Johnny Logan has said winning the Eurovision Song Contest forty years ago "wasn't about the fame" and admits he just wanted to "make the people back home proud".
The much-loved 65-year-old singer achieved success in the 1980 edition of the competition at The Hague in Holland, with Shay Healy's catchy track, What's Another Year.
When asked on Friday's Late Late Show about his declaration of love for The Emerald Isle after he performed the winning track on that glorious evening, the Australian-born Irish singer told Ryan Tubridy how he wanted the nation to know "this was our win".
"I still love Ireland. I'm very proud of the fact I love Ireland," he said.
"For me, Ryan, it wasn’t courage. I was 24 years old, Eurovision was huge in those days, and it wasn’t about the fame."
"I just wanted when I performed the song to make the people back home proud."
"When I won it so many emotions went down through me - it was unbelievable.
"The one thing I was thinking about was the folks back home. I wanted them to know this was our win - not just mine - and I said 'I love you Ireland'".
Logan, who won the prestigious annual competition for a second time in 1987 with Hold Me Now, opened up about having to learn how to speak again after an operation on his vocal cords over a decade ago.
"About 15, 16 years ago, I had a polyp on my vocal chords," he shared. "I didn't tell anyone about it really back home. I had to have the polyp removed - laser treatment - and I had to learn how to speak again.
"That was really, really difficult."
"I had a speech therapist. You’re not supposed to talk for two weeks, and I was working with an orchestra in Holland, and if I had of stopped everyone would have been out of work, so I had to go and do one show before I could stop, and it had only been four days since the operation. It was very dangerous."
The Eurovision king insists his voice does sound better after undergoing the operation, adding: "Over the years I worked with my diaphragm and I worked hard on my voice. It’s actually stronger now than it used to be."
"The police started panicking". Johnny Logan describes wandering into the thousands of people waiting at Dublin Airport after his Eurovision win with 'What's Another Year'.#LateLate pic.twitter.com/WU7f8MkM6I
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) January 31, 2020
