Kate was clearly nervous, and probably bothered by the heat; she uses an electric fan even under the relatively low temperatures of stage lighting. She comes over far better with an audience she can talk to. Although it may well be that her tendency to use "celtic style" backing musicians may have had some part in her presence on this occasion, her growing popularity, quite apart from the fact that she is very good at what she does (limited in range though it may be) will not have been irrelevant. At least she didn't look as bored as most of the others. Her choice of material was probably a mistake, but at least it wasn't naff like Roseanne Cash's. (Forty Shades of Green... good god.)

Re. james Wyatt's comments, I can only imagine that either he has never been to England, or watches too much television at New Year instead of getting out. Scotland has no monopoly on accomplished musicians or a "spirit of fun", though over the decades all that Hogmanay business (a Northern English custom as well as a Scottish one) has become inextricably tied up in the minds of the media -and thus the general public- with Scottishness of the "White Heather Club" variety, of which this programme was no more than a modestly updated version.