The year was 2005 and in the Irish broadcaster RTE used You’re A Star as the format to choose their representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. Brother and sister Joseph and Donna McCaul sang their way to selection with the song Love? penned by Karl Broderick.
On 19 May they were the first Irish act to perform in a Semi Final. They sang in twenty second place position, but the late draw was was not going to be good enough to get them to the final. Twelve countries awarded them points but the total of 53 put them in fourteen place. Not enough to get to the Final.
Since then Donna has appeared in an RTE Christmas special, a few other television shows, and was one of the backing singers for J. Anvil at the Maltese National final for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011.
In February 2012 Donna entered the Irish selection again. It was on the Eurosong 2012 that she came up against Jedward, and the result was that she came third, singing Mercy.
Now, at 30 years of age, she has decided that it’s time to try television again and the girl from Athlone, and now living in Los Angeles, will be one of the contestants on the The Voice USA. She has successfully got past the first stage of the auditions and the next step will be to get the judges to turn their chairs when she performs with their backs to her on television.
The series starts on 23 February on NBC with Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Pharrell Williams and Adam Levine from Maroon 5.
Here is Donna and Joe singing Love? in 2005
