There is often controversy surrounding a TV star wanting to move into a music career – people ask “Can they successfully make the transition?” “ Can they even sing?” And often many assume it’s an overnight decision (especially when it comes to a genre such as country music) – people think it’s an easy way to sneak through the back door of the music industry to only then go full pop. It’s not easy to be taken seriously as a singer/songwriter though when you are so well known for another role in the entertainment industry and in Megan’s case, for reality tv which can make it even harder. There are always assumptions that they will be incredibly amateur and quite frankly rubbish.

When Megan McKenna’s mini documentary series There’s Something About Megan was advertised, all those questions and more were asked but when the series aired people were becoming more supportive once they heard her sing. The show was filmed and aired in 2017 and viewers saw Megan arrive in Nashville, team up with co – writers, play a few shows and then release a double single by the shows end. The two tracks released, Far Cry From Love and High Heeled Shoes reached the top of the charts and High Heeled Shoes even took the number one Itunes slot on the all genre chart.

Since the show, Megan has a sold out a headline tour, has been busy writing with well established songwriters including Amy Wadge and played The Great Oak Stage (Main stage) at BST Hyde Park supporting Michael Bublé.

When Megan was announced as part of the Cornbury Festival line up I was both excited and intrigued. We, as an online publication have supported Megan since her mini docu series but I personally had not yet seen her live.

Megan played Cornbury Festival on the Saturday as part of an all – female line up, something to be incredibly proud of. She on pretty early in the day on The Songbird Stage but was met by a very eager and large crowd. With fans of all ages in the audience, I had a feeling those watching who were unfamiliar with her were going to be fans after her set.

Megan skipped on stage wearing a stunning fringed jump suit. From the get go she gave off a very energetic vibe which really got the crowd going. Her passion for country music was clear and her on stage banter was comical and genuine, making her audience feel connected with her and showing that reality tv Megan is a Far Cry from the real Megan (see what I did there?)

With quite a strong range of original songs which included already released tracks History, A Far Cry From Love and High Heeled Shoes, we were also treated with new songs The Story of Me, new single Everything But You (which she wrote with Amy Wadge) and many more. Each of the original tracks were well written and held strong country vibes and with Megan’s natural country tone, the live versions were much more affective showing that studio recordings of Megan don’t do her enough justice vocally.

Not only did Megan impress with her original material but as a Miley Cyrus fan, she performed a Miley medley which was a lot of fun ( especially if you knew all the Miley tracks like I did). More fun times were had when she covered Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun which was a great crowd participation moment.

I knew that Megan’s set was going to be good but I didn’t expect her to be the standard that she was at this point in her music career. I didn’t actually expect Megan to be quite so professional and comfortable on stage for quite a few years yet. Megan not only gave an upbeat and fun performance but she also really engaged with her audience. A natural performer and far from being amateur -Megan was clearly born to do this. Megan moved around her stage with such confidence and ease that it was if she had been doing this her whole life. A seemingly effortless performance, I left quite blown away and people in the audience who had their doubts were then putting their hands up saying “You know what? She was pretty damn good”. I am sure I have said this before, but when you have a voice like Megan, you don’t just wake up and decide to be a singer one day, you have always wanted to be a singer, it’s just taken her a while to get there.