The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Singer Elly O’Keeffe wows judges on The Voice UK
SINCE last Saturday night, singer and songwriter Elly O’Keeffe from Knocknagree on the Cork/Kerry border has been overwhelmed by the support from friends and family following her stunning performance on The Voice UK.
The former student of Pobailscoil Sliabh Luachra wowed the judges on Saturday to make it through to the next stage of the competition, all thanks to her stunning rendition of River by Leon Bridges.
In the audience were her parents – Danny and Joanie – and her older sister, Joanne.
Elly’s success was no mean feat given that she is now down to the final 40 out of more than 22,000 hopefuls to enter the talent competition.
Though no stranger to the music scene in her adopted home of London or indeed Kerry and Cor1k, Elly has become a media sensation overnight.
“It has just been incredible and overwhelming. Although I live away from home it feels like I never moved away,” she told The Kerryman.
A dedicated singer and songwriter, Elly brought out her first album ‘When we live’ in 2014 and has also has a number of EPs to her name.
She has supported artists such as Mick Flannery, Paul
Brady, Jack L and even Hermitage Green.
She moved to London more than eight years ago to pursue her career in music, and in that time has developed her career while working as a music specialist at St Raphael’s school.
Now she has been catapulted into the lime-light after three of the four judges on the show vied to be her coach, and it was Tom Jones she finally chose as her mentor.
She now has to make it through the ‘battle’ stage of the competition, which will see five of the 10 musicians on Tom’s team make it to the final stages, and all eyes in Kerry are firmly on Elly, who will appear on the show in the coming week to fight for her place in the final.