Northern Irish country pop singer Catherine McGrath has told RTÉ Entertainment how she was stunned when Elton John called her on FaceTime after playing one of her songs on his Beats 1 Radio show.
The Co. Down singer/songwriter, who opened for Michael Bublé at his recent gig at London's Hyde Park, admits she was stunned when the Your Song hitmaker made it known that he was a fan of hers.
The very talented @imcathmcgrath opens up about the time @eltonofficial called her and admits she thought he had phoned the wrong person! pic.twitter.com/Ks5Hlcia4g
— Entertainment on RTÉ (@RTE_Ents) July 23, 2018
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, the 21-year-old artist said: "I went into my label - Warner Bros. Records - and Phil Christy (President of Warner Bros.) said, ‘I’ve got something really exciting to show you. I’m going to play you this clip'.
"He played this voice clip and it was Elton John talking about me! I thought that he had the wrong Catherine McGrath and that it was a mix up.
"Then he played my song on his show [Beats 1]. It was crazy. I couldn’t understand how he’d heard of me. It was insane."
"Then he FaceTimed me a while after he played my song. We had a chat and he interviewed me and we were talking about songwriting."
"He said he couldn’t believe that this was my first album and he just loved all of the songs. He was just so nice," she added.
McGrath, who is often compared to Taylor Swift, said she has no complaints being told she sounds similar to the 28-year-old music sensation.
"People ask me does it bother me being compared to Taylor Swift. First of all, if it wasn’t for Taylor, I probably wouldn’t have even discovered country music."
"Second of all, she’s one of the most successful artists of all time. I couldn’t think of a better compliment to have.
"What makes us so similar is that we sing about real experiences and things that we’ve been through and that’s what country music is all about to me," she said.
McGrath is set to release her debut album, Talk of this Town, later this week, and she admits she is thrilled with how organic the process was.
"I’m so excited about the album. I feel like I’ve written songs for the last two and a half years. Whenever I moved to London, and I started writing songs, I didn’t have a particular place where I was going with it. I didn’t know there was going to be an album or a record deal or anything.
"The cool thing about this album is that it kind of worked backwards."
"It feels like I’ve got to write the songs from a really personal place with no pressure. I think it’s a really cool way to introduce myself to the world," she added.
Talk of this Town will be released on Friday, July 27. You can pre-order it here.
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