It’s ‘A New Dawn’ for Conor McGinty with album and Broadway audition

The well-known performer has told the ‘Journal’ of the exciting past few days and how he feels his two late grandmothers have been looking out for him.

Conor also paid tribute to Derry woman Cliona O’Hara, who lives in America and is helping as many Derry people as she can to achieve their potential. He said she has been a huge support to him.

The pair connected ‘by chance’ through social media platform Instagram. But Conor told how Cliona, who works directly under Bob Proctor from ‘The Secret’ as a personal development coach, had seen a pop-up banner of him previously while in Derry and asked about him. When they connected, they spoke about Conor’s career and he told her how his mental attitude was his ‘biggest block’.

Conor and Cliona put a plan in place to ensure he was at his physical, mental and vocal peak.

Cliona also connected Conor with a Broadway producer, who she had sent his work to and who ‘loved’ what he does. Conor flew out of Dublin at 8am on Wednesday, auditioned in Brooklyn for the producer, and returned home the same day as he is performing in local venues this week.

He will hear if his audition for the top-secret new show was successful in the next few weeks. Conor described the opportunity as ‘amazing’ and added that while he would have loved to have had a look around New York, he didn’t want to ‘let any local venues down,’ so returned home. Conor said he ‘wasn’t tired’ after his mammoth trip and thinks he is ‘kept going on the adrenalin from it.’

He is also busy preparing for his concert in the City Hotel on November 1, for which he’s hoping to release more tickets. His album, ‘A New Dawn’ is on pre-sale at iTunes and Amazon.

He had been working on it for three years with Eamonn Karran, but the death of his grandmother, June, recently, prompted him to finish it.

“On her death bed, she said she hoped I got my break. That sparked something within me.

“My other granny, Madeline, who was like a second mother to me, died two years ago. Things have started to happen now and I think the two of them are looking out for me.”

Conor said that even if things don’t work out with New York, he is going to undertake an Irish tour next year, which is he really looking forward to. He said he has found that positive things happen when you have a positive mental attitude.