Galway girl aims to be American Idol

Date Published: 03-Mar-2010

A 19 year old County Galway descendant is being hotly tipped to win the popular singing contest American Idol and scoop a multi-million dollar recording contract.

The link may be tenuous but if Moneygall has the audacity to claim Barack Obama as one of their own then Galway can surely claim Siobhan Magnus, the rising star who made it through to the top 20 (10 males, 10 females) of the hit US TV series.

Siobhan, born and bred to a large Irish-American family in Boston, made it to the last 20 of the Fox network’s star-making show last Thursday.

On Tuesday night continued her journey and took to the stage again and her fate will be decided again by public vote tonight (early Friday morning Irish time) when the two with the least amount of votes in the top ten women will be eliminated from the competition.

Siobhan, who made it through to this stage of the series ahead of tens of thousands of other hopefuls, has been installed as the bookies favourites.

Online polls taken from fans of the show also suggest she can go all the way.

Although American Idol contestants and their family are under agreement with Fox not to grant interviews, Siobhan’s uncle Alan Ware did speak to the Connacht Tribune from his Boston home this week ahead of her Tuesday night live performance.

Mr Ware, a drummer and co-producer for the Boston-based Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra, said her great grandparents on her mother Colleen’s side, hail from Clonmel in Tipperary and Mallow, Cork.

The ancestors of her father Alan Magnus, who has also played with local bands in Massachusetts, hail from County Galway, although Mr Ware was unsure of the exact town or area.

The Magnus family are still in touch with their Magnus, O’ Riordan and Mullin relatives here in Ireland, he said.

“She’s enjoying being there and is having a good time. I spoke with her on Sunday and she’s doing good and really looking forward to tonight’s live show. There are many different sides to her and it will be interesting to see what the judges think,” Mr Ware said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune