A singing priest from Co Meath who wowed music supremo Simon Cowell with his rendition of an REM classic and received a standing ovation at Mass yesterday morning.
Fr Ray Kelly version of Everybody Hurts stunned a live audience during a recording of Britain’s Got Talent, which was broadcast on Saturday night.
The 64-year-old cleric got four yeses from the judging panel after a powerful rendition of the emotional ballad.
Fr Kelly shot to fame four years ago when a video of him singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah at a wedding went viral, reaching 60 million hits.
He later went on to release an album which went platinum in Ireland.
Fr Kelly, who is parish priest in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, said parishioners showed their appreciation at Mass this morning.
“I’m just out of 11.30am Mass, people were in congratulating me, they gave me a big round of applause in the church this morning,” he said.
The parish priest said he is due to appear on ITV’s This Morning Show with Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby today.
“I’ve always loved to sing and perform and I do it in church here all the time with Mass but I never thought it would reach this level,” he said.
After the priest’s performance Cowell led the audience in a standing ovation and heaped praise on him.
“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect to be honest with you,” Cowell said.
“But I’m going to tell you something – this is one of my favourite ever auditions, I really mean that.
“I think your voice is beautiful, I loved the version of the song, this is everything we’ve been waiting for, genuinely.
“I absolutely loved it.”
Judge Amanda Holden said Fr. Kelly's audition “was brilliant, honest, and the whole congregation was behind you”.
As he left the stage to applause from the audience the priest told programme hosts Declan Donnelly and Ant McPartlin that the experience was “awesome”.
Referring to the audience Donnelly said “that was some congregation out there wasn’t it? prompting the likeable priest to quip “We should have had a collection, shouldn’t we?”
