Fr Ray gears up for Britain's Got Talent live semi final

Oldcastle parish priest Fr Ray Kelly will perform in the live semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent later this evening and is among the top five with bookies to win the popular talent show outright.
Speaking to the Celt from Oldcastle before jetting off to London, ‘The Singing Priest’, as he’s known, was excited for his big performance but remained tight lipped as to what song he will be singing. 
Last Saturday on the TV show, it was revealed that Fr Ray (64) had made the cut for the live semi-finals. The decision of the judges came as little surprise to viewers given that Simon Cowell had said the priest’s audition had been one of his “favourite ever”. On that occasion Fr Ray blew away the judges and the audience with his emotional rendition of REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’. The video audition has been viewed close to 6M times on the BGT You-Tube Channel.

Fr Ray is not allowing himself to get too excited about his prospects of making it through to the live final on Sunday night. Show producers prevent him from revealing what song he will be performing in the live semi-final but Fr Ray said that he also has a song prepared for the final. 
“I have rehearsed a song for the final in the event that I get through - time is short so it has to be that way,” he explained.
Asked if he had any plans to go on tour, Fr Ray said that he would consider taking a sabattical from his ministry as he had never taken one. “It’s something I would have to work out with my bishop,” he said.
Fr Ray is no stranger to Celt readers. In April 2014, Fr Ray surprised a couple on their wedding day by singing a version of ‘Hallelujah’ from the altar. The video went viral online and has been watched over 61.5 million times and resulted in a Late Late Show appearance.

To check out voting information for Republic of Ireland viewers to help Fr Ray win, log on to www.tv3.ie/bgtvote

Voting opens and closes as announced in the Britain's Got Talent shows. When the vote is open, Irish viewers can vote by calling 1514 711 0 and adding the last two digits for their chosen act as given in the show. Full details of the contestant vote numbers will be given on the page above when the vote is open.

The programme airs live on TV3 from 7:30pm this evening.