Calum Agnew is top of the charts
DULEEK has produced a major lockdown success as talented teen Calum Agnew has hit the top of the iTunes charts with a self-penned song he recorded in his bedroom.
‘Crazy’ was only released on Saturday September 12th, and shot straight to Number 1, leaving the like of Kylie in his wake!
‘I’m absolutely over the moon, and really can’t believe how well the song is doing,’ says Calum (17), who is in 6th year in St Mary’s Diocesan school. ‘ This is the first song I ever wrote, produced and distributed myself, and I have to thank my friend Stephen Hamilton for all his advice on how to go about it, as he really helped a lot.’
Calum is no stranger to success, having won the local School Stars competition at the tender age of nine, and appeared in many Youtube videos singing at the famous Colaiste Lurgan Gaeltacht.
And now he can add RTE News and Morning Ireland to that list, as they filmed Calum in his school and home last week too.
‘I definitely didn’t expect that, and everyone has been really kind about it,’ he says with a laugh. ‘My music teacher Ms (Clodagh) Barnwall has been playing my song every day, and even though I’d love to go into the music business full time when I’m finished school, I’m keeping my options open, and just studying now in my final year.’
A second track Calum wrote and recorded last year, As Gaeilge, has moved up to number four on songwriters’ chart, so as we speak, he is Number 1 and 4 in two charts!
Two of his biggest fans are understandably his parents Niamh and Fintan Agnew, who have watched their son’s lifelong passion for music really paying off over the years.
‘He has been singing for as long as we can remember, and he is very much his own man, and taught himself to play the piano and has never had a lesson in his life,’ says his proud dad. ‘He borrowed a mic off his friend and he used a laptop and software he got himself, and just locked himself away in his bedroom, and produced this. Neither of us is musical, so we don’t know where he got it!’
Calum has two brothers Aidan, who’s studying for a PhD, and Liam who is in 6th class in Duleek.
You can now buy Calum’s single ‘Crazy’ on Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play.