Mary Byrne (born 3 November 1959) is a top 10 selling Irish singer and TV presenter based in Ireland and the UK.
[2] She was also Neil Diamond's special guest at the Aviva Stadium, where she performed in front of 55,000 people.
[3] In August 2011, Byrne appeared in GREASE: The Musical at the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin.
Byrne suffered from arthritis in her knees which proved difficult for Mary during the initial stages of The X Factor, but has led to comical improvisations during her tour with Grease.
[14] Byrne's song "I (Who Have Nothing)" that was successful in Dublin was a relief to Walsh as Simon Cowell was annoyed with him for wanting to stage the auditions there.
As Waissel received the fewest votes she was eliminated first and competed against Wagner in the final showdown.
Following her career on The X Factor, Byrne signed a record deal with Sony Music Ireland and began work on her debut album.
[17] Byrne revealed her album would be sold on QVC like Susan Boyle did to help sell a few more copies.
[18] In an interview with Digital Spy Byrne stated; Recording this album was a dream come true.
Mary began a concert featuring her latest songs from the album with Phil Coulter at the INEC, Killarney and in the Royal Theatre, Castlebar in April 2012.
[26][27] Both Mary Byrne and Phil Coulter performed individually throughout the shows, but they also sang numerous duets.
This Is My Life was met by good reviews, not only catering to fans of The X Factor but also regaling stories of a Dublin youth and an exhilarating list of experiences, and thus appealing to a wider audience.
[28] Amongst the stories which Byrne narrates throughout the book, she writes of a year which she spent on kibbutz Geva in Israel, travelling Europe whilst working for a Dublin factory, moving homes and even winning a car.
[30] The book achieves in combining fifty years of a "salt of the earth" existence with a new-found life of fame, with both sides experienced by the same person.