Wexford teenager Jesse Sludds has been added to the bill as a support act for Shania Twain’s Limerick concert this July after he won The Late Late Show Opening Act contest last week.
He was crowned the inaugural winner of the search for Ireland’s newest country music star last Friday night.
As well as opening for Twain at Thomond Park this summer, he will also open The Late Late Show Country Special in October.
The 19-year-old full-time musician, who covered Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car for the contest, won the competition when the results of the public vote, the music industry jury vote, and the country music jury vote were combined.
When the result was announced, he told host Late Late Show Patrick Kielty: “Oh wow, I did not expect that at all. And to think that I wasn’t going to do it (enter the competition) because I didn’t think I was country enough!
“I had seen it online at first and I was like, ‘Nah…’, and then I had so many people talking to me I was like, ‘Ah sure, go on then!’ But, eh, wow!”
The Late Late Show’s panel, made up of singers Una Healy and Sandy Kelly, The Shires’ Ben Earle, and broadcaster and Something Happens frontman Tom Dunne, had all hailed Sludds’s performance, describing him as “very special” (Healy), “an amazing voice” (Kelly), “a star” (Earle), and “sensational” (Dunne).
Also performing on the night were Paddy Treacy from Fermanagh, Caitlin Mackin from Armagh, Ryan Phoenix from Cork, and Midnight in Vegas – a trio made up of Keli-Ann Corcoran from Dublin, Phoebe Dipple from Waterford, and Jamie Sullivan from Essex.