Linda Martin is best known in Europe as the winner of the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Why Me?”, and in Ireland as a member of the 1970s/1980s band Chips.
The iconic singer was born in Belfast, in March 1952 and went on to become one of Ireland’s most loved singers.
Linda developed a long time friendship with her former manager Louis Walsh.
Outside of music, Linda lives on the Dublin/Meath border with her long-time partner Ronan and her army of adorable rescue dogs.
Here, we take a look back at some of Linda's most memorable moments and career highlights:
Career highlights
Linda Martin started off her musical career when she joined the band Chips in Omagh in 1969.
The group lasted until the early 1980s and released several hit singles in Ireland
They quickly became one of the top bands in Ireland on the live circuit and released hit singles “Love Matters”, “Twice a Week” and “Goodbye Goodbye” during the mid to late 1970s.
In 1972, Martin broke away from Chips to be a vocalist with the new band Lyttle People but rejoined Chips the following year.
Over the next decade, the band made no less than four unsuccessful attempts to represent Ireland at Eurovision, without ever getting out of the qualifying competition.
In 1983, Martin won the Castlebar Song Contest a nationwide song contest in Ireland with "Edge of the Universe".
From this point, she concentrated on a solo career and Chips disbanded until they replaced her with a new female vocalist (Valerie Roe) in the late 1980s.
Linda Martin won the 37th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden back in May 1992.
Her rendition of Why Me? earned her a total of 155 points with the United Kingdom in second place and Malta in third.
The Eurovision winner has also had a string of TV presenter and judging roles, and has presented the RTÉ quiz show The Lyrics Board, one of the broadcaster's more popular formats.
Where she served as one of Louis Walsh's behind-the-scenes team on the first series of ITV's The X Factor.
Linda Martin joined Louis Walsh and Bill Hughes for RTÉ's Popstars. The trio selected six members of the public to form a new pop band.
Martin has also appeared in pantomime, in Dublin.
She starred in Cinderella as the Wicked Stepmother, Snow White as the Evil Queen and Robin Hood as herself, at the Olympia Theatre.
She later served as a judge on the first, second and fourth seasons of You're a Star and on Charity, You're a Star in Summer 2005 and Summer 2006.
Famous TV Spat with Billy McGuinness on the Late Late Show
In 2014, Ireland’s Eurovision entry was chosen during a show called the Eurosong, a competition that was aired on The Late Late Show.
Linda Martin and Aslan’s Billy McGuinness, who was mentoring contestant Laura O’Neill, got caught up in a war of words while cameras were rolling.
Billy McGuinness was seated in the audience, slammed Louis Walsh’s involvement in the Eurovision selections which saw Linda Martin - who was seated on stage - get up from her seat and approach McGuinness in the audience.
She quickly branded him an "odious little man," as the nation held its breath watching on, Billy pointed out at Martin's involvement in X-Factor.
Tubridy told everyone “not to lose sight of what was happening” and managed to finish out the show without further comments from either party.
Falling out with Twink
Linda Martin and Twink fell out while touring on Menopause: The Musical, leading both singers to speak out in newspaper interviews on and primetime TV shows after their rift in 2010.
The two had been friends for 30 years but both said afterwards that they had no plans to speak to each other again.
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