Derry winners in new Eurovision book

In ‘What’s Another Year’ Mick Lynch takes us behind-the-scenes of Europe’s premiere televisual event featuring personal stories behind the songs, the singers and songwriters. And Dana reveals how when she first heard ‘All Kinds of Everything’ she didn’t think it was a winning song.

“I thought it was a really nice song,” she said. “It was quite like a folk song, I was a folk singer at this time, so it suited me very well. I honestly never dreamt it would win. Not because of the song, but because the thought of me winning was impossible.”

Dana also revealed how singing the song to such a huge audience was not the only obstacle she had to encounter that night she won.

“I sat on a cylinder that was very difficult to sit on,” she said. “You couldn’t get your foot up on it and that was a big worry, and if you sat on it crooked you’d be frightened for your life. If you were too far forward you could slide down the front, which was a huge worry for me, getting down the slope. I was afraid of not getting on the stool properly. You forget about that once you are seated and you concentrate on the song.

“I wasn’t aware I’d won until the stage manager grabbed my arm and pulled me to the stage. I was pulling against him, and Mary Hopkins was saying: ‘You’ve won!’ I was in shock for about six months afterwards.”

The books also features contributions from Mickey Joe Harte, Dana, Linda Martin, Johnny Logan, Gay Byrne, Maxi, Bill Whelan, Larry Gogan, Phil Coulter, Louis Walsh and more, with an exclusive foreword from Shay Healy, the composer of the award-winning song entry ‘What’s Another Year?’ from 1980.

This book tells the lively, tightly-knit Irish scene that was Ireland’s romance with the Eurovision.