Singing Priest’s ‘Britan’s Got Talent’ Performance Goes Viral

From Catholic Herald >>

Fr Ray Kelly is now tipped for stardom

 

A singing priest and contestant on Britain’s Got Talent has become something of a YouTube star. Fr Ray Kelly, 64, of Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland received a standing ovation last weekend on the talent show after performing REM’s Everybody Hurts.

Fr Kelly received plaudits from judges Simon Cowell and Alesha Dixon who described his performance as “beautiful” and backed his appearance in the next round of the competition.

The priest said: “I knew I could put in a fairly good performance but I was amazed at the (judges) comments. I am in awe and humbled by it, I really was not expecting it.”

Fr Kelly acknowledged previous Catholic contestant Susan Boyle as an inspiration saying it is his “dream” to sing a duet with her. The priest already has two albums to his name thanks to a previous musical career and achieved social media fame in 2014 after a video of him singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah went viral, receiving over 60 million views.

Fr Kelly was applauded by parishioners at Sunday Mass after his performance. He has broken into song at a wedding mass he celebrated at St Brigid’s Chapel in Oldcastle.

Fr Kelly will progress to the next round of the competition and compete to progress to the semi-finals.

Father Ray Kelly Surprises Bride, Groom and Families with a Special Song

From The Christian Post

Father Ray Kelly of Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland hit the viral jackpot this week with this surprise performance of a rewritten "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen at the wedding of Chris and Leah O'Kane. The YouTube video is now at 9 (now 16) million views and going strong.

Regaling audiences in song is nothing new to the priest from Tyrrelstown in County Westmeath. He had vocal training in Dublin and was part of "The All Priests Show."

"I love to sing, and I love the buzz of performing," Fr. Kelly told The Irish Times. "I travelled to America and did shows there."

However, viral stardom is quite a different experience.

"I've never had to deal with anything like this before, but I'm coping," he said.

Fr. Kelly also has experience as a recording artist and is working on his third album, which is good news for a world who's fallen hard for him. Friday night, the singing priest will appear on the venerable "Late Late Show" in Ireland.

Lucky for his new fans, another wedding performance by Father Ray Kelly is now online. Here he is, singing the classic tune "You Raise Me Up" by Secret Garden – popularized by Josh Groban – for a wedding in 2010.