Punk icon John Lydon has said he’s “terrified of getting it wrong” as he seeks to represent Ireland at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
The former Sex Pistols frontman, who formed Public Image Ltd in 1978 following the groundbreaking band’s split, is among six acts who will compete tonight for the opportunity.
The other acts include Andrew Carr (also known as ADGY), Jennifer Connolly, Wild Youth, Leila Jane, and the duo K Muni & ND (or Kofi Appiah and Nevlonne Dampare).
PiL’s entry is an emotional ballad titled Hawaii, described as a love letter to Nora, Lydon’s wife of more than 40 years, who is living with Alzheimer’s disease.
In the song, Lydon reflects on their years together, and in particular, one of their happiest moments in Hawaii.
Lydon said: “I don’t know what I’m going to go through doing this today. I’m even shaking now thinking about it.
“It means the world to me, this is our last few years of coherence together. And I miss her like mad.
“I miss my missus, if you keep voting for me I’m going to miss her even more.”
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He said he was still “terrified of mugging it up, getting it wrong, letting people down – mostly letting Nora down”.
Looking ahead to the competition as the Eurovision hopefuls gathered in RTE television studios in Dublin, Lydon said of the contest which will be held in Liverpool this May: “This is something that I watched when I was young with my parents.
“I remember Johnny Logan, I remember Cliff Richard, I remember Sandy Shaw – and now Johnny.
“It’s as good as any other way of listening to music, I don’t have any prejudices about things like that.”
He added that he chose Ireland “because I’m as much Irish as anybody else by blood”.
The six acts in the running will perform tonight on a special Eurosong edition of RTE’s Late Late Show, during which Ireland’s entry for the 2023 Eurovision will be chosen.
