Less than 18months ago, YouTube-stable Chanele McGuinness heard about an emerging music contest being held by RTE.
Initially pitted against 550 other entrants, to her delight she made the final. Lining up alongside solo artist Gary Showbiz as well as five-piece band The New Transmission, she played live on the John Murray Show.
By the end, she had been declared the over-all winner; a little over 48hours later she was on the Saturday Night Show playing her song, Numb, to some half a million viewers.
Performances at Sea Sessions and Electric Picnic followed – so suffice to say that Chanele, a 22-year-old from the Ballyshannon area of Co Donegal, had been plunged into the deep-end.
But that’s also very much the way she likes it – which is just as well, as she’s currently being plunged right back in all over again.
It began several months ago when talent scouts acting on behalf of Galaxy chocolate spotted her music on SoundCloud.
They liked what they heard, and invited her to London to audition; once again she found herself caught up a whirlwind.
“I was in France visiting a friend at the time,” she explains in a one-on-one conversation with SHEmazing! “The next thing I knew I was on a train for probably the biggest audition of my life. I didn’t have time to think about it, really.”
She adds: “I’d never done anything like that before. I mean, it’s kinda just always been me and my guitar playing open-mic nights.”
The audition was evidently a huge success: she ended up collaborating with Bxnjamin, a talented London-based rapper, to create an infectious, acoustic version of Audrey Hepburn's iconic Moon River.
If you haven’t heart the track yet – and you soon will – it features in a brand-new, must-see advert for the recently released Galaxy Duet bar, which has just been unveiled throughout the UK and Ireland.
Things are surely only going to get bigger too: Galaxy has partnered with Spotify to allow fans of the track to stream it onto their music devices for free. It's furthermore available on iTunes.
“It's exposure on another level,” the Donegal-woman admits earlier today. “And I don't think it's really hit me yet that people will be hearing me in their kitchens.”
Her mum, whom Chanele cites as her No.1 fan, has already checked if the Galaxy Duet advert will be played during the soaps (it will). “So that’s her content,” she laughs.
Right now, the singer-songwriter is weighing up a move to London. “I'm so happy with everything and I’m just so excited about Galaxy Duet,” she states.
“So going forward I'd like to think I'd be a bit picky and choosey about what I work on or who I work with next.”
The X Factor is out then? “I just don’t think you get a lot of freedom in that type of TV show,” Ms McGuinness shrugs. “You have to be open to being much more moulded.”
As for hearing her voice on the Galaxy television ad, she describes it as a “totally surreal and utterly amazing” experience. “I still have to pinch myself every time I see it on television!”
From YouTube, to RTE and Electric Picnic – to taking on Galaxy… we here at SHEmazing! can’t wait to see A LOT more of Chanele McGuinness.
