Miah is on the star trail

I guess it's fair to say that not a lot of Kilcullen's adult population looks into 'The Den' on RTE 2 on most afternoons.

OK, for just one day, anyhow, maybe we should rethink that. The day, Tuesday next, 2 September. The time, 4.30pm. The slot, 'Star Search'.

That's when 10 year-old Miah Phelan-Sweeney will be taking a shot at something she's been preparing for since she was five. Maybe she didn't know it at the beginning, but with the level of musical talent she has developed, something like 'Star Search' was probably inevitable, sooner or later.

The competition brought 300 children for the initial auditions, and Miah has made it to the final 36. On Tuesday she'll be competing against two others to make it to the next level. Her performance won't be just a cover of some past or current favourite, but will be her own song, 'Ain't no Way'. And she'll be accompanying herself on the piano.

You know, that's not the easiest way to do a TV musical debut, but if she made it this far, she has to be good.

Miah and her family are living in Moone but all hail from Kilcullen, where her granny Mary Phelan will be among the fans watching on Tuesday. Her mum Paula is a musician and a music teacher and generally Miah's family background has had a lot of music.

"She works very hard at it," says Paula. "In addition to singing and piano, she also plays the violin and she's around Grade 5 level on both instruments. She gets up every morning at 6am to practice, before she goes to school."

Apart from the music, Miah has been writing a lot too. Since she was six or seven she has carried small hardback notebooks into which she wrote poems and songs, and now she has quite a lot of lyrics down. "She tinkers around the piano with them, and 'Ain't no Way' was one which she had recorded, which is what we sent in," says Paula.

Entries for the competition were called last May, and the first group were selected on the basis of recordings sent in. Then there was an audition for those remaining, and now the TV stage has begun. It's the third year of 'Star Search', but Miah and her family only heard about the call for entries a day before the closing date. They got the CD in just in time.

Getting this far requires something more than talent on its own. In Miah's case it is a very mature level of confidence in performance. She says herself that she doesn't get nervous just before a performance, but gets that out of the way the day before.

"On the day of a performance she's very focused," her mum notes. "She really means everything she's doing as she plays, and it shows."

Tuesday's segment has already been recorded, so no doubt Miah and her family will all be together watching, and hoping for a push to the next step.

That'll require the now ubiquitous phone vote. Which is why all of us in Kilcullen should drop whatever else we're doing and watch 'The Den' on Tuesday. And then get texting to vote her onwards.

Remember the time, 4.30pm. Dinner can wait.

Brian Byrne.