In a recent interview with Switchbox TV, 2011 X Factor quarter-finalist and Irish singer/songwriter Janet Devlin revealed her unexpected singing career, mental health and addiction past and her highly anticipated plans for 2021.
The former 2011 X Factor contestant also divulged how she has been coping during the global pandemic. She admitted, ‘It’s not the worst year of my life. I’m very blessed in the sense that I moved my job online a few years ago.’ Since her time on the X Factor, Janet has moved over to the online platform YouTube – ‘It’s not new for me to have to embrace technology. Me doing online gigs was a means to an end at the start because I was trying to live off £25 a week and couldn’t afford to go on tour because I’d just reached bankruptcy aged 18 due to a fraudulent record deal.’
Discussing her time on the X Factor, Janet revealed: ‘My mum said “you should send a video in, what’s the worst they could say?” I had no faith in myself, I was really shy with stage fright. I never really saw it as a possibility.’ She then went on to admit X Factor proved to be the turning point in her career – ‘It showed me people believe in me and a music career was possible. It gave me confidence.’ The YouTuber confessed that it wasn’t always plain sailing after being catapulted to stardom – ‘It was a pretty rough time,’ adding ’16-year-old me was doing performances at Wembley and then I was going to the bathroom and crying my eyes out. It was literally like feeling I wasn’t enough, I had no self-belief.’
During the interview, Janet also confessed to her troubles with drug addiction and depression – ‘I was a self-harmer by 12, I was an anorexic by 15, I had my first sexual assault at age 15, I had to get sober by 20,’ later addressing her rehab stint. Janet talked about releasing auto-biography ‘My Confessional’ to help others going through similar struggles – ‘It was the best decision I made. It’s reached a lot of young people.’ She also highlighted how people can easily spiral into struggles with their mental health – ‘As an addict, the worst thing for this disease is isolation and loneliness, it feeds that illness so much.’
The interview concluded with the star hinting at her exciting new projects in the pipeline for 2021 after recently announcing new EP ‘Versions of Better’, including a UK, Ireland & Europe tour ‘It will be a thing, when the world opens up.’ Janet also has two live shows currently being released every month on Stageit.com.
