won it twice!
Johnny Logan
Johnny Logan sang at two Eurovision Song Contests, in 1980 and 1987, for Ireland, and won twice: in 1980 with “What's Another Year” and in 1987 with “Hold Me Now”.
- who
- Irish singer and songwriter
- born
- 13 May 1954, Frankston, Australia
- contests
- 1980, 1987
- wins
- 1980, 1987
- music
- pop, traditional folk, folk-pop
- voice
- tenor
- plays
- guitar
- active
- since 1978
- sang for
- Ireland
Biography
Johnny Logan is an Irish singer, songwriter and musician, born in Australia, and the first person to win the contest twice as a performer. “What’s Another Year” won in 1980 and topped the charts in eight countries. “Hold Me Now”, which Logan also wrote, won in 1987.
Logan wrote two songs for Linda Martin as well: “Terminal 3”, which finished second in 1984, and “Why Me?”, which won in 1992. For 36 years nobody else won twice as a singer, until Loreen did it in 2023.
Written by ESC Predictions, 8 October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia, “Johnny Logan (singer)”.
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The act’s own accounts, as listed on Wikidata. If one is wrong or out of date, tell us and we’ll take it down.
At Eurovision
Two songs, oldest first, and what became of each.
-
1980 The Hague
“What's Another Year”
Winner Won the contest with 143 points, ahead of 18 other songs.
- Sung in
- English
- Written by
- Shay Healy
- Conductor
- Noel Kelehan
- Running order
- 17th of 19
- Age on the night
- 25
Play: Johnny Logan — “What's Another Year”, the winning performance at Eurovision 1980 hear it YouTube the contest’s channel Spotify search Apple Music search
The story of Eurovision 1980: The winner that could not come, and Morocco's only song
-
1987 Brussels
“Hold Me Now”
Winner Won the contest with 172 points, ahead of 21 other songs.
- Sung in
- English
- Written by
- Seán Sherrard
- Conductor
- Noel Kelehan
- Running order
- 20th of 22
- Age on the night
- 32
In the drama file
The scene from our index of scandals, mishaps and lore that Johnny Logan is part of.
- 1997 Without the orchestra The rules that made the contest
In our contest stories
What we wrote about Johnny Logan, year by year. Follow a link for the rest of that night.
- 1980 Johnny Logan
Ireland won with "What's Another Year", written by Shay Healy and sung by Johnny Logan — born in Australia, and singing for his parents' country. He finished on 143 points, fifteen clear of Germany's Katja Ebstein, who had been third twice a decade earlier. The United Kingdom was third.
- 1980 Johnny Logan
Logan was also the first man to win as a solo singer since 1966.
- 1987 The result
Johnny Logan had won for Ireland in 1980. He came back with "Hold Me Now", sang twentieth of the 22, and won again, on 172 points — 31 ahead of the runner-up. Nobody had ever won the contest twice as a performer.
- 1988
It was Dublin's third contest and the second in the Simmonscourt Pavilion. Pat Kenny and Michelle Rocca presented, and Johnny Logan opened the show with the song that had brought it there.
- 1992 The result
The song was written by Johnny Logan. He had won as a singer in 1980, and as singer and writer in 1987. This made three, and nobody else has managed that, in any combination.
- 1993 The result
The interval belonged to the pair who had brought the contest to Ireland: Linda Martin, who sang her winning song again, and Johnny Logan, its writer, who performed with choirs that included local children.
- 1997 Without the orchestra
It was the beginning of the end for the orchestra. Within two years it had become optional, and today no live accompaniment is permitted. Johnny Logan, three times a winner, later called the result "karaoke".
- 2023 What it meant
Loreen became the second performer to win the contest twice, after Johnny Logan. Sweden's seventh victory drew it level with Ireland at the top of the all-time list.
Results as published by the European Broadcasting Union. Biographical details from Wikidata. The photo is from Wikimedia Commons and is credited beside it. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.