Next In Line have revealed the one and only Louis Walsh came to them with the idea of applying for the Eurovision Song Contest.
The boyband are one of six acts who will compete on The Late Late Eurosong Special tonight to determine who will go on to represent Ireland.
Conor Davis, Joshua Regala, Conor O’Farrell, Neung Kelly and Harry O’Connell are hoping their song, Love Like Us, will win over the jury and the public.
Ireland uses a three-way voting process to determine who will represent us at the Eurovision.
The winner is picked by a combination of the national jury and international jury’s rankings, along with the public vote.
The winner of Friday night’s Eurosong will then perform at the Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Malmö, Sweden between May 7 and May 11 in front of an audience of over 160 million people worldwide.
Speaking to Goss.ie ahead of The Late Late Eurosong Special, the boyband spoke about how their manager Louis Walsh was the driving force behind their decision to enter.
The former X Factor judge discovered the five talented singers after holding open auditions in Dublin last year and subsequently formed the band.
Harry O’Connell said: “We had actually talked about going for Eurovision before but we just didn’t have you know the right song and when we wrote this song last February, we got asked in September to do it by Louis and we just jumped at the opportunity.”
Conor O’Farrell added: “It’s a great stage and obviously for a brand new band like us the exposure has been amazing- the reaction to the song as well, so yeah it’s been an absolute honour so far.”
When asked about the criticism Wild Youth faced during their Eurovision bid last year, Conor O’F said: “I think the beauty about the Euro song this year is that there’s a song for everyone.”
“Obviously not everyone is going to like our song and we’re well aware of that, but I think our job is just to get up there and sing and not read comments so that’s what we’re gonna do.”
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When asked what it would mean to represent Ireland at the Eurovision, Conor Davis confessed: “It would mean the world, you know we’ve said this all along but to represent Ireland in anything is an enormous honour.”
“The Eurovision means so much to us, so to have that opportunity to represent Ireland on such a big stage would mean the absolute world to us.”
When asked if they’re more nervous or excited at the prospect of representing Ireland at the Eurovision, Conor D continued: “It’s more just excitement at this point, you know especially for this [The Late Late Show: Eurosong special] we’ve had so much build up in the press and that kind of thing and this is our first time experiencing this.”
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“We’re far more used to just performing that’s what we love to do, so the sole focus has just been tomorrow night and that’s remained the case, it’s just pure excitement to show people what we can do.”
Speaking about their Eurovision inspiration the two Conor’s answered: “Our hero is Mickey Jo Hart and we’re not joking, no genuinely like before every night out we play We Got The World.”
They quipped: “He [Mickey Jo Hart] actually shouted us out on his Instagram yesterday, it was probably the highlight of our career to date and it will remain that way.”
Last autumn, RTÉ issued a callout on The Late Late Show for artists and songwriters with the talent and ambition to compete and succeed in this highly competitive environment.
The final six songs will be performed live on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player tonight.
