12-year-old Irish busker Allie Sherlock signs five-year record deal

Sherlock first came to attention when a video of her busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street went viral

12-year-old Allie Sherlock trades in busking on the streets of Ireland for playing to a US audience on The Ellen Show. Video: NBC/The Ellen Show

After taking the world by storm in an appearance on The Ellen Show last week, 12-year-old Allie Sherlock has announced she is signing a record deal.

Sherlock, from Douglas in Cork, first came to attention last June when a video she posted on Facebook of her busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street singing Ed Sheeran’s “Supermarket Flowers” went viral.

Sherlock was invited to Los Angeles by American singer and producer Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic after he saw one of her videos on Instagram.

“Ryan Tedder is like the main singer in the band OneRepublic and a producer and a songwriter,” Sherlock told Ray D’arcy on his TV show on Saturday night. “He writes for Ed Sheeran and Adele mostly and then a few others, Sam Mendes, U2, Beyonce and Paul McCartney.”

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"He saw my video on Instagram and flew us over to collaborate, which is like song writing and recording. The Ellen Show had contacted us, I think two weeks before that, and we're just doing some interviews over Skype and my dad told them that we were over in LA if they wanted me on."

In an earlier radio interview, Sherlock said meeting Ellen DeGeneres was “amazing”, and that the host helped her get past her nerves before her appearance.

“I absolutely love her show and she was just so nice and friendly, and I was really nervous and during the break she was saying me to calm down and she was just so nice about it which made everything much easier,” she said.

“She gave me a guitar case with lights with light up words saying TIPS.”

Sherlock has signed on to a music label with Tedder for a five-year, three-album deal, but the young singer didn’t seem daunted. “It’s amazing, it really is.”

She made the announcement on RTÉ's Ray D'Arcy Show.