No Bowie does it better

If you’ve been wondering who was behind that spine-tingling acoustic take on David Bowie ‘Let’s Dance’, as memorably featured on a Ballygowan TV ad, take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone.
Following a steady flood of calls to TV stations and to Ballygowan itself, the song has been released – first as a download, and now as a CD single proper. The voice belongs to one Paula Flynn, a native of Forkhill in County Armagh. She’s been seen (and heard) recently touring and recording with Dundalk maverick Jinx Lennon but the Ballygowan ad, as she reveals, happened completely by accident.
“I’d been working with guitarist Steve Lynch who also plays with Jinx,” she explains. “He writes music for commercials and he knew Ballygowan were looking for someone to do ‘Let’s Dance’. I think they might have been looking for Bowie’s original version but they couldn’t get it, so they went for a cover. We did it for a laugh really. I learned the whole song but they only wanted 30 seconds of it. But they heard it, and it seems they liked it and decided to use it. Bowie still had to clear it apparently; he had to listen to my version, which is amazing when I think about it. I’d really love to know what he thought about it.”
Interest and speculation about the identity of the mysterious chanteuse started from the moment the advert aired. “Very few people knew it was me,” she says. “In fact a lot of people thought it was someone much more well-known like Cerys Matthews or even Bjork. But what happened was Ballygowan were getting these calls from the public and from various journalists asking who it was. We decided to release it as a download, and to our surprise it came in at No. 11. It went to No. 9 and it’s now at No. 5. EMI heard about it and came on board and agreed to put it out as a single. It’s a one-off with them at the moment – we have no plans to release anything else with them, although I’m working on an album.”
What makes the story all the more unlikely is that all this has happened while Flynn was (and still is) a student at Dublin City University – she’s just completed her second year exams in Communications.
“That was the crazy bit,” she says. “I was in the middle of doing exams and essays, and I’m getting these phone calls to do interviews and radio shows. I did Tubridy Tonight which got me a lot more attention I suppose, and it put a face to the voice. It was all a bit strange, but my friends in college were great about it. I really can’t complain. It could have been worse – it could be an ad for tampons or something (laughs).
“But I really want people to know I’m not a creation of the ad. I’ve been singing for a long time. I started off singing in a choir, and I sing at weddings. If this is what it takes to get noticed, that’s fine with me.
Flynn is a long-time music fan, and cites influences as diverse as The Carter Family, The Beach Boys, Jonathan Richman, Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone, among others. Having left school at 16, she did a media diploma and also attended the Ballyfermot rock school.
“It was always media and music with me,” she says. “I thought about going down the singer-songwriter route and I tried to play guitar, I really did try loads of times, but in the end I thought, I’ll get someone else to do it and concentrate on the singing. I’m big into radio as well. If I wasn’t doing music, I would definitely want to do something in radio. I commute from Armagh to Dublin every day when I’m going to college and I just listen to the radio, mainly Newstalk, all the time.
“I haven’t really thought about what’s going to happen next. That’s why I’d like to get the album out as soon as possible. We’ve done about 11 songs so far, and we’re very happy with them. I’d like it to be quite down-beat, not just wishy-washy background music.”

Log onto www.misspaulaflynn.com for gig details and downloads.