CUNNINGHAM

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By FRANK LEWIS

PDT Staff Writer

Independent Country recording artist and performer Donna Cunningham of Lucasville has returned from a European tour.

“I sang in Ireland, Austria, Germany and Spain,” Cunningham said. “I had seven shows and did a TV show in Belfast (Ireland). I also did about 12 radio interviews. It was a lot of fun.”

Cunningham said she got a recording contract, and did several solo recordings, as well as duets with Independent artist Alan Karl.

“Last year, he was the male vocalist of the year and had the CD of the year for the European Country Music Association,” Cunningham said. “I have been up as high as No. 2 over there on the charts, and the first duet we did together was a gospel duet (Jesus Heard Every Word), and it went to No. 1. So there were a lot of venues over there that were willing to have us over. So I was there for three weeks. The folks over there like him, so that gave me a little ride-along to do, and it went very well.”

Cunningham said the two played small venues, but she received an education about European Country Music fans.

“They’re really into line dancing over there,” Cunningham said. “And it just cracked me up, especially in Spain. They will just line dance and sing every word to every American song, and then when you try to talk to them they don’t speak English.”

Cunningham said she took the opportunity to do some sightseeing. She said in every country where she played, they would take a day to rehearse, and then the promoters took them on a tour, except for Ireland, where she only spent two days.

“In Austria I got to go to Schonbrunn Palace. I saw St. Stephen’s Cathedral which was built in the 1100s. I got to go down underneath to the catacombs where there are bones from the people who died from the Black Plague,” Cunningham said. “Statues and anything that you wanted to see, I saw in Vienna.”

She then traveled to Wiesbaden, Germany, a city that remained fairly intact in the bombings of World War II.

“I saw a church that Martin Luther built,” Cunningham said. “Those churches are just awesome.”

“Then I went to Spain. And that was a place I fell in love with,” Cunningham said. “I was in a place called Palafrugell, which is on the Mediterranean Sea. I got to put my toes in the Mediterranean, which thrilled me.”

She said she sang in Palafrugell and Palamos, and traveled to Barcelona.

“It was the trip of a lifetime and I didn’t have to pay for anything, not even my meals,” Cunningham said. “It was something I always wanted to do, never thought that I would get to do it.”

Cunningham said she has two more CDs to finish with her recording company, as well as a gospel CD and a duet CD with Karl. “Then,” she said. “whatever happens next.”

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartland publications.com.