Eurovision star Mickey Joe Harte has revealed how he has picked up work in Germany during tougher times in his career to help pay the bills.
The singer is set to hit our screens early in the New Year as one of the celebs on RTE's hit show Dancing With The Stars.
However, Mickey Joe has revealed he is no stranger to the ballroom floor ahead of his Dancing With The Stars debut.
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The star says he earns a living singing on Germany's version of Strictly Come Dancing, Let's Dance.
The Donegal native is currently rehearsing for next year's Dancing With The Stars - but the singer says he is well acquainted with the bright lights of the glitzy ballroom floor.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: "You have to be more versatile and wear a few different hats. I mean I do vocals on Strictly in Germany, Let's Dance, not that anybody knows.
"Believe it or not. I do the tracks here and they use my vocals when I send them off.
"That's just another gig I do. It's a nice thing to be asked to do. I was working with people in Germany over the last number of years and I got to know a producer and one of his side gigs is Let's Dance.
"It worked out well."
During Covid, it worked to my benefit because I wasn't able to travel so he was sending me the tracks and I was recording all my stuff here and sending it back to him so that's how it works.
"Again, that's another revenue stream that keeps you going.
"Little things like that, you have to do in between gigs and touring
"Thankfully, I've been able to sustain a living out of it, some months are better than others, some years are better than others."
But Mickey said he's lucky he has been able to live off being a musician, admitting it's hard for Irish artists to be even part of a station's playlists anymore.
He said: "It's gotten very difficult. I don't like to sound like the grinch, but it really is incredibly hard. It's harder to get even playlisted now. There is a very limited number of spaces for new indigenous stuff, new Irish stuff coming through.
"Stations are so heavily playlisted now whereas they weren't before. DJs had a little bit of manoeuvre on their shows where they could play what they wanted but there's very little that they can. So to get something playlisted is quite difficult. There's no point in telling me anything different, especially on the nationals."
Mickey Joe revealed how he had to sign on during the Covid pandemic as the lockdown in Ireland made it difficult for musicians to earn any sort of living.
He said it was a tough time but he thankfully managed to get through it.
He added: "Only during Covid [did he have to sign on] because we were completely wiped out.
"That was the hardest time - that first six to eight months trying to figure out a different way to get revenue streams in.
"I ended up touring a good bit in England and Germany because they weren't quite as restricted."
He said he was lucky he got such huge support before representing Ireland in the Eurovision back in 2003 with the hit, We've Got The World Tonight in Latvia. Not at the time because I was coming off the back of You're A Star and it was huge. The single was Number 1 when we left here. It was a different time, it was 21 years ago.
"Things have changed a lot. Stations are very focused on playlists. There's less and less space available for Irish artists .
"For musicians, it is one of the income streams, it's very important, radio play. If that isn't happening, then it has a knock-on effect to the artist and to studios. The whole landscape has changed entirely.
"And you have to try and keep up with it. It's so hard. There are so many things you have to do in terms of social media so it's really tricky. There was a process when we started - you recorded a record, you put it out, you done a radio tour and an in-store tour and you went on tour and then you'd get onto your next record.
"Now it's social media and taking ten second clips of your songs to make them as attractive as possible," he added.
Meanwhile, Mickey Joe admitted that rehearsals for Dancing With The Stars are "intense".
The singer revealed: "It's intensive. It's hugely intensive. We're all in the same boat in that respect. Everybody signs up for it and thinks 'ah, I'll be grand' but when you're in the middle of it, you realise 'my god'. "They're trying to get you to be a pro dancer quite quickly. It's like five hours a day or four days a week.
"That's the craic."
He said he always said no to it for years, but it "felt right" this time around, saying he wanted to get out of his "comfort zone".
trying to be a quite It's five day or a week.
He said: "I was sounded out I knew they were fishing and would I be up for it, if I was asked.
"I wasn't really. Then I didn't hear anything and then this year Larry Bass called me.... ShinAwiL did You're A Star back in the day and they are a great production company so I felt like it was the right time. I felt like I needed a challenge.
"You can only say no so often," he said laughing.
But before Mickey makes his dancing debut, the star is hoping to have a Christmas No 1 as he teams up for a duet with Rory Gallagher.
Hey! Home For Christmas was written by Mickey and Rory over Zoom and WhatsApp, and similarly recorded in two different countries with Mickey in Donegal and Rory recording his parts in Lanzarote.
The poignant record's lyrics focus on the phenomenon of young Irish people returning from abroad, walking into their local pub and seeing an ex.
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