From reading traffic news to singing opera: Ellen impresses on RTE

Rising young media talent Ellen Leonard from Kinnegad got put on the spot by veteran presenter Marty Whelan live on radio recently – and left him gobsmacked.

Ellen, who has been reading the traffic reports on RTÉ’s radio stations for the past couple of months, was enjoying a bit of banter with Marty on his early morning Lyric FM show when he asked her could she sing.

“I said: ‘I’m a classically–trained soprano – I go to lessons with a singing teacher in Dublin, Áine Mulvey’,” says Ellen.

Even though she had no advance notice, no chance to rehearse and no accompaniment, Ellen performed a magnificent extract from the opera favourite, O Mio Bambino Caro, leaving Marty seriously impressed: “I have had professional opera singers come in here, and I’m telling you, at 10 minutes to 8 in the morning they would not do that for me! That’s gorgeous,” he said.

The impromptu performance didn’t faze Ellen at all: while her working life is in the media world, as a student at NUIM she obtained a double honours in music as well as media studios, and she has performed in public on several occasions. She has just recently obtained a diploma in performance from the London College of Music.

Ellen’s role within RTE is to manage their social media for Radio 1, but having worked as a presenter with Midlands 103 she had no trouble taking over the mic when RTE needed someone to read the morning traffic reports.

Marty overheard her “messing” in the studio with RTE Radio 1’s “Rising Time” presenter Shay Byrne between traffic slots one morning, and caught her by surprise with his request that she sing.

“It could have gone terribly wrong because O Mio Bambino is quite high!” laughs Ellen, whose parents are Mary and Labour councillor Denis Leonard, and who has a younger brother, Michael.

“But I just did it then, which would be very unlike me, but it went well, and it got a bit of a nice reaction from his listeners.”

“From the Ryan Tubridy show in the morning until Drivetime in the evening. I would be doing all the social media. So I listen to all the programmes and I would do videos for social media and I would record bits with the presenters to show off what Radio 1 has to offer.”

Hear Ellen singing here