ON Friday evening, Janet Devlin performed an acoustic set at The Deaf Institute. Quays News sent reporter Liam Shaw along to her live show.

Since starring in X-Factor in 2011, Janet Devlin has gone from strength to strength. Four years later with two albums behind her, she’s back on the road touring across the UK wowing audiences with old favourites and Christmas hits from her new EP, ‘Little Lights’.

The night kicked off with local artist Miranda Amess performing a collection of songs including covers of Beyoncé and The Pogues, mixed with some that she had written herself. Her powerful voice soothed the room and was met with huge cheers from the crowd.

As the crowd started to gather, Robbie Cavanagh took to the stage. Armed only with a guitar, his mellow set included his incredible single ‘Which Way To New York’ which amazed the crowd as they looked on mesmerised.

By the time Janet Devlin made her way to the stage, a packed out room was ready for an evening of acoustic-pop.

She kicked off the evening with a throwback to her debut album by singing ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’, to which the crowd looked on transfixed by Devlin’s incredible vocals.

Her range of vocals really showed through in her cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’, it’s impressive that a song released back in 1983 can still hold a room to this day.

Devlin’s thanks and gratitude really comes across at her gigs, the audience isn’t just a crowd of people, in her own words, it’s her friends. That really comes across from being in the crowd too, as it feels more like a community of people rather than strangers all bundled together in a room.

Perhaps the most notable song of the night was the cover of ‘Dani California’.

As everyone rocked out and sang along, the atmosphere in the room became electric. Devlin and her band looked like they were having a great time too, since guitarist Dan even had his own guitar solo, which the crowd went wild over.

Fans were also treated to a track that “you won’t find anywhere online” called ‘I Lied To You’. She tells the crowd that it’s a very special song to her and that she’ll only release it when the person forgives her. A tearful Devlin performed to an emotional crowd as tissues were drawn from pockets.

It seemed like everyone was ready for a cheer up afterwards so she moved onto her latest single ‘Outernet’ which she explained is a about getting offline and taking time away from the internet.

This was arguably the biggest crowd pleaser of the night, with plenty of people letting their hair down and singing along.

Devlin also performed tracks from her new EP ‘Little Lights’, including Christmas Kiss which she wrote when she realised that she had been single for four years. As she put it, the EP was a little gift from “Janta Claus”.

As Janet performed her final song, everyone clapped along and loud cheers echoed through the room. When she made her way off stage, everyone was left wanting more from a night to remember.

Speaking to Janet after the show, she said “It’s the best night of the tour so far, I didn’t want to get off stage. When I realised that I was at the last song, I was thinking oh no!”

Devlin’s unique voice and cover of classic songs surprise, entertain and entrance the audience throughout.

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