Irish singer songwriter, Janet Devlin shot to fame in 2011 when she participated and reached fifth place on The X Factor singing competition. Fast forward four years and two albums later and Janet Devlin seems to have put her reality TV fame behind her and is growing strong as an artist. Friday night she performed a sold out show at St Pancras Old Church and EF was there too.
Janet kicked off the night with a performance of Things We Lost In The Fire and straight away the young singers beautiful voice shone through. The setting seemed suitable and fitted the tone of her vocals. Janet looked comfortable on stage and cute as button. Janet introduced her next track Whisky Lullabies and explained to the crowd that it was in Irish and that we shouldn’t be worried about that as hopefully we would get a feel for it without understanding the lyrics. This was true Janet’s voice was like a beacon and I personally loved the Celtic feel of the song and felt engaged throughout.
House of Cards was also a beautiful song about an old flame and felt dreamy. I was delighted that Janet’s music wasn’t all ballads and really enjoyed the upbeat tempo, which livened things up. The Celtic feel of Janet’s songs and band was felt throughout the show and was still present in her new tracks like Place Called Home.
Janet’s version of The Cure’s Friday I am In Love was highly entertaining and vocally stunning. For me though the best part of the show was when Janet started singing tracks from her Christmas EP. December Days felt festive with its pretty chorus and was made to be performed in a church. Happy Holidays was fun to watch and included the participation of the crowd, which I enjoyed.
Highlights of the night also included Janet’s performance of a track about the music industry on a ukulele, which was both harsh and fun to watch. Her performance of her debut single Wonderful was also a great moment and was probably the loudest moment of the night.
Janet finished her set with a song that she sang on The X Factor, Your Song, which was a good end to the evening.
Some of Janet’s songs I believe are a bit cliche but at the same time it doesn’t bother at all and her vocals are still the star of the show and completely captivated the crowd and me. All in all it was a good performance and think that Janet’s music has a place in the industry.
