LIVE REVIEW: Cian Ducrot, Aby Coulibaly, Saibh Skelly, Dublin Castle, Dublin, 31/12/2024
We headed down to Dublin from Belfast for the New Year’s Festival at Dublin Castle, an event that would be broadcast live on RTE throughout the country. It really is the perfect setting for a concert, ok the weather wasn’t great but there is not much we can do about that, the weather was much worse in the UK leading to many NYE events being cancelled so Dublin missed the worst of it.
As we arrived Dublin singer/songwriter Saibh Skelly was taking to the stage, this talented twenty year old began busking at the tender age of fifteen on Dublin’s Grafton Street quickly building up a loyal following and as they say she hasn’t looked back since. Saibh has released two EPs to date – Undercover Heartbreak in 2022 and SAIBH X FIVE – the first one was a selection of covers while the latter was a chance to showcase her original song-writing work. Latest release The Mirror’s Favourite had a great reaction from the excited crowd but it’s When You Love Someone that steals the show for us, this track tugs on your emotional heartstrings. We reckon Saibh Skelly has a massive future ahead of her. 8/10
There was a very special buzz around the crowd tonight as everyone waited for the big countdown, next up was Aby Coulibaly, a musician who is becoming very well-known in her homeland and beyond after supporting Coldplay during four massive shows at Dublin’s Croke Park towards the end of August 2024 and tonight was a chance for the R&B singer to showcase more of her talent during the forty-five minute performance. Aby looked stunning in a long pink fake fur (we hope!) coat, the designer of which was in among the crowd as we discovered when mentioned during the set. Getting back to the music though Coulibaly has a stunning vocal set with a voice of real smoothness and a stage persona to match any. She released debut album At The End Of The Day … It’s The Night in October 2023 via a collective group of musicians named the Chamomile Club, this was our first time seeing Aby live and we must say that after the first track we were hooked! The wet weather was soon forgotten about as the unique venue filled up nicely, the big standouts songs for us were Taurus (Aby’s biggest song to date) and Where u at. It wasn’t all just about the music though, here is also a great storyteller who had the crowd in the palm of her hand for the full set. Aby Coulibaly is an absolute ‘must see again in 2025’ artist for us. 9/10
Dublin was now ready to party and just after 11pm Cian Ducrot and band took to the stage immediately firing up the crowd’s energy levels with the excellent Coming Home, an unreleased track played at such a high intensity. This was quickly followed by a few from his number one album Victory: Heaven, Victory, Endless Nights and Part Of Me being the songs in question. Here It Is is one of Cian’s 2024 releases and goes down well with the enthusiastic crowd, while All For You is the song that brought Ducrot into the spotlight when he went viral on TikTok in 2022. As the performance was just about to go out live on RTE he promised not to swear as much now and that the crowd turn up the volume, a big shout out to Cian’s band tonight, they were all very talented musicians but a special mention has to go to Hannah who played just about every instrument possible during the performance and always with a big smile!
The fans were happy when Cian announced that he would play a couple of new songs tonight – Little Dreaming and Who’s Making You Feel It are new songs – and the latter saw a countdown clock begin on the castle walls before well all counted down from ten to bring in 2025, a year where we are all hoping for peace and the end to all wars around the world. The fireworks display was the big attraction for the next minute as everyone turned their phones towards one side of the iconic building before Ducrot sings a short version of Auld Lang Syne, originally written by Scots poet Robert Burns and now famous the world over. It blends into his most popular song I’ll Be Waiting, a track with no less than 209 millions streams on Spotify alone as Cian takes to the piano that is the centre point of the stage. The choir on both sides of the stage are making their presence felt during this song as are the fans who are singing every word back to the stage.
The Libianca song People is the penultimate song of the thirteen on the set and the crowd were delighted when Cian played out the night around 12.15am with a cover of Elton John classic track Tiny Dancer prompting the last singalong moment of what was a fantastic night of music in a very special venue. Thanks for the memories Dublin and happy new year! 10/10
We were back at Dublin Castle the following afternoon to watch The Hothouse Flowers play an hour-long set followed by a quick dash back down towards the River Liffey for Problem Patterns ending a perfect two days in the Irish capital.
Written by: Alan Brown
