Talented young Derrry singer Cora Harkin
The 13-year-old, from the Strathfoyle area of the city, was carrying out her soundcheck ahead of a wedding performance in the historic building, when the Mayor of Derry, Graham Warke, popped his head around the door and asked the schoolgirl if she would sing for his visitors.
The gifted teen, who recently won the Forestside Roots Young Singer/Songwriter competition (Under 17) in Belfast and reached the semi-final of Junior Eurovision Ireland earlier this year, picked up her guitar and followed the Mayor out into the lobby.
There she met the former Australian Prime Minister, the Lord Mayor of London Vincent Keaveny and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis.
Mr Warke explained that he’d heard Cora sing before and asked her to perform a certain song for the group.
“I was doing my soundcheck for a wedding at the Guildhall when the Mayor came in with a man and said ‘This is the girl I was telling you about’, as I’d met him before,” said Cora.
“He told me the man with him was the former Prime Minister of Australia and I thought ‘wow’, then he asked me if I’d like to sing for them.
“I said ‘sure’, picked up my guitar and followed them out into the lobby, where there were more people waiting. The Mayor asked me to play a particular song, More Than Words, by Extreme.
“When it was over, I got a great round of applause and Tony Abbott asked me to sing another one, but I had to go and do the wedding as it was about to start.
“It was a pretty overwhelming experience, but an amazing one. I wasn’t nervous at all, just really excited. My dad, who was with me, is a politics teacher though and he was more nervous than me.”
Cora, who is a pupil at Loreto College, Coleraine, began writing her own songs when she was just seven years old and learning to play piano and guitar. She entered her first ever talent show before turning eight and her passion for music escalated from there.
In 2018 Cora entered Ireland’s Got Talent, where she got four yes votes from the judging panel. She also took part in Junior Eurovision three years ago, reaching the final with her song, Whatever I Do, which she performed in Irish.
This year she made the semi-finals of the same competition with a cover song but went on to win at the Forestside singer/songwriter contest last month, with her own composition, Busking in the Mirror.
“That song is about how I feel and what’s going on in my head and I’m so excited because I get to record it as part of the prize,” said Cora.
Cora with the Mayor of Derryand Strabane Council Alderman Graham Warke
Her musical taste is old school — The Beatles, David Bowie, Oasis and The Cranberries — but she has one main idol, the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
Much of her taste in music has been shaped by her parents, Carol-Ann and Emmett, although she maintains she didn’t inherit her singing skills from either of them.
“Mum and dad can’t sing and I’m not sure if anyone in my family did before them, so God only knows where I get it from,” she said.
“I love singing and writing songs and the person I most look up to is Freddie Mercury.
“There was an energy buzzing off him when he performed and he knew how to capture an audience.”
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