Janet Devlin

Janet Maureen Aoife Devlin (born 12 November 1994)[1] is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter,[2][3] who competed in the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011 where she finished in fifth place. Devlin’s debut album was released in October 2012 via PledgeMusic on 1 July 2013.[4]After a string of EPs and singles, her second studio album Confessional was released on 5 June 2020.

Devlin is the youngest of four children to Aquinas and Patricia Devlin and has three elder brothers: Jason, Gavin and Aaron. Prior to entering The X Factor, she lived with her parents and brothers in Gortin, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. She attended an Irish language pre-school,[5] and later attended Drumragh Integrated College where she completed her GCSEs.[6]

Courtney Love has stated in interviews that she believes Janet and her family to be distant relatives of Kurt Cobain,[7] though Devlin has stated that she is unaware of any connection. Devlin’s only performing experience before auditioning for The X Factor was singing in her school, pubs and local talent shows. She had uploaded a number of videos of her singing to her official channel on YouTube.[8]