A TWEET from Ed Sheeran led to Janet Devlin performing with Russell Crowe and riding his horses in the Australian outback, the former X Factor star has revealed.
The 28-year-old played two gigs down under with the Gladiator actor’s band last month after Sheeran shared a video of her covering his song Bad Habits.
"It’s Ed Sheeran’s fault," the Co Tyone singer said.
"He and Russell are friends and he posted a video of me covering Bad Habits which Russell saw and liked it, he also quote tweeted it with just the caption ‘yeah’."
She explained how the following day the 58-year-old New Zealand-born Oscar-winner followed her on Twitter and began posting her music.
"I thought that was the end of it, but then a while later he reached out to see if he could book me for a gig in Dublin when he was on set," she said.
“That fell through due to other commitments and I thought that was the chance gone, but then right before Christmas he asked if I could do these gigs out in Australia."
After organising a visa the Gortin girl and her pianist flew out for two "amazing" shows.
Janet, who shot to fame aged 16 when she appeared on the X Factor in 2011, said she was grateful to carrot-topped troubadour Sheeran for getting her a gig with Crowe.
"I thanked Ed on social media. I told Russell to thank him for me too," she told the Sunday Life.
“I joked with him that the longer I don’t meet Ed the funnier it is because we have so many mutual friends, but also I have got a fair few gigs out of covering his songs.
“This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened. I got a gig on the back of a cover of I See Fire, so the longer I go without meeting him the funnier it gets for me.”
