James Reilly : Biography

Gerry Ryan (2FM)
"Better than George Micheal"

Patrick Kielty (comedian / TV presenter)
"Very big future ahead. Jimbo, You The Man, You The Man"

Paul Harrington (singer-songwriter)
"He can sing in notes only dogs can hear"

Declan Moroney (Ireland on Sunday)
"The winner of the first show of 'Let Me Entertain You',
Drogheda's James Reilly, could actually sing.
He could have stopped seven seconds into his act and still walked away with it"

James Reilly is from Drogheda, Co. Louth. Growing up influenced by the likes of George Michael, Stevie Wonder, Christopher Cross etc he was discovered when a friend heard him singing along to a song on the radio. It was suggested to him that he go into the studio and record. And so the ball began to roll…

Subsequently giving up his job as a sales manager he decided to gamble and start gigging around Ireland. Having built up a strong following through the hard work of gigging constantly around Ireland.

He entered the Cavan International song contest two years in a row winning Best Male Singer in 1997 and 1998. James has also worked with Ronan Keating and Louis Walsh on the infamous Carter Twins' Eurosong entry 'Make The Change', being asked to perform backing vocals. He was subsequently asked to audition for the then forming boy bands OTT and Westlife. But Jimbo knew he wanted to do it on his own….

Following meetings with Shay Hennessy who spotted him at the second Cavan International Song Contest, James signed to Crashed Music. James then appeared on the RTE / BBC show 'Let Me Entertain You', wowing the crowds with his renditions of Queen's 'Somebody To Love' and his own song 'Heaven Knows'. James' appearance on this show led to appearances on the 2FM 'Beat on the Street' roadshow, a trip to the 'Voice of Asia' festival in Kazahkstan and numerous TV appearances such as Open House, Ireland AM and FISH.

James has since returned to the 'Voice of Asia' festival at special request as a guest artist, performing alongside the likes of Phats & Small and ATB, in front of thousands in the Medeu stadium in Almaty. He has also been to Prague, Czech Republic for the Universetalent festival where he won Best Singer and Best Song for his own composition 'Victim'. Because of his success there he returned to Prague for TV and Radio promotion for 'Victim', which was released as a single.

James has a huge amount of songs written and is currently finishing tracks for his debut album in Ear 2 Ear Studios, Dublin with producer, Paul Murphy. Jimbo has an astonishingly agile falsetto range which admits him to a very exclusive category of performers, that of absolute artistry.