Our Rating: 10/10

There is a certain nerve required to put your voice to a song listeners already know. Familiarity brings expectations, and a cover has to offer a reason to return. For eighteen-year-old Armagh singer and harpist Niamh Noade, ‘Ordinary’ is an opportunity to re-introduce herself through a song with an emotional world her audience already recognises.

The result is a beautiful interpretation and another step forward for a young artist beginning to establish her own repertoire. Noade has chosen a song that places considerable emphasis on its central declaration of love, giving her an opportunity to explore the feeling behind words that could easily become overwhelmed by their familiarity.

At the centre of it all is an instrument rarely placed at the forefront of contemporary pop and singer-songwriter music: the Irish harp.

Niamh has begun carving out a distinctive space of her own with the said harp, combining an unmistakably Irish musical inheritance with contemporary songwriting, cinematic arrangements and a voice capable of moving from extraordinary delicacy to real power.

“Ordinary” has a special significance in that journey.

Niamh previously performed the Alex Warren hit during her Britain’s Got Talent run, where her interpretation drew a standing ovation and introduced a huge new audience to the young harpist.

Now she returns to the song on her own terms.

Rather than attempting to reproduce the scale of the original, Niamh strips the track back and allows the melody, lyric and emotional weight of the song to lead. Her harp gives the recording an entirely different texture, transforming one of the year’s biggest contemporary songs into something intimate, spacious and unmistakably hers.

Niamh says:

“‘Ordinary’ has become a really special song for me because it came into my life at such an important point. Singing it on Britain’s Got Talent opened a door to an audience I could never have imagined, but I always felt there was another version of the song inside me. I wanted to come back to it without the competition, the lights or the pressure and just really sing it.

I love what the song says about finding something extraordinary in another person and in moments that might look completely ordinary from the outside. This version feels much closer to who I am as an artist now. It has my harp, my own musical instincts and a lot more of me in it.”

A successful cover invites listeners to consider both the song and the person performing it. That is useful for an emerging artist: the audience arrives with a connection to the material, then discovers whether a new voice can hold its attention. ‘Ordinary’ gives Noade that opening, offering an accessible introduction for listeners encountering her for the first time.

An accompanying music video gives ‘Ordinary’ a pastoral setting, with outdoor scenes and footage of Noade performing with her harp. The imagery offers a coherent visual introduction: an artist, her instrument and the stunning Irish landscape around her. It is a fitting setting for a release whose appeal rests on the emotional connection between performer, song and listener.

For the industry, ‘Ordinary’ is an invitation to follow Noade’s development. A beautiful cover can bring people through the door; the work that follows gives them a reason to stay. With this release adding to her growing catalogue, she has another opportunity to turn first impressions into an audience that will follow her beyond a single song.

Niamh Noade’s ‘Ordinary’ is out now on streaming platforms, with the accompanying music video available on YouTube.