Ryan O'Shaughnessy
Ryan O'Shaughnessy | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ryan O'Shaughnessy |
| Born | 27 September 1992 |
| Origin | Skerries, Dublin |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 2001–present 2001–2010 (as actor) |
| Labels | Sony, Syco, RCA (2012–present) |
Ryan O'Shaughnessy (born 27 September 1992) is an Irish singer-songwriter and former actor from Skerries, Dublin, known for reaching the final of the sixth series of Britain's Got Talent in May 2012, finishing in fifth place, as well as appearing on the first series of The Voice of Ireland.
Early and personal life
Ryan is the youngest of three children. He has an elder brother named Graham O'Shaughnessy and sister named Apryl. Ryan was a student in DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) undertaking a music course as part of BIMM (Brighton Institute of Modern Music) in Dublin, Ireland.[1] He describes himself as a "versatile singer". He joined the Billie Barry Stage School when he was 4, and believes this is where he learnt his craft. He plays guitar, piano and saxophone and the uilleann pipes.
Acting career
Fair City
O'Shaughnessy played the part of orphaned Mark Halpin in Fair City for 9 years (2001–2010) but left to be in a boy band called 'Mission 4'.[2]
Music career
Mission 4
O'Shaughnessy was in a boy band called Mission 4. They were signed to manager Kim Glover in London. Unfortunately the deal fell through, but he says he "learned a lot" from the experience.
The Voice of Ireland
O'Shaughnessy entered The Voice of Ireland in 2012. At his audition he sang "The Power of Love", at which he defaulted to Brian Kennedy's team.[3] For the battle shows he was put up against Colin Hand. They performed "One" by U2. Kennedy decided to send Ryan through to the live shows. In the first live show, Ryan sang an acoustic version of "Baby" by Justin Bieber. He was in the bottom two with Sinead Fox. Kennedy chose to send Ryan home at this point.[4]
Britain's Got Talent
After the battle rounds but before the live shows of The Voice of Ireland, O'Shaughnessy auditioned for Britain's Got Talent. He performed a self-written song called "No Name". The inspiration behind the song was a girl he had a crush on. He received three yeses from Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams. The audition aired after his elimination from The Voice of Ireland. At that time, O'Shaughnessy was contracted to record company Universal Records. One week before the live shows of The Voice of Ireland, the Britain's Got Talent call-backs were held. The judges were going to send O'Shaughnessy through to the live shows, but due to his place on the live shows on The Voice of Ireland and contract with Universal, he was disqualified. It was later announced that O'Shaughnessy would appear in the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent after being released from his contract with Universal.[5]
The unnamed love interest was subsequently identified publicly as Katie Lucia Keegan; her identity first became known when she Tweeted friends about the song after the airing of his performance.[6] Although flattered by the song, she said that she and Ryan were just friends, which he confirmed.[7][8] However, Katie was in the audience for the Finals.[9]
He performed in the last semi-final where he performed another original song entitled "First Kiss". He received the most votes and was automatically sent through to the final.[10] For the final, he performed "No Name" a second time and placed 5th in the competition, with 4.8% of the vote.
Post Britain's Got Talent
On 19 May 2012, it was announced O'Shaughnessy had signed a record deal with Sony Music. His first single "No Name" was released on 5 August, and he released his debut mini-album Ryan O'Shaughnessy on 13 August 2012. The mini-album contains six songs which are all penned by O'Shaughnessy himself, which includes the song "First Kiss", which he performed on Britain's Got Talent.[11] On 10 August 2012, he performed in his hometown, meeting the fans and signing copies of his mini-album.[12] On 23 August, he performed No Name, his debut single, live on This Morning. On 30 August, he announced details of his first UK headline tour and will play 11 dates throughout October 2012.[13]
O'Shaughnessy is currently working on his debut album, which is projected for release in September 2013.[14]
The Hit
In July 2013, it was announced that Ryan would be one of the artists taking part in the new Irish songwriting competition The Hit, going against his former The Voice coach Brian Kennedy.[15]
The show, which aired on 2 August 2013, saw six songwriters pitching their songs to both artists. In the initial stage each artist had to choose two of these six songs. O'Shaughnessy chose a song called "Blush" by Gavin Doyle and "Who Do You Love?" by Mark Graham & Frances Mitchell. O'Shaughnessy chose to release "Who Do You Love?" to enter the chart battle against Kennedy. O'Shaughnessy won the chart battle with the single charting at No.3 in the Irish Singles Chart beating Kennedy's song "Try" which charted at No.15.
On 30 August 2013 O'Shaughnessy, along with the four other chart battle winners, returned to perform their song live in The O2 for the Grand Finale with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.[16]
Discography
Extended plays
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRE [17] |
UK [18] | ||
| Ryan O'Shaughnessy |
|
1 | 9 |
Singles
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRE [17] |
UK [18] | ||||||||||||||||
| 2012 | "No Name" | 3 | 31 | Ryan O' Shaughnessy | |||||||||||||
| 2013 | "Who Do You Love?" | 3 | — | Non-album single | |||||||||||||
| "—" denotes single that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||||
References
- ^ "Britain's Got Talent Judges predict a great future for DIT Student O'Shaughnessy". Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "Britain's Got Talent act wows judges with love song penned for friend". Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "Ryan O'Shaughnessy, Team Brian". Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "The Voice of Ireland - Contestants - Ryan O'Shaughnessy". Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "BGT Singer Ryan Fired Then Rehired". Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "Revealed, Ryan's girl with no name: BGT hopeful's school friend was inspiration for love song that stunned judges". Daily Mail Online. 2 April 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ James Ingham (15 July 2012). "Ryan O'Shaughnessy hasn't ruled out romance with Katie". Daily Star. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ Josh Darvill (5 April 2012). "Britain's Got Talent 2012: Ryan O'Shaughnessy 'just friends' with Katie Keegan". TellyMix. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ Mark Jefferies (12 May 2012). "Can she resist his charms? Girl who Ryan O'Shaughnessy sings about will be in the audience for the BGT final". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ "Ryan O'Shaughnessy is viewers' choice". Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "'BGT' Ryan O'Shaughnessy announces debut single 'No Name'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
- ^ "BGT star Ryan performs today in Dublin". RTÉ Ten. RTÉ. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
- ^ "'Britain's Got Talent's Ryan O'Shaughnessy announces headline UK tour". Digital Spy. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "The Hit - Episode Two". Retrieved 11 August 2013.
- ^ "Final line-up of artists for The Hit announced". RTÉ Ten.
- ^ "Top 5 Hit for O'Shaughnessy". RTÉ Ten.
- ^ a b "Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Irish Charts". irish-charts.com/ Hung Medien.
- ^ a b "The Official Charts Company - Ryan O'Shaughnessy". The Official Charts Company. 6 May 2013.
