Eurovision legend Marty Whelan was back for his 24th Song Contest. He talks to Donal O'Donoghue about family, retirement (not happening any time soon) and Winning Streak.
"It is not an act, this is really how I am," says Marty Whelan.
Not that I ever doubted the man. For more than 40 years and counting, the evergreen broadcaster – well, more silver these days – has been giving us the world according to Marty via such vehicles as Lottery game-show Winning Streak (of which more anon), the Eurovision Song Contest and Marty in the Morning, the RTÉ lyric fm extravaganza that is his bread and butter.
On the morning we meet, the playlist is, as ever, all kinds of everything, from Bobby Darin singing 'Don't Rain on My Parade’ to the theme from Midnight Cowboy or Willie Nelson, on the eve of his 90th. There’s also some cheery cheffing with Neven Maguire, cheery traffic updates, and news bulletins that feel almost cheery.
Conducting all is the ebullient Marty with his cheesy jokes ("I used to be a grave robber, but I don’t like to talk about it. It’s just digging up the past"), mystery sounds and plastic moustaches. And that’s how it goes because that’s how he is.
It’s the morning after Marty in the Evening, a live show with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra that replicates some of the quirky elements of his radio programme, which he has just wrapped. He reckons he has had about three hours sleep: bed after midnight (no post-show Marty Party), up before cock crow and now running on fumes. Not that he looks or sounds it, a man apparently, as Groucho Marx once put it, vaccinated with a phonograph needle.
Later that evening, Eurovision hopefuls, Wild Youth, will appear on the Late Late Show in the wake of the controversy that saw them end their collaboration with the creative director for the Eurovision show ("Will Ryan ask them the question?" ponders Marty). It has also just been announced that the Song Contest shows will be screened live in cinemas across the country ("Does that mean I get more money?" quips Marty). And then there’s the imminent RTÉ documentary, Marty’s Eurovision Legends, in which all the Irish winners, apart from Dana, reel in the years at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
Of course, Marty Whelan is a bit of a Eurovision legend himself. Next week will be the broadcaster’s 24th Song Contest. And you have yet to win it Marty? "Ah, but getting it that first time, I did win it," he fires back. That first time was 1987, then he was back in the hot seat for 2000 and has been there ever since. In the 1990s, when it seemed Ireland hosted the show almost every other year, did he ever throw his hat into the presenter ring?
"There was one time that I was asked to audition for it," he says, unsure now of when that was. "I don’t have French but foolishly thought I could get through the audition by counting to 10 in French on my fingers ("un, deux, trois…" goes Marty). However, as one of the interviewers was actually French, Marty knew his goose was cooked. "So that killed that ambition," he says. "Didn’t happen, doesn’t matter, but if we ever get to host it again it would be nice to play some part on screen."
Had to bring my original Abbey Road to Liverpool for the Eurovision. Could Macca be about? pic.twitter.com/ZdFZ4ky2VE
— Marty Whelan (@martylyricfm) May 13, 2023
For now, we have Marty on the commentary mic and occasionally taking the ‘mic’ too. "I say what I see," he says of his Eurovision schtick. "I’m like the person at home on the couch, wanting to have a bit of craic. It is the biggest music event of the year, whether you like it or not. And on the night, there is always an act, or two, that are complete and utter lunatics and I love if for that."
In fact, he just loves the whole shebang, always has, part of his childhood, growing up in Killester in north Dublin, the only ("not lonely") child of Lily and John. "It was big in our house as it was big in most houses," he says of the Song Contest. "Firstly, here was little Ireland participating, secondly it was where the whole country came together and thirdly, we’d be there with the RTÉ Guide, writing down the judges scores: mum, dad and me. Those memories are still vivid."
Marty Whelan may not take himself too seriously, but he always takes the job seriously. "I’m a great reader, having just started Philip Short’s biography of Putin," he says, perhaps misunderstanding the question. Or maybe not.
"People might think ‘He’d never read a book like that!’ but I would, and I do. I love politics and want to get an understanding of this bloke. I have done TV shows where you needed to know something about everything. And I have a lived a rounded life, I think, so I do know more than just Barry Manilow and that there is another world out there.
