Irish Eurovision hopefuls Wild Youth have said they want to concentrate on playing music after a "stressful" week in which they parted company with their creative director Ian Banham.
The Dublin band, who perform on the first Euro semi-final in Liverpool on 9 May with their song We Are One, cut all ties with Banham because of the views he expressed in a series of tweets that "went against what we believe in as a band".
Appearing on Friday's Late Late Show, host Ryan Tubridy asked about the controversy that had engulfed the band over the past few days.
"We don’t want to dwell on it too much but there was a series of tweets that were brought to our attention that went against a lot of stuff that we believe in as a band," said front man Conor O’Donohoe. "So, we thought it was easier to part company and go to Liverpool by ourselves."
The story gained worldwide attention when Harry Potter author JK Rowling weighted in and condemned Wild Youth for their decision to distance themselves from Banham.
"it was very stressful because she hyper-focused on one thing and really highlighted one thing that we never referenced or spoke about," said O’Donohoe.
"She focused on that as the main reason we parted company which isn’t necessarily the truth. It’s not the truth at all but I hope it’s in the past now and we can just look forward to doing the Eurovision.
"We’re here, we’re very honoured to be representing our country. We are so excited to get to Liverpool and we want that to be our focus and we want this to be a positive experience. We just want to play music."
The band dedicated their performance of We Are One on the Late Late on Friday night to Mark Sheehan of Dublin band The Script who passed away earlier this month.
"Mark was an incredibly important to this band. I don’t think we’d be sitting here if it wasn’t for Mark," said O’Donohoe.
"He was the first person who ever believed in us. He flew us to London and put us in a studio. I was in the studio with him every day for two years, writing songs and just learning from him. Just being a sponge around him.
"He was an incredible person. He was a very special person."
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