Tim Hughes talks to Janet Devlin — an X Factor starlet driven to do it her way

Most of the breathless young artists who enter ITV’s X Factor do it with one goal in mind: to win.

Janet Devlin was different. “It didn’t really matter to me,” says the 18-year-old singer-songwriter, who came fifth in the 2011 series.

“I knew what I wanted, and I got it.”

Despite her youth, Janet has a sensible head on her shoulders. Despite losing out to Misha B, Amelia Lily, Marcus Collins and winners Little Mix she has forged ahead with her career — and could yet outlast them all.

While so many talent show covers singers sink without trace, Janet insists she has only just begun. No disposable star, the talented Tyrone lass is a traditional singer-songwriter who pens her own material and is now grateful for the chance to perform it live.

“It was weird,” she tells me in her lilting Northern Ireland accent, during a break in rehearsals in her now-home city of Sheffield.

“I wanted to do my own stuff and would have loved it. I write all my own junk. But that’s not what the show is for.”

And she admits to finding filming for the ITV programme a challenge. “I have a different background to the other people in the show,” she sighs. “But I also hate musical snobs and those hipsters who say they don’t like a song just because it’s popular.”

But being eliminated in week eight of the series hasn’t left her bitter. “People always ask if I’d go on the show again, and I always say ‘yes’. If you’ve got a goal to achieve — and that isn’t just to be famous, or something silly like that — then do it. My aim was to make an album and to meet people in the industry to help me along the way, and I got that.

“The experience was quite hard work and I didn’t have any time to enjoy it. I was always working and busy. But I got out what I wanted — and I wouldn’t have got where I am without it. It gave me a platform.”

Her eponymous debut album came out this summer on a pledge-only basis and is now being released on general release. And anyone expecting fluffy, throw-away pop may find themselves pleasantly surprised at the depth of her work which is inspired by the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Devendra Banhart and Newton Faulkner, with whom she has worked.

She recalls: “I was a big fan of Newton when I was 13 and 14, so was elated to be in the same room as him — let alone working with him. It might not look like it, but he has a massive following.”

She has also worked with Joshua Radin and Jack Savoretti.

“I listened to a lot of music in my childhood and am up for working with anybody,” she says. “The album gets darker and more personal as it goes on. I also try and avoid covers because I’ve got a lot of songs I have written myself which I want to take on stage.

“What I was scared of, was people liking what I did on the show and maybe not liking my own stuff, but I haven’t had any negative feedback yet.”

Since leaving the show she has performed on last year’s X Factor Live Tour and played her own gigs — including one half-time set in front of more than 82,000 people at the All Ireland Gaelic Football final at Dublin’s Croke Park.

Among her admirers is another TV star — Dragons’ Den’s Duncan Bannatyne, who offered her a recording contract on his RKA Record label. She did not accept, instead recording her debut album at Sheffield’s Steelworks Recording Studios. She moved to South Yorkshire a year ago to be nearer her team.

So does the teenager, who admits to being ”a bit of a loner” miss her small home village of Gortin (population 226) in the shadow of Ulster’s Sperrin Mountains?

“Not really,” she admits. “I go back a lot. My parents are pretty chilled and have always encouraged me to work hard and do what I want to do. They are not pushy and have always said that if I want to go back, the door is always open. I think my mum misses me, though, as I have three brothers, and she’s the only girl now. There’s a lack of oestrogen there!”

Surely she must be a bit of a local hero back in Tyrone? “I keep a low profile,” she says. “I used to do gigs and enter competitions at home but everyone there is so bloody musically talented I didn’t stand out!”

She also uploaded videos of herself singing onto her own You Tube channel, where she has now amassed 10.5 million views. “Some of the things I did in the past are cringey now,” she admits. “Especially things I wrote after my first real relationship broke up.”

And what is the weirdest thing to have happened to her? “I’ve been overexposed to weird, so nothing is too weird,” she says cheerfully. “Even when you’re in a room full of famous people, you have to remember that they are just people too and are as human as you are — and they seem more normal.”

“Some people would say I’m too young to get into such an industry,” she goes on. “But I’m the same now as when I started out and am proud of myself for what I’ve achieved.”

And, she says, she has experienced enough emotion to give her songwriting credibility. “People should remind themselves how they were at 17 and 18. It is hardly an easy time of life being a teenage girl.”

For all the attention, Janet remains refreshingly down to earth. “I am enjoying life — and am too busy for dreaming,” she says.

“And I am low maintenance. For me touring is all about music, not how comfortable I am. And I know what I want out of it; I want people to give the album a try and not to judge a book by its cover.

“If they like it, it’s cool, and if they don’t like it, that’s also cool. Just give it a listen!”

  • Janet Devlin plays the O2 Academy, Oxford on Saturday
     
  • Tickets are £8.50 from ticketweb.co.uk