"More than anything, I’m an upbeat person, always seeking the positive in the negative, because I believe that is a good way to live your life. It makes for a better life, but I can only speak for myself. So, it is not an act, this is really how I am. And it’s also good for you, Donal."
Last year, Marty Whelan said that he was "renowned for a thing called bouncebackability." Of several career setbacks down the years, the toughest was the collapse of Century Radio, Ireland’s first independent national radio station, which he joined in 1989 after jumping ship from RTÉ.
"The evening that Century died in 1991, I was very unsure of what I was going to do and that was the scariest time in my career. Had I burned all my bridges and what happens now? My daughter Jessica was only a baby, a little thing, and I really didn’t know what to do. I remember walking along the beach in Portmarnock figuring out what I was going to do. Fortunately, I was blessed that there were individuals in [RTÉ] on the television side who had no axe to grind, who were good to me. Radio was another matter and that took years to get on board."
Recovering from Century gave him the confidence to believe that he can get back from other setbacks. "I was reared to believe that the glass was always half full," he says. "I was desperately shy as a young man and not confident, but my parents instilled a sense of confidence in me, and they always had a belief in me. I just had to go out and prove it sometimes. The shock of that moment when Century Radio failed made me truly realise that I did have that self-belief and that sustained me."
So how did he overcome that childhood shyness? "A love of music certainly helped. In the beginning I was working in insurance but doing pirate radio on the side, for no money, just the pleasure of playing music, and it was that music that brought me out of myself. Back then you couldn’t be doing a disco and saying nothing: it was all about the personality and ‘Howya!’ and ‘Here’s the t-shirt’ and all of that. You had to push yourself."
In 2021, when asked when he planned to pull the plug on his broadcasting career, Whelan said: "I can’t afford to retire. I haven’t got a penny to my name." Twitter was apoplectic. Was he being serious? Not really. "I knew that you would be asking me about retirement," says the man who will be 67 next month.
"I don’t want to retire, and I have no intention of retiring. If I stop now, could I survive financially? Yeah, I could, not as fabulously as I do, but I’d be grand. But I love what I do, and I have loads of energy so why stop? I love this job and I love being with my my wife, Maria, and our two children [Jessica and Thomas]."
Last November, at his daughter's wedding, he was the proud-as-punch father. "It was very emotional and yes I am an emotional person," he says. Does he cry easily? "No, not that easily! I lost my aunt recently and was very upset. I shed a tear then and I also shed a tear at my daughter’s wedding."
So the show goes on. But what of Winning Streak, the National Lottery game-show co-hosted by Whelan and Sinead Kennedy until the pandemic shut it down in 2020?
"We were on TV every Saturday from September to May," says Whelan. "That’s a huge chunk of your working life and I really miss doing it. The only thing I can say, from what I know, is that the decision rests with the Lottery. There is no way we could do a show offering that much prize money without the backing of the Lottery, so we need them. I’m constantly being asked about it and people want it back.
"Everyone’s a winner on the show and also there’s the many good causes and charities that benefit. Indeed, I’m the chair of the judging panel for the good causes. So yes, I’m hoping that in time that Winning Streak will return to the TV. I suppose the good news is that the set has not been set on fire."
Back in the day pic.twitter.com/cxSwJrPr90
— Marty Whelan (@martylyricfm) May 5, 2023
Like the indestructible Marty Whelan: a man whose love of music, instilled in childhood, keeps him keeping on. Later that week, he was hoping to go and see classical pianist Ludovico Einaudi and ageless rocker Bruce Springsteen in concert and then, as he puts it, "I’ve a bag to pack", for the Song Contest in Liverpool.
On the morning we met, he played ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’ sung by Willie Nelson, who celebrated his 90th birthday by playing a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Whelan – who I suspect also likes facing the music and doing a bit of a jig – is similarly intent to keep the show on the road as long as they’ll have him.
"Will I be a Willy Nelson?" he asks. "I don’t know about that even though we do like a bit of Willy in the morning. And there’s your headline!"
