Riverdance star to perform in Tauranga

Caitriona Fallon has ticked off another goal by performing at the National Jazz Festival at Easter.

"It was my first time performing at the Jazz Festival. It was fantastic, it sold out! It was probably my one of my clearest goals too ... I always wanted to perform there."

There's more to come from the Irish singing sensation.

She ramping up her career again rather than winding down. Now her children are older, she is filling her schedule up with gigs, solo shows, events and with husband (and drummer) Marc Anderson — started a new band. The band, with no name yet, plans to go on a mini tour over the next few months. They formed for the Jazz Fest as Caitriona wanted a strong band and they clicked well so decided to keep going.

"I always want to go bigger and the children are at an age where I can take on more and that's why we're happy to put a band together."

After the tour, next on the list will be the Ladies Charity Luncheon in June. Caitriona (pronounced Catrina) is happy to be supporting the charity. She will be singing two pieces from The Greatest Showman (musical starring Hugh Jackman), This Is Me and Never Enough, with back-up dancers.

"This is Me is a real anthem about accepting people for who they are."

Her style still falls within the jazz genre but she's spreading her wings musically.

"I have been hugely influenced by Adele's music and I love singing ballads. So I'm trying to focus on more popular music I suppose."

Her own songs are about love and life.

"Some of them are about love, it makes for great subject matter. One of my new songs is Judge Me When You're Perfect which is about feeling a bit insecure about putting my music out there ... there's also Folie Adieu which is about two people who are so close that they go a little bit crazy.

"Most of them have happy sounds but are not necessarily happy lyrics."

Caitriona and her family (husband Marc and children Leah, 13, Catie, 11, and Daniel, 9) moved to Tauranga in late 2016. Tauranga was introduced to her talents a few months later with The Tarnished Frocks and Divas 2017 performance, Zoetica. But there's much more to her career that has gone before.

Her claim to fame was touring the world as lead vocals in Riverdance about 17 years ago. This is where she met husband-to-be Kiwi Marc who was on the production team for the show.

The two have lived in Australia, and returned to Ireland where they focused on song writing and singing with band Cookie and The Vaudevilles. They released a successful debut album, Riches To Rags, which took them touring Ireland and playing at festivals in the United Kingdom.

What: Ladies' Charity Luncheon — featuring guest speakers Miriama Smith and Suzy Heazlewood, hosted by Matilda Rice
Where: ASB Arena at Baypark
When: June 8