15 acts took to the stage on Saturday evening (February 11th) for the Grand Final of ‘Wexford Has Talent’ 2017 at Clayton Whites Hotel.
Performers from as young as 13 showcased top class skills in music, singer songwriter performances, dance performance and harmonic music and it was the group of singers and musicians who together form 7th Fret who took the 2017 title.
The guest MC Councillor George Lawlor introduced the finalists on the evening as they took to the stage to battle it out in front of the panel of four judges, which included Sophie Wilson, Catherine ‘Biddy’ Walsh, Vicki Clancy and Carmel Corish Wallace along with a full house of a 600 strong audience.
The talented bunch included’ ballerina Sorcha Finn, singer Éabha Carty, 7th Fret harmony group, singer Will Troy Walsh, singer Caoimhe Troy, singer Jirat O’Neill, operatic singer Emma Hore, singer Hayley Crosbie, singer and guitarist Aaron McStein, pole artist Danielle Reck, 19 year old singer Adi Roche O’Leary, 15 year old musical theatre performer Caoimhe Boyle from Foulkesmills, 13 year old singer Aoife Goodison, 19 year old singer from Wexford town Luke Hayes and hip hop dance troupe from Wexford town ‘Hysteria’.
The members of 7th Fret David McDonnell from Kilmore, Ciara Cullinane from Wexford town, Holly Rossiter from Barntown, Robert Murphy from Barntown, Hazel Devereux from Wexford town and Daniel Furlong from Taghmon walked away with the 2017 Grand Final title and she was presented with €2000 cash prize by the sponsors Jim Hayes from The Wexford People plus two runner up prizes of €500 were awarded to pole dancing performer Danielle Reck and dance troupe Hysteria which includes Shauna Brady, Shona Kavanagh, Corey Lacey, Ashligh Godkin, Sarah Boyle, Stephanie Nolan, Cathlain Stamp and Ava McGarry all from Wexford town.
The musical harmony group ‘7th Fret’ sang ‘Send Me On My Way’ by Rusted Roots at the Grand Final. The group formed after they all performed together in a school production of Les Miserables in late 2015. Since then they have performed at many charity gigs, most notably at Wexford Spiegeltent Festival and Cycle against Suicide and they recently went on to win Taghmons got talent. Last year 7th fret made it to the final of Wexford Has Talent.
This was the third year of the competition the winners of the inaugural competition in 2015 were Wexford based band ‘Fit For Kings’ who have since gone on to release their successful debut single ‘Heartache’. Gymnast Tara Doyle Robinson won the title in 2016 and has since gone on to perform at select events and in top class acrobatic circuses. Tara took to the stage and wowed the audience at the Wexford Has Talent Grand Final while the judges deliberated on their very difficult decision on Saturday evening.
Commenting on the evening, one of the event organiser’s Kilian Duigan said, “We are delighted with the massive hit that this show has been; we would like to offer our congratulations to all of the finalists, we know the judges had a very tough decision to make on Saturday evening. We would also like to thank all the contestants from the very beginning, right from the auditions to the final, our judges, our MC George Lawlor, our kind sponsors and all the Sarsfields crew, without whom we would not have been able to run such a professional series of shows.”
For further details on the event see wexfordhastalent.com
