Long and winding musical road

Fiona Kennedy came to prominence in the late 1980s as the winner of ‘Screen Test’, writes Don O’Mahony

THE musical career of Fiona Kennedy has been a long and winding one. Despite, by her own admission, dropping off the radar, the Cork musician was something of a trailblazer, having first come to prominence in the late 1980s by winning Ireland’s first television talent competition.

Titled Screen Test, it featured a judging panel comprising publisher Noelle Campbell Sharp and music guru BP Fallon, whose hipster speak proved more entertaining than the featured acts. “BP used really wipe the floor with people,” recalls Kennedy. “So when it was my turn to play I was petrified.”