BALLYBOFEY teenage blues singer and guitar player Muireann Bradley received a standing ovation on her debut television performance on the hugely watched Jools Holland Hootenanny new Years Eve show in BBC2 on Saturday night.
This week the 17-year-old described performing on the show with superstars such as Rod Stewart as a “really amazing experience”.
Muireann’s performance of Candyman by Rev Gary Davis was pitch perfect and enthralled audiences of all ages for one of the most watched, long-running New Year’s Eve shows.
Speaking in a myriad of interviews afterwards the fifth year student at Abbey College said “it was a really amazing experience, everyone there was just so nice and it was really amazing how well put together the whole team was. The whole show was amazing and it was amazing to meet all those legends.”
She added that her performance on the programme was arranged between her record company and Jools’ production team.
Muireann, who recently released her debut album ‘I Kept These Old Blues’, described her musical style as “folk blues”.
She swung into fame for her guitar skills in 2019 and is signed with American traditionalist label Tompkins Square.
Muireann was inspired by her father playing the old tunes and the sounds of the Appalachians from a century ago.
Describing her main influence, she said, “I grew up steeped in these old blues in the hills overlooking the valley of the River Finn just outside the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal.
“My father would play this music constantly at home and wherever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was listening or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news,” she said.
As well as being an accomplished musician Muireann is a keen boxer and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete.
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