WITH The X Factor reportedly set for a return to our screens, Fermanagh has plenty of reason to remember its own connections to the hit talent show.<\/p>\n
From Derrygonnelly\u2019s 3MG brothers lifting the lid on the auditions process in 2010 to Brendan Murray reaching the live shows a decade later, the county has had its share of X Factor stories.<\/p>\n
Back in 2010, brothers Adrian, Stephen and Michael McGurn, then known as 3MG, travelled from Derrygonnelly to London with dreams of making it through to the famous televised auditions.<\/p>\n
The talented trio had formed two years earlier and performed traditional, chart and wedding music.<\/p>\n
All three brothers sang and played different instruments, with Stephen on tin whistle and piano, Adrian on piano and fiddle, and Michael on flute and guitar.<\/p>\n
Making their mark<\/p>\n
Their X Factor journey began with an application in January, before they travelled to London in May.<\/p>\n
There, they performed Coldplay\u2019s Viva La Vida and Kings of Leon\u2019s Use Somebody as they progressed through three rounds of auditions.<\/p>\n
Despite getting through the first two stages, the brothers never actually performed in front of the celebrity judging panel viewers knew so well.<\/p>\n
Their first audition was in front of X Factor producers at the O2 Arena, followed by a second audition at the Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n
They then underwent an interview about their backgrounds before facing executive producers in the third audition, which was recorded.<\/p>\n
A letter subsequently arrived telling the brothers they had not made it through.<\/p>\n
Rather than being bitter, however, Stephen said they had enjoyed the experience, while admitting that what happened behind the scenes was very different from what viewers saw on television.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be a bit deceiving going by what you see on TV. It is totally different to what people think. You have to do so many things to get to the first stage,\u201d he told the \u2018Herald.<\/p>\n
The brothers also pointed out that many talented performers were eliminated before ever reaching the judges featured on screen.<\/p>\n
Local interest<\/p>\n
Fast forward almost a decade and another Fermanagh connection was making headlines on the show.<\/p>\n
Brendan Murray, from Tuam, has close Fermanagh links through his father Frank, who was from Kildallan near Ballyconnell and worked for more than 35 years with the former Quinn Group.<\/p>\n
The talented singer had already enjoyed success as a member of Irish boyband Hometown, which was managed by former X Factor judge Louis Walsh.<\/p>\n
Murray went on to represent Ireland at Eurovision before taking his chance on The X Factor in 2018.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old plumber made it through to the fifth week of the live shows, winning over audiences and surviving several public votes.<\/p>\n
With reports suggesting the show could be making a comeback, it might only be a matter of time before another local hopeful decides to step forward and ask the judges for their vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WITH The X Factor reportedly set for a return to our screens, Fermanagh has plenty of reason to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[22374,77237,165836,96,13181,347,160355,128,3650,33793,2082,391,56,54,55,34824],"class_list":["post-773137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-alesha-dixon","tag-cheryl-cole","tag-enniskillen","tag-entertainment","tag-fermanagh","tag-itv","tag-louis-walsh","tag-music","tag-simon-cowell","tag-singer","tag-stacey-solomon","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-x-factor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}