Matheus and Nigel in The Voice semi finals on Sunday

Two Meath acts, Nigel Connell and Matheus Soares, will compete in the semi finals of The Voice of Ireland competition on Sunday evening
They are two of eight acts who will fight it out on Sunday night to win a place in the grand final of the show on Sunday week.
Nigel, from Athboy, will be hoping to win the voters over again with ‘In the Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins, while Matheus, from Navan, will be hoping to continue his winning streak with ‘Jealous’ by Nick Jonas.
Both Meath singers won the public vote in last week’s competition to get through to this Sunday’s contest.
Nigel sang ‘Here I Go Again’ by Whitesnake to make it through on Team Una while Matheus sang ‘You Don’t Own Me’ by Grace and is now going forward on Team Rachel.
Nigel recently visited his home town of Athboy and wowed Athboy Community School students with his performance there. He prepared  for his lunch time  performance in front of hundreds of his young fans with a quick rehearsal with Sean Leavy, son of well known star Matt Leavy, who accompanied him on guitar.  School principal Anthony Leavy welcomed Nigel home and spoke  of how inspirational a figure Nigel is to the hundreds of assembled camera phone welding  students.
Matheus is a past student of Beaufort College, Navan, and the whole school community has got behind him as he prepares for this weekend’s semi final.
He completed his Leaving Certificate in Beaufort College in June 2015.
Principal Angela Crowcock said: “We are hugely proud of Matheus but not surprised. We recognised his superb talent when he was in first year with us in 2010. Matheus performed in all school events, shows  and musicals.”
Matheus was a winner in ‘Beaufort’s Got Talent’ and had lead roles in school shows in the Solstice Theatre ‘For One Night Only’ and ‘Back to the 80s’.
Ms Crowcock gave credit to teachers Marie McAndrew and Mary Galvin for nurturing Matheus’ talent and giving him opportunities to gain stage experience.