John Lydon and Public Image Ltd. lost their bid to represent Ireland on Eurovision. The former Sex Pistols singer hoped to win over a national and international jury, and secure enough of the public's votes, after performing the band's single "Hawaii" on a special episode of Irish TV show The Late Late Show. They competed against six other acts and ultimately came in fourth place. Wild Youth's submission "We Are One" will represent the country in the song contest show.

"Hawaii" is a very personal song to Lydon, who dedicated it to his wife Nora Forster as she battles Alzheimer's. “We spent a magnificent holiday in Hawaii after a tour once and it was just the greatest week of our lives," he said in a recent interview about the song's heartbreaking origins. “Now her memories are fading, I wanted to bring something like that back to her. I get broke up even thinking about it.”

Before the performance, Lydon spoke about his nerves and how much he missed his wife. “I don’t know what I’m going to go through doing this today. I’m even shaking now thinking about it,” he admitted. “It means the world to me, this is our last few years of coherence together. And I miss her like mad. I miss my missus, if you keep voting for me I’m going to miss her even more.”

Despite being a veteran stage performer, Lydon also confessed he was “terrified of mugging it up, getting it wrong, letting people down – mostly letting Nora down.”

Although they didn't win the Eurovision bid, Lydon still achieved his goal of raising awareness about Alzheimer's and making his wife proud.

Randy Baumann & the DVE Morning Show

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