the Eurovision for Ireland back in 1993 – also gave them some advice the night of the EuroSong contest in RTE earlier this year.
"We spoke to Niamh on the day of the EuroSong. She said to enjoy every bit of it," said Conor.
Wild Youth are hoping to dazzle fans on stage during the first semi final on May 9 with pyrotechnics.
Conor will also wear a sparkly gold flared catsuit on stage to add even more glamour.
It comes a week after Wild Youth became embroiled in controversy after they sacked their creative director Ian Banham over his comments on Ukraine winning the Eurovision Song Contest and transphobia.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling then waded in on the row and accused them of "preening, self-satisfied misogyny" for sacking Banham over his tweets.
Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on the RTE Late Late Show on Friday, Conor said the reason they sacked Banham was because his tweets "went against what we believe in as a band".
He said: "I don't want to dwell on it too much but there's a series of tweets that were brought to our attention that kinda went against a lot of stuff that we believe in as a band.
"So we just thought it was easier to part company and go to Liverpool by ourselves."
Conor admitted the involvement of J.K. Rowling in the debate added another element of stress before they are due to perform on stage in Liverpool at the first semi-final on May 9.
"It's very stressful," he said. "I think as well because she kind of hyper-focused on one thing and really highlighted one thing that we have never referenced or spoke about, and focused on that being the main reason as to why we parted company, which isn't necessarily the truth. It's not the truth at all.
"I hope it's in the past now and we can just kind of look forward to doing the Eurovision. We're here, we're very honoured to be representing Ireland, our country. We're so excited to get to Liverpool and I think we just want that to be our focus.
"We want this to be such a positive experience."
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