68th Song Contest:

ESC legend Johnny Logan turns 70 after the final

Johnny Logan sings "Euphoria" by last year's winner Loreena before the first semi-final in the Malmö Arena.

(Bild: APA/AFP/TT News Agency/Jessica GOW)

No one else has ever achieved this: he has won it twice himself, and once more he was at the top of the Eurovision Song Contest as a songwriter for Ireland. And Johnny Logan recently performed in Malmö as an intermission act in one of the ESC semi-finals. Shortly after the final of this year's competition in Malmö, Sweden, on May 13, the Irish-Australian crooner will be 70 years old.

When he was asked in an interview by RTÉ radio presenter Joe Duffy what he would say at the gates of heaven, Johnny Logan grinned and said: "I gave it my best shot, but often blew it. Can I please see my parents now?" But in fact, the singer and composer is far from thinking about retiring or even saying goodbye to the afterlife - quite the opposite. He is currently on tour, which is taking him to live performances in Austria as well as numerous other stops in Europe. On May 26, Logan can be heard at the Donauinsel Openair, on October 2 and 5 at the Kirchberg Arena in Tyrol and on December 14 at the Portofino in Vienna.

"What's Another Year"
Logan won the ESC in 1980 with the song "What's Another Year", composed by Shay Healy, and again in 1987 with "Hold Me Now". This must have been a particularly emotional moment for the Irishman, as Logan competed with this ballad even though his marriage had broken down just a few days earlier: he had actually written the song for his wife. The winning song "Why Me?" from 1992, sung by Linda Martin, was also written by Johnny Logan

Johnny Logan wins the 1980 Song Contest in The Hague with the song "What's Another Year".

(Bild: picturedesk.com/KIPPA / ANP)

Almost half of the Irish victories
He has thus contributed to almost half of the victories for Ireland, which has won the Eurovision Song Contest seven times to date - a feat only achieved by Sweden. Ireland scored the most points in 1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996.

Although he was born in Melbourne, Australia, Seán Patrick Michael Sherrard O'Hagan, Johnny Logan's real name, is known as a pop star from Ireland. He was advised to adopt his stage name by a manager in Italy at the beginning of his career. For a long time, Logan made a clear distinction between Seán and Johnny - one was "a husband and father, the other an entertainer who conquered the Eurovision Song Contest", he explains in the interview with Joe Duffy.

It was only after the death of his mother that he was able to reconcile the two personalities. On stage at a concert in Sweden, he spontaneously decided to speak from the heart about the loss - suddenly "Johnny Logan was sharing the spotlight with Seán Sherrard". And that's when he realized: "People liked Seán much more than the image of a pop star," he says. "I became myself during that time." Logan lives partly in Ashbourne, half an hour north of Dublin, and partly in Munich, together with his partner and manager Tanja Surmann.

Already on tour as a twelve-year-old
The musician came to Ireland at the age of three with his siblings Michael, Eamon and Fiona when his parents wanted to return to their homeland.

With his father, Patrick O'Hagan, a well-known tenor on the Emerald Isle and Down Under at the time, Logan toured Australia and New Zealand at the age of twelve. His father strongly encouraged his son to become a musician. It was logical for Johnny Logan to learn to play the guitar and write his first songs as a teenager. After a brief detour via an apprenticeship as an electrician after school, he began performing in pubs and clubs as a singer himself.

Johnny Logan in 1989

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Fryderyk Gabowicz / dpa Picture Alliance)

No alcohol
Johnny Logan stands for 16 albums - including several number 1 placements in Scandinavia. But his work also includes ten compilations, joint recordings with Andrea Berg, a theme song for the German series "Blaues Blut", a country version of the song "Miss You Nights" with Elvis Presley's band and appearances in the rock opera "Excalibur".

The Irishman has not drunk alcohol for many years, living a life of abstinence after drowning his sorrows in alcohol in earlier times. Johnny Logan knows that he has tried out a lot in his life - including musically. He has often changed his style, which "not only confused me, but also my audience". Sometimes it used to feel as if "I didn't have a real musical identity. Apart from my Eurovision songs". In the meantime, he says, he has come more back to himself.