Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan’s 1994 Eurovision win was the third-in-a-row for Ireland after Linda Martin’s win in Malmö in ‘92 and Niamh Kavanagh’s in Millstreet in ‘93.
The winning pair had never even met each other before their Eurovision bid and came from completely different musical backgrounds.
Charlie McGettigan was born in Ballyshannon and started his musical career singing in a rock band in the singing lounges of Donegal. He got involved in the folk scene while working for the ESB in Dublin. In 1973 Charlie got a job at the Arigna Power Station and when he moved to Drumshambo he formed a folk band called Jargon which enjoyed some early success. Paul Harrington grew up in a musical family in Killester in Dublin and like his older brothers, started performing in his teenage years. When he left school in 1979 he got a job in the Department of Labour.
Meanwhile, in the early 1980s the pressure of touring with Jargon while maintaining a full-time job became too much for Charlie and the band broke up. Charlie continued to write songs and went on tour with Maura O’Connell. She had hits with some of his songs Feet of a Dancer, Bed for the Night and I Don’t Know How You Do It… in the mid ‘80s. Charlie McGettigan had also entered the National Song Contest in 1984 with a song called Be-Bop Delight.
Unlike Charlie, Paul gave up his day job in the Department of Labour to concentrate full time on music. He made regular TV appearances and released his first album in 1991. Brendan Graham had made several attempts to get Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids through the Eurovision selection process. It was originally planned that Paul would perform the song on his own, but the magic of Paul and Charlie performing the song together soon became obvious, and it took them all the way to Eurovision glory.