Solo Singer
For several years, the McCaul name has been well known in Athlone business and soccer circles, but the family name became prominent across the country when two of their younger members put the family further on the map with their Eurovision song contest appearance.
Since that night, when she played before 200 million people, Donna McCaul has become a solo artist, with a new single and video out soon. She will soon appear on MTV and The Late Late Show.
It seems like only yesterday when Donna and her younger brother Joe became household names after winning RTÉ's 'You're A Star' competition, and represented Ireland in the semi-final of Eurovision Song Contest. In fact, it's now over six years ago in early 2005 when the young singing duo won the television competition, following week after week winning the heats of the contest.
The siblings went on to represent Ireland in the semi-final in Ukraine, with their song, 'Love?', and dozens of their Athlone family and friends travelled with them. Around that time you couldn't pick up a tabloid newspaper in Ireland without Donna and Joe being featured. The duo didn't make the final of Eurovision, but they went on to feature on the top television shows from 'The Late Late Show' and 'Podge and Rodge', and had two follow up singles and even supported Westlife on a 14-night tour.
Such was the local duo's popularity at the time that they even did a cover story with VIP magazine with their mother Helen McCaul.
Now, six years later, Donna has come full circle by doing a solo colour feature in an upcoming issue of the same glossy magazine.
"We shot the video for my new single, along with VIP doing their own shoot of me, and we filmed in Pink nightclub in Dublin and the rest of it in Palmerstown House and I was in a helicopter, and I nearly died when I had to get up in it," said Donna, laughing.
Donna's new single is called 'Just The Way It Is'.
She has been busy promoting it through the media over the past few weeks and she has a business plan in mind to help secure her future in the recording industry.
"I don't have a manager but I have an agent and I'm in talks with managers and record companies now, hoping to get the best deal possible on a record deal," she said.
"As part of my promotion, I have interviews set up with lots of radio stations, and I'll be going to the UK to do an interview on BBC Radio 2."
Donna's new single is going on sale in shops and for download on Friday, October 28.
She's hoping to line up slots on 'The Late Late Show' and on the 'Saturday Night' show with Brendan O'Connor. She will also be doing tours of the country, in various shopping centres, and her video is set to be broadcast on MTV.
"I'm looking forward to playing some venues with the single and hearing myself back on the radio and on TV, but I think I'll have a heart attack when I see the video on MTV," she said laughing.
"But you know, there is a recession on, and I'm intending that the single will cost a very low price to download."
She performed recently on Dublin City television channel, and Donna liked it when DJ on the station said she looked like "a more punked up version of Imelda May".
Everything seems to be going according to plan for 27-year-old Donna McCaul, who has been more than a decade on the road performing at venues and living her dream of being a professional singer.
It is fair to say she was discovered by the late musician, Doc Carroll, (of the Royal Blue showband) who was an Athlone resident from the 1960s, until his untimely death in 2005.
"Doc heard a CD I recorded when I was a teenager, following winning a competition called Teen Popstars in the Dean Crowe Theatre," she said.
"He called down to my mother's house in Marine View to see me, and had a long chat with us, and he invited me to go on the road with his All-Stars show.
"He died just before Joe and me did the Eurovision, but I felt he was looking after me through the competition."
After Eurovision Donna and Joe continued on for a couple of years and their final gig together was one of their most high-profile, when they starred on the reality RTÉ series, 'Fáilte Towers' in 2008. They represented the 'Aware' charity on the show, alongside other celebrities such as Big Brother's Brian Dowling, BBC Apprentice star Jennifer Maguire and musician Don Baker.
"Fáilte Towers was really the end for us, but we had great craic there, and we really wanted to work for 'Aware', because so many people suffer from depression," said Donna.
"After breaking up, Joe got into doing pantos, and I continued singing on stage and performing. I love being on the road and love being busy and always running around, and preparing shows."
Joe and Donna have continued to have separate music careers since that time, although they have made occasional special appearances together, like at the Assumption Road street party in August 2010.
Donna divides her time between her home in Athlone and the music circuit in Dublin and, hopefully for her, she will be travelling further afield in the near future.
She shares her life with her girlfriend, Lauren White, and the couple are now four years together.
"I'm very happy, and probably the happiest I've ever been, and Lauren is stunning, and we're very much in love and a good team and we share the same interests in music also," said Donna.
"Lauren is a great songwriter also, and her own song, 'Viva Radio' was played on RTÉ 2FM the other day. I hope to write some songs myself with Lauren, and record them in future."
Donna's new song, 'Just The Way It Is', is igniting her career with many great things promised in the coming weeks. She is also in demand from songwriters, such as Niall Mooney who wrote Niamh Kavanagh's recent Eurovision song, who wants to write something for Donna. She also hopes to write with her Athlone friend, musician and songwriter, Tadhg Kelleher.
Donna's look has also changed since her Eurovision days when she used to wear red or black berets on stage.
"I would have said to the old Donna, if I could talk to her now, to get rid of the hat, cut your hair and do something with it, what were you thinking?" she said laughing.
"People commented a lot about that hat, and I had red and black ones."
However she reveals a funny story about how herself and Joe said goodbye to their Eurovision past during a summer's night out camping with friends.
"We were camping beside a fire, and it was going out, and I opened the boot of my car and took out the Eurovision hats and the jacket and we burned our Eurovision clothes to keep us warm," she said laughing.
"There are pictures to prove it, and it's all burned now."Her look now is based on celebrity stylist Gary Kavanagh doing her hair when she's in Dublin and Athlone stylist Harmon Hannon doing her hair when she's at home.
"They know exactly what is right for me and then there's my friend from Athlone, Donna Costello, who came to Dublin with me and styled my hair all through me doing the video shoot and I really appreciated her doing that," said Donna.Donna's plan of a solo international career has already begun and should really kick off on October 28 with her MTV appearances and the launch of her video and single. However at the end of the day, she is happy travelling home with Lauren to her family and friends in Athlone.
"It's great to come home to family and friends, and I love the support Joe and I have always got from the people of the town," said Donna.
"I've big plans now, but no matter what happens, I'll always be a singer."
