Taylor Swift makes Belfast musician's dreams come true

From singing Westlife in the kitchen with his mum to taking selfies in a bar with Taylor Swift. 22 year-old Tiernan Heffron from Antrim has certainly been on a whirlwind adventure these last few weeks.

Since he first shared snaps of himself with the queen of pop two weeks ago in The Tipsy Bird, Tiernan has been a busy man. The Shake It Off singer fell in love with Tiernan's unique voice and covers, he even had her dancing to 'I Tell Me Ma!'

We caught up with Tiernan to learn a little bit more behind NI's man of the moment.

“Since this all kicked off, the support has truly been overwhelming, in a good way. I’ve had so many messages from people that have been following since I started, they went to gigs back in 2017/18 and now they’re hearing me on the radio. It’s been mad.”

Just last week Pete and Paulo gave Tiernan a call on the Breakfast Show.

"Chatting to Pete and Paulo was amazing. I’ve grown up listening to those guys every day, I joked with my mum and Dad that night that it was even better than winning the Cash Call.

"Not going to lie, when Taylor first came to my gig, my first thought was hopefully Cool FM will find out and can maybe play one of my songs…here are now!"

Since the age of four, Tiernan has been a performer. "I can still remember the first song I wrote - it was called the ‘Colour Song’, I’d sing it for my Grandad and his friends on the mat in his living room."

Fast forward a few more years, and it was a surprise performance from McFly that sparked something deep inside Tiernan.

"I really wanted to play the guitar after watching those guys, so I asked Santa for one, and that’s where it all started. I started gigging at the weekends at some local spots when I was 15 and have been doing that until Covid really. Taylor told me that the work I’m doing now is me ‘putting in my 10,000 hours’ which is exactly how she started out.

"When I was younger, I would busk and save any money I got, so I could rent out a local studio and record some of my work. But when lockdown happened, we couldn’t go into any studios, so I was forced to learn how to record and produce everything myself at home. I put in so many hours behind the mic and computer and now it’s finally paying off."

Two years ago Tiernan signed his first record deal with a label in LA. "They put me through an intense eight-month artist development plan, we worked on vocals, song writing and production. I had to write every single day, which is tough, but when I look back on those notes now, I’ve got inspiration for songs today."

Earlier this year, one of Tiernan's TikTok's sparked interest from another popular musician - Tom Grennan.

"I’ve been a huge fan of Tom Grennan for so long, what he’s doing now is my goal! I posted a video of myself singing ‘A Little Bit of Love’ with the caption, ‘Let’s make this go viral so Tom Grennan can see and can ask me to open up his Belfast gig.” A few days later, I was on a surprise zoom call with the man himself and he asked me to support him at the Ulster Hall next year. It's going to be amazing!"

"I’d love to collab with some other Irish artists too, Ryan McMullan, Foy Vance, Dermot Kennedy, Niall Horan, Picture This and Westlife would be class to write and sing with someday.

So what does the future hold? “My goal now is to keep writing, keep recording new music that I’m proud of and I think people will love. You just never know what the future holds.”

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• Taylor Swift
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