OGAE Contests 2000

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OGAE SONG CONTEST 2000 - IRELAND QUALIFYING HEAT

The first national selection for the OGAE Song Contest took place in 2000 with fans choosing a non-Eurovision related song from a small number of Irish hits from 1999 and 2000. Fans could select up to 3 songs and vote on them Eurovision style. The lack of original Irish material was reflected in a poor score in the contest in France.

Pos	Song	Singer	Points
1	Did You Tell Him?	Eleanor McEvoy	57
2	Jesse Hold On	B*Witched	43
3	Only A Friend	Picture House	41
4	Radio	The Corrs	41
5	Wide Awake	Celtus	39
6	Hand Upon My Heart	Kieran Goss	39
7	Change The World	Westlife	38
8	The Way	Dara	33
9	Believe	Celtus	28
10	More Or Less	Gerry Carney	22
11	Message Of Love	Mary Black	21
12	Saint Peter’s Gate	Chris De Burgh	19
13	The Last Moments Of The Dawn	Chris De Burgh	17
14	Independent Woman	The Mullans	14
15	Quiet Revolution	Chris De Burgh	12

Details of the artists as printed in the programme booklet accompanying the song contests are reproduced below.

Mary Black launched her solo career in 1983 with an album which went to number 4 in the Irish charts. Having left the traditional Irish folk band De Dannan, she broke away from her traditional roots to become a powerful interpreter of contemporary Irish and foreign songwriters. By 1989 she was an international star. In 1995 her album Circus went straight to number one in Ireland and in 1997 her album Shine, recorded in Los Angeles, was also a major hit. Her latest album Speaking With The Angel is a return to her folk roots. Mary has been awarded no less than 5 times the Irish Recorded Music Award for best female solo artist. Mary has twice represented Ireland in the OGAE Song Contest. With Eleanor McEvoy she sang the 1992 duet Only A Woman’s Heart which came 5^th. The song itself became incredibly successful, spawning two compilation albums A Woman’s heart #1 and #2. In 1993 Mary came 15^th with the song Roisin.

Message Of Love is a track from her Speaking With The Angel album. It was written by Steve Cooney who is a popular Irish musician. Steve has worked closely with Maire Breatnach and Seamus Begley on previous occasions.

Kieran Goss was born and raised in Newry Co. Down. He qualified as a lawyer but turned his back on the profession to concentrate on song writing. Having released 5 albums he has become one of Ireland’s most famous and best selling singer-songwriters. His previous album Worse Than Pride reached number 7 in the album charts and was still in the top 50 nine months later. It also yielded two hit singles. He was voted Best Contemporary Artist of 1998 by Irish Music Magazine. His latest album Red Letter Day went straight into the Irish album charts at number 5 in May of this year.

Hand Upon My Heart is the first single taken from the album Red Letter Day. It made the top 20 on its release. It was written by Kieran together with Kristen Hall. Kristen is a singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. Currently based in Los Angeles she has released several critically acclaimed albums since 1990.

Eleanor McEvoy made her debut in 1992 with her song Only A Woman’s Heart. The duet, sung together with Mary Black, was Ireland’s 1992 entry in the OGAE Song Contest when it came 5^th. It inspired Ireland’s best selling album – the A Woman’s Heart anthology – and earned Eleanor the

IRMA award for Best New Artist of 1992. She released her debut album in 1994 and in 1995 performed in Dublin in front of 80,000 people gathered to welcome Bill Clinton. By 1996 she had made a name for herself in America. 1999 saw the release of her Snapshots album, critically acclaimed

as her best work to date.

Did You Tell Him? was a single release from the Snapshots album and was written by Eleanor. Other songs written by her include Precious Little, a top ten radio hit in America and Whisper A Prayer To The Moon which was featured in the Pierce Brosnan film The Nephew.

Picture House are a 5 piece Dublin based band consisting of Dave Browne (vocals and guitar), Geoff Woods (keyboards), Aongus Ralston (bass), Steo Farrell (lead guitar) and John Boyle (drums). They released their first record, an EP titled Probably . . . in 1995 which earned them rave reviews and led to much air play and TV appearances. Their second album Karmarama reached number 5 in the Irish charts in late 1998 and achieved platinum sales. They have been consistently touring Ireland and the UK and have supported Meat Loaf and The Corrs.

Only A Friend is written by Browne/Gleinster/Maitland and was released as a single in 1999. Dave Browne began singing at the age of 3 and formed his first band Hidden Faces at the age of 15. In 1989 he formed the first version of Picture House.

Celtus are a 3 piece folk-rock band comprising John and Pat McManus and Dan Axtell. They released their first album Moonchild in 1998 which won them the Best Album category in that year’s Irish World Awards. Their Portrait album released in 1999 was hailed as having a much more commercial sound. A third album released in 2000 called Rooted consists of traditional and live tracks. They have toured with Paul Carrack, Deacon Blue and Jimmy Nail.

Wide Awake and Believe are taken from the Portrait album with Wide Awake also released as a single. They are written by John and Pat McManus. The McManus brothers are from Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. Together with their brother Tommy they formed the rock band Mama’s Boys which had considerable success in the US. After Tommy’s death in 1994 Pat and John were devastated and retreated into isolation for 6 months. They emerged experimenting with playing Irish music for fun and were signed by A&R, thus Celtus was born.

The Mullans comprises Bronagh and her sister Karyn. They hail from Belfast where their father runs an equestrian centre. At equestrian gatherings they were often called upon to sing and that is where their show business career began. They won a Butlins Talent Competition and launched

themselves as cabaret artists. Their big break came when they won Eurosong 1999 with the song When You Need Me which was written by Bronagh Mullan. Despite its runaway victory at the Eurosong it flopped in Jerusalem in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Independent Woman is their follow-up single to their Eurovision song. It is written and produced by Bronagh and Karyn Mullan.

The Corrs are Jim (keyboards, guitar), Andrea (lead vocals, tin whistle), Caroline (drums, bodhran) and Sharon (violin). Coming from Dundalk, they formed the band in 1990. Their manager John Hughes discovered them whilst searching for musicians for the film The Commitments. They signed to Atlantic and released their first album Forgiven, Not Forgotten in 1995. The album went four times platinum in

Ireland as well as gold in Australia, Canada and Japan. Their 1997 album Talk On Corners has been a phenomenal world-wide best seller. It has gone 15 times platinum in Ireland as well as 6 times platinum in the UK. There is hardly a country where it has not gone platinum or gold. 2000 has seen the release of their new album In Blue which has already gone to number 1 in Australia and their latest single Breathless which has given them their first number 1 in the UK.

Radio is featured on their Unplugged album as well as being released on the album In Blue. The Corrs write most of their songs themselves, including Radio. For another of their hit songs I Never Loved You Anyway, they teamed up with Academy Award winning lyricist Carole Bayer Sager.

Chris De Burgh was born in Argentina on October 15, 1948. His family settled in Ireland in a 12^th Century castle. After studying at Trinity College Dublin he began singing to earn a living and was finally signed by A&M records in 1974. He released a number of albums including Flying, The Getaway and Man On The Line which achieