By Oisin Fitzgerald

Singer-songwriter Donal Lucey talked to the Killarney Advertiser this week about his debut EP 'Untitled'.

Written by Oisin Fitzgerald who was on work experience with the Killarney Advertiser this week. Photo: Michelle Crean

The Muckross musician is also excited for his debut headline gig in Cork’s ‘An Spailpín Fánach’ on March 15.

He explained how life’s been going managing his full-time music degree with song-writing and his upcoming gigs.

Donal - who auditioned for the X Factor back in 2019 - has come a long way since his days of being a student in St Brendan’s College where he even performed at a graduation ceremony aged just 13!

Currently in his final semester at Cork School of Music, a school he highly suggests for anyone following a career in music, Donal spoke about how he’d been inspired to go to the school by a leaflet he found on his music teacher's desk. He also mentioned the quality of the teachers working in the Cork school, some of which had played with the likes and levels of world famous Belfast man Van Morrison. €80,000 pianos in every classroom were also given a mention by Donal!

Before getting his first headline gig, Donal was supporting acts such as Wild Youth who will be representing Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest this coming May in Liverpool, Roisin O and Paddy Casey. Donal also described the ‘craic’ he had travelling the country on these tours, getting around the entire country from Donegal and Port Laois back home to Killarney’s own INEC.

Donal, who was last year’s winner of the Hot Press prestigious ‘Hot for 2022’ award, also remembered how his days in The Sem Choir influenced his career path. He spoke about seeing the love of music throughout his fellow choir members and how it changed his view on music. Donal is also not a stranger to Irish radio. With airtime on Radio Kerry and Cork’s RedFM, he’s not far from being an Irish radio sensation. This doesn’t even include his audiences venturing as far as mainland Europe, the US and even going as far as Australia.

He spoke about the fun he had making his EP and how he finds its final track ‘Home’ his favourite as it has a personal meaning to him.

Donal also had some words of inspiration and influence for people looking to follow in his footsteps. He spoke about how it does get harder working as a musician and how important people skills are to the trade and finished up saying “if you love doing it, keep at it everyday”.