What’s great about talent shows is that they show people who are both gifted and have had to overcome incredible difficulties. The story of Barry Darcy may be the most inspiring of them all.
Barry Darcy recently appeared on Ireland’s Got Talent. As most people would guess, it’s basically the same as America’s Got Talent but with more Irish accents.
The 38-year-old Darcy made his debut on the show the other day. He’s from the southern Irish town of Cork.
Judge Louis Walsh asked Darcy why he was there that day.
The usual response would be that he was there to sing, do a comedy act or something similar.
But Darcy said something very different.
“To be honest, it’s a bit of a sad story.”
Darcy then started holding back tears. Obviously whatever he had been through was still causing him a lot of sadness.
“It’s quite difficult for me to talk about it.”
Eventually, he revealed that he had thought he would never be able to sing again.
As Darcy was struggling to say what happened, a video started playing.
Darcy appeared in the video. He explained that he had had a herniated disc in his back.
That disc crushed the main nerve that fed into Darcy’s legs.
“I just went to get out of bed one day and fell onto the floor.”
Darcy was rushed to the hospital. The doctors said that they were going to do everything they could to get him to walk once more.
But they warned him that there would only be a fifty-fifty chance of recovery.
It was essentially a coin flip in terms of the odds of Darcy being able to use his legs ever again.
Luckily, Darcy’s beloved wife was there with him throughout this harrowing process.
“My wife, she took everything on her shoulders while I was getting better.”
Losing the use of his legs let Darcy appreciate just how lucky he was to have his family. His wife and their children made the worst parts of Darcy’s illness bearable. And thanks to them, he found the strength to walk again.
In fact, Darcy’s song choice, Elvis Presley’s The Wonder of You, was chosen because of how it reminded him of his family looking back at him when he was in the wheelchair.
“The words in that song, you know ‘when no one else can understand me,’ they did understand.”
The video ended, and it was time for Darcy to give it his all.
The music started playing, and Darcy started moving to the music. “When no one else can understand me,” he sang, sounding just like Elvis Presley himself.
The crowd was shocked at just how uncannily similar Darcy’s voice was to Elvis’s. They gave a short clap just at that line.
Darcy carried on. For a while, everyone in the audience was still. They were enraptured by what they were seeing. This wasn’t some two-bit Elvis impersonator but someone who had taken the King’s music and made it his own.
Eventually, everyone, judges included, started swaying back and forth to the music with joy.
Then Darcy got a standing ovation from the crowd. Everyone loved him! Ireland has produced many musical greats over the years, and everyone there thought that they had just found the next one.
“Barry, Barry, where have you been?” Louis Walsh asked.
Then Walsh pressed a special golden buzzer in the middle of the judges’ table. Gold glitter erupted onto the stage, and the crowd went wild once again.
It was all too much for Darcy. He started crying as his family joined him on stage.
The judges then showered him in praise.
Could Barry Darcy be the next Susan Boyle? It remains to be seen, but it won’t be surprising if he becomes a huge star!
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