Tag: Ireland

The Academic | Sarah

“Sarah” was a single first released by Dublin Ireland’s Thin Lizzy in 1979; it reached #24 on the British pop charts and #26 in Ireland.

The Academic, a band from just west of Dublin, met while attending the same secondary school during the 2010s. AllMusic reports that the group ” … rode a series of punchy, melodic singles to national success when their 2018 debut album topped the Irish charts. They soon netted a deal and followed up with a couple of dreamy singles … “

“Sarah” was apparently a live one-off for the band; the track wasn’t included on either of its studio releases. This performance was live on Today FM, an Irish radio station. After starting in A major, 1:48 brings an instrumental bridge, followed by a shift to Bb major at 2:08.

Nightnoise | The Wexford Carol

The Irish chamber ensemble Nightnoise was active from 1984 to 1997, and was known for their fusion of Irish, Celtic, and jazz styles. Their arrangement of this traditional carol is included on the Windham Hill‘s 1993 holiday compilation album Winter Solstice IV. Key change at 2:46.

Niamh Kavanagh | In Your Eyes (Eurovision 1993)

The 65th annual Eurovision Song Contest was to have been held this spring in Rotterdam. Unfortunately, like so many other live performance events, the contest was cancelled due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis — an unprecedented move in the history of the competition. Fortunately, most of the nations originally slated to send a representative to the competition have already confirmed that they will return in 2021.

1993’s winning song, “In Your Eyes,” was performed by vocalist Niamh Kavanagh, a Dublin native. The tune became the best-selling 1993 single in the Republic of Ireland and reached #24 on the UK Singles chart. Kavanagh is still active as a musical artist with her band, The Illegals. In a 2020 interview with the Irish Examiner, when asked about her top choice of unsung hero: “I’m going to say to musicians, not specific ones, but musicians in general…who strive to create music everyday, who won’t necessarily achieve fame or fortune…who work just to create and share something that affects pretty much everyone on the planet. Music is around us all of the time…”

The huge modulation at 2:21 comes quite late, after several edge-of-the-seat opportunities.