Cian Ducrot surprises fans with pop-up concert at Dublin portal
By Cate McCurry, PA
Irish singer Cian Ducrot delighted fans by performing a surprise pop-up concert in Dublin city centre.
The singer-songwriter was joined by a flash mob choir at the livestream portal on Tuesday.
The All For You star is the first ever artist to give a multi-city portal performance.
Fans were only given a 30-minute alert before the performance took place. However, the singer had been posting hints about the show on his social media pages.
Ducrot, from Cork, who recently played a sold-out headline show to 20,000 fans at Dublin’s St Anne’s Park, surprised passers-by with his band performing at around 3.15pm.
It was an official performance in conjunction with the Portals teams and was livestreamed in New York, Lithuania and Poland.
Speaking after his performance, Ducrot said: “It was such a huge honour to do this, to get to play to Poland, Lithuania and New York.
“Anywhere in Ireland is home. It’s such a pleasure to be asked to do this.
“It was fantastic.
“We weren’t allowed to tell anybody because they said they would have to close it so it was beautiful to see everyone stop by when they saw something happening.
“It’s been exciting and the support at home is the best thing I could wish for. My favourite thing ever is to come home.
“I put a small hint online about it but was told to take it down but in the last day then I was letting people know that something was going to happen in Dublin.
“It’s lovely to see fans and lovely to see people who care enough to come down and listen.
“It’s really special. It’s such a magical group of people.
“I didn’t know what to expect and was a bit worried people wouldn’t have a clue what was going on but I also know that Ireland loves music so I thought, ‘Hey, there is a guy singing somewhere, people are bound to stop’.
“It was a beautiful reception and crowd.”
Superfan Emma Louise Buckley, from Dublin, said: “He posted that something big was going to happen yesterday on his story, so I thought about it, and wondered what it was about.
“I live a few minutes away, so thought I will definitely keep an eye. Then I saw his story in which he hinted that it was going to be near the Spire.
“I got here at 2pm and am so excited.
“I’m a massive fan. I love his music, he has such meaning in his songs and he is really meaningful.
“My sister also loves him so we bond over that.
“I’ve seen him before in Dublin.”
Lisa Smyth, also from Dublin, said it was an amazing performance, adding: “I love how he connects to his fans through his music and lyrics.
“I’m so happy to see him. He was brilliant.”