Last Singer Standing's Patrick O’Sullivan wants to invest €25k win in music career

The 27-year-old musical theatre performer beat off 31 other singers during a six-week run to triumph.

Last night’s final seven were Alex King, Tony Cunningham, Rachael Farrell. Caroline Bailey, Dame Stuffy, Janet Grogan, and Patrick.

Patrick wowed judges Nadine Coyle, Samantha Mumba and Joey Fatone with a show-stopping slow acoustic version of Cher’s ‘Believe’.

In second place on the night was fellow Corkonian Caroline Bailey.

"It's very obvious how talented you are. You are able to bring so much to it. You've really got it all,” raved Nadine.

Joey said: "It's one of those things...either you have it or you don't. You've got it. I got a little teary-eyed, not going to lie about it. Great job." And Samantha added "I wasn't prepared for that, you are just so special, you have it in bucketloads and I'm just honoured to have been able to witness it."

Patrick admits it still hasn’t sunk it.

“I’m delighted, I’ve known for a few months because the show is recorded and I could only tell me immediate family, I couldn’t tell any of my friends,” he explains to the Sunday World.

He has starred in several West End productions in London on shows such as The Book Of Mormon and Dr Doolittle and would now like to invest his prize money in kickstarting a career in the Irish music business.

“In the heat of the moment when you’re looking at 25 grand it’s actually kind of a difficult thing to say what you’d do with it,” he reflects. What I’d really like to do is to really give myself a chance a footing in the Irish music scene and working in Ireland, but that can be a slow process when you’re kind of starting from northing. “So I think really it will just support me when I’m trying to make inroads.”

Patrick, who is from Ballinlough is based in Richmond in south London and spends half his time in Ireland.

He has a girlfriend of four years, Englishwoman Georgia.

“I haven’t treated myself yet, he smiles. “I’m waiting for the right opportunity. My girlfriend is also in musical theatre and she is in Matilda in the West End at the moment, so we would both like to do a nice trip when she’s finished her contract, when we can go together.

He will now release a charity single, ‘The hour before Christmas, is in aid of the Late Late Show Toy Appeal.

“It’s written by Don Mescal, who’s a brilliant songwriter,” he notes. “We kind of got in touch from me being in the show and he had this song he had been kind of looking for the right person to record it for him and it’s great. It’s a beautiful traditional Christmas song. I feel really lucky that I’ve been able to do it.

“I knew I would probably record something, but I was quite keen to do something for charity being Christmas time and all that, so I landed on the toy show appeal in the end so that’s what it’s in aid of.

“My girlfriend Georgia is from Surrey and I’ve been aclimatising her to the toy show for the last couple of years because it’s an absolutely amazing show. You kind of have to get used to how bonkers it is and she adores it now, she just loves it. I was watching it and I just thought ‘you know what this is the perfect thing because it is such an amazing Irish institution’ and it of course the perfect Christmas charity.”

Patrick rejects criticism from some quarters that Last Singer Standing is a glorified karaoke show.

“I think what the show did really successfully was kind of put a new spin on the kind of traditional singing show, which other shows do like the Masked Singer, it’s a singer dressed up as a chimpanzee or whatever,” he points out.

“With last Singer Standing and the songs given to you on the night it’s really difficult thing to do because as a singer if I know I’m singing something somewhere I would sit at home in my living room and I would practice that song to death until I know that it’s in a good place and that I’m happy with it, but actually the idea of turning up somewhere and having no idea what you’re singing and then singing it not just in front of a live audience but also on national television, it’s actually nerve wrecking to do.

“I’ve really enjoyed watching it because I can really empathise with that and I find it really exciting to see how people handle and deal with it.

“I know lots of occasions where people didn’t really have a great sense of the song that they were going to sing and they did a great job. I think it’s a really interesting and exciting contest.”