Nicky Byrne is a man of many talents – he sang with Westlife for 14 years, danced into our hearts in Strictly Come Dancing, proved himself a success with his 2FM radio show and now he’s about to conquer the Eurovision.
With the release of his debut solo single and Ireland’s Eurovision entry Sunlight, Goss.ie sat down with the incredibly popular singer, who is looking to make his mark back in the music industry.
After getting to sit through a full rehearsal of his performance on The Ray D’Arcy Show, Nicky is clearly a perfectionist and goes over the performance over and over again until every single person in the room is happy.
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Fresh off the stage, Nicky strolls into the room in his signature leather jacket, tri-colour ear pieces he uses while performing and the biggest smile on his face I’ve ever seen. Especially when he says he hopes his father, who passed away in 2009, is watching him proudly.
“I hope so. My dad was a big inspiration in my life. He was a musician. His two things were football and music which I ended up going on to do,” he told Goss.ie.
“Whether you believe in it or not this year feels like everything just came together.
“After we didn’t qualify last year, I came in here and delivered the Irish votes. This song (Sunlight) was ringing around in my head the whole time for two years, and I was going to be releasing it this year anyway.
Chats: Nicky with Goss.ie Editor Ali Ryan
“So after wards I thought to myself ‘will I approach them, will I not?’ And I walked into my house around midnight and the television was on the kitchen.
“The whole family were in bed and Marty Whelan was on the television, I walked in and caught the last ten minutes, and one of the last pieces of it was ‘Can we ever win it again?’
“And basically he said something along the lines of ‘I think we can, we just need the right song, the right artist.
“So I just thought ‘I’ll say it to them, what have I got to lose?’.
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“My singing career was on hold, I went into radio, TV, all that stuff so even though I had written and recorded the album, I just thought I’d go for this.
It’s clear that Nicky feels his career is finally in the perfect place. His radio show The Nicky Byrne Show on 2FM has been a success after questions over his hiring, his fan base is still incredibly strong and he’s proving himself as a solo-artist.
But the Dublin star admitted he is nervous ahead of his Eurovision debut.
“I have massive nerves. Everything is so live, that’s the rules of Eurovision, you can’t even have a backing vocal track at all, the punter sitting down watching Eurovision doesn’t pay attention to all of that but that’s the reality of it.
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“It’s a song contest so if the song it is, and you hope it is, you just have to deliver the live vocal,” he explained.
“Over the years a lot of people talk about block voting, but now it seems to me that the best songs are winning again.
“Whether we’ve the best song or not God knows. But the difficulty is getting out of the semi-final. That’s the hard part. And if we do that then we’re in,” he added.
Every time I interview Nicky he mentions his father, clearly they had a very special relationship. So much so, Nicky admitted that he takes a stone from his dad’s grave with him on stage.
“I used to have lucky socks, I pretended I kept that up for years but I actually didn’t. But what I do now, I save a little stone from my dad’s grave and I have it in my pocket,” he said.
While focus is all on his musical comeback right now, Nicky confirmed his two-year contract with 2FM is about to end and therefore he will be re-negotiating a new contract, hopefully continuing his highly popular programme The Nicky Byrne Show.
“The radio shhow is flying. I’m negotiating a new deal at the minute because my two years are up with 2FM,” he said.
Getting back to the Eurovision – Nicky has received huge support from his fellow Westlife stars, and just recently Shane Filan said you will never meet a more patriotic man than Nicky himself, and I believe it.
“I am very, very proud. That’s why I wear (these tri-colour ear pieces). I had them going around with Westlife because you can see them on the big screens and now on the radio show myself and Jenny wear the tricolour earphones I got, so I am patriotic.
“The opportunity to do this for anybody, nobody should ever turn it down if they’re that lucky.
“You listen to criticism but you do your best and you know that anybody out there, if they got the opportunity, they would all do it.”
Sunlight is available to buy now.
