Young Derry girl set to wow audiences in next round of Ireland's Got Talent tonight

A little Derry girl with a very big voice is expected to sail through to the next round on Ireland’s Got Talent tonight.

Nine-year-old Cora Harkin previously earned a standing ovation from Louis Walsh, Michelle Visage and Denise van Outen.

But despite her poised performance, her mammy Carol Ann says that off screen she is just a normal school girl who likes playing with her toys and eating cake.

“She’s sitting here doing her homework singing to herself, she just sings all the time,” she explained.

“On Saturday she was playing with her My Little Ponies and came out to watch the show and she got a wee bit emotional watching it and she cried a wee bit.

“And then after that she just went back in to play with her ponies again and I was sitting watching it all night.

“She’s just a normal nine year old and she still loves her toys and her friends and wee girlie things like doing her hair and she loves buns and cake.”

Cora attends the McGinley School of Music and Sinead Crossan’s Fresh Academy and gets vocal coaching at the Nerve Centre from Aideen Davis.

“Sinead has been phenomenal,” said Carol Ann.

“Cora would have been quite shy and she has really worked with her, getting her in the zone.

“I get her actual nerves for her now.

“When she goes on stage now she goes into a character but off stage she is totally different.”

Carol Ann says neither she nor her husband Emmett can take credit for their daughter’s formidable talent.

“It’s just mad I don’t know where it came from,” she admitted.

“My husband is tone deaf and I would have sung in choirs when I was younger but that’s about it.

“There’s nobody that musical down the line in our families even and my oldest Oisin and youngest Eoin don’t sing at all.

“Eoin likes to learn the songs when Cora is learning them but he wouldn’t be a performer.” But Cora’s startling voice was obvious from a very early age.

“She was singing before she could talk really,” Carol Ann recalled.

“The first time I became aware of it was when she was about one and a half and we went on holiday to Turkey and she started singing ‘Barney’.

“And then at my wee boy’s christening when she was about three and a half she started singing ‘Reflections’ from Moana and I was just going ‘oh my God’ and everybody just stopped.

“And I always remember at ‘Talent North West’ she went in and sang ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen and that kind of made me stop in my tracks.”

But despite her natural talent Cora is also prepared to work and her craft and will spend hours learning a song until she gets it just right and even taught herself the ukulele using You Tube tutorials.

The Primary six pupil has already won second place in Teenstars Ireland 2017, was a 2017 finalist in the Irish talent show, Opportunity Knocks, and was a runner up in Talent North West 2016. She began writing songs when she was just seven-years-old and has uploaded a couple of originals to her YouTube channel - Secret of Songs.

Carol Ann says Cora’s teachers at St Patrick’s Primary School have been really supportive of her Ireland’s Got Talent journey and have celebrated her success this week.

The family are now waiting to hear what will happen next from the show’s producers, but one thing’s for certain this isn’t the last we’ve heard from her.