A Level joy caps whirlwind singing tour for Emma Lusby

Emma, who lives near Dungiven, got her A Level results to cap a hectic few weeks which saw her perform on Latvian TV in the Baltic Folk Festival, in Londonderry at the Maiden City Festival and a little bit closer to home at Stendhal on Saturday.

Emma found out this morning that she had got the necessary grades to make it to John Moore’s University in England to study nursing.

At Stendhal on Saturday afternoon she attracted a steadily growing crowd of festival goers to her performance as her melancholy tones drifted across the fields of Drumsurn.

She began singing to a tiny audience at one of the more off-the-beaten-track stages but as she closed her set with a tender rendition of Bob Dylan’s ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ the captivated crowd had grown to a huge number, despite the increasingly wet weather.

Describing her whirlwind few weeks, the local singer said: “I’ve never really been a fan of pop music. I was doing singing lessons first of all. I’ve been classically trained and I first started with the folk music when my Mum had a Cara Dillon CD in the car. I just fell in love with it and I joined Comhaltas and Glór in Dungiven.

“The festival in Latvia was called the Baltic States Folk Festival. There were three countries in it - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, three neighbouring countries.

“They are all about the folklore over there - they were wearing traditional dances, singing traditional songs and doing traditional dances. I was over there with my traditional music from Ulster.

“It was completely different. They sing in big groups together, maybe hundreds of them. I had a translator with me so I had to explain each song before I sang it.

“I performed at the opening and closing ceremony and it was on Latvian TV.”

Emma also performed at the Maiden City Festival in Londonderry. She said: “I had to sing for two hours so I was just glad I had enough songs.”

Speaking about Stendhal, she said: “I’ve been to it the last two years so it was nice performing at it this year, getting backstage and all.”