Johnny Logan was living in dingy flat months after Eurovision win

Eurovision legend Johnny Logan shared a dingy flat with five students in England, months after his first taste of Eurovision glory, in 1981.

Logan, 61, who is still the only performer to have won the song contest twice, has said that after his shock 1980 win, with ‘What’s Another Year’, bitter legal wranglings between his management and record companies contributed to the collapse of his career. He told Miriam O’Callaghan, on RTÉ Radio One’s Miriam Meets, that he was advised to buy a house on the strength of the cash he would earn after his win.

However, he said his business and management teams made huge mistakes. The money never materialised, he lost the house, and his career floundered.

“My career was sunk. I had no chance,” he said. “I couldn’t really handle it and lost a huge amount of weight. I was left shell-shocked.”

Within months, he was living in the flat in England and knew he faced an uphill battle to rebuild his career when the window in his room broke, and the landlord patched it up with plastic to stop the snow coming in.

But he also wrote his global hit, ‘Hold Me now’, during that time — he sang it to win the Eurovision again, in 1987. He also penned the 1992-winning song, ‘Why Me?’, sung by Linda Martin.

And, 11 years after giving up alcohol, his focus is now his voice and his work. The first album he released in sobriety, The Irish Connection, knocked Coldplay off the number-one slot in the Norwegian charts, where it remained for six weeks, going double platinum.

It was number one in Sweden and Denmark, too, and is still selling across Europe. “I’m more successful now that I was 20 years ago,” he said.