Entertainment

JP Cooper's September Song might just get an airing in Belfast

JP Cooper: "I’d been making music for years as a solo artist and was loving it but never really enjoyed commercial success"
JP Cooper: "I’d been making music for years as a solo artist and was loving it but never really enjoyed commercial success" JP Cooper: "I’d been making music for years as a solo artist and was loving it but never really enjoyed commercial success"

JP COOPER seems to be finally getting the recognition he richly deserves for his soulful and very catchy pop songs.

September Song has certainly gone a long way to establishing the artist who has in fact been releasing records for around five years. Let’s not forget he is also the singer on one of the most played songs on radio over the past year – namely Perfect Strangers by Jonas Blue.

JP has also been earning himself quite the reputation as a live performer and fans in Northern Ireland can experience his show at the Mandela Hall on June 1.

The man himself tells me that the Belfast date is one that he has been excited about since his tour schedule was first put together.

“I am so looking forward to doing what will be my first Belfast show. When I looked down the list of gigs it definitely stood out for me. I’ve heard great things about the audiences over there and as it’s towards the end of the tour as well I feel it might be a big party to wrap things up!”

Tickets have sold well for the Belfast show and fans will be treated to a sneak preview of JP’s upcoming album Raised under Grey Skies which will most likely be released in September (appropriately enough). There is of course a distinct possibility that September Song may just get an airing on the night…

“Oh I think so”, he laughs. “I don’t think I can leave that song out from now until forever. It has been a very important track for me and one that I’m really thankful for. I didn’t expect it to just blow up the way it did. When I wrote it I thought it was good but I had no idea that it would turn into such a big radio hit.

"I’d been making music for years as a solo artist and was loving it but never really enjoyed commercial success. So after a while you tend to learn to not get your hopes up. September Song changed all that for sure.”

JP’s collaborative success, however, had already arrived thanks to his Jonas Blue hook-up – although as the Manchester singer relates, it was semi-accidental.

“It’s funny you know, I was only supposed to be writing on that track. I was working in the studio doing demos for the song and sent it off to Jonas who really liked it. I thought that was that and thought to myself, ‘I hope it’s a hit and I’ll get some decent publishing on it’ but then Jonas got in touch and said that he really liked my vocal on the demo and that my voice was the one he wanted to go with.

"I said– 'Well, OK then!' It was great but it just shows you how things sometimes work out. I’d put a lot of hard graft in over the years so maybe sometimes those little bits of luck are meant to happen.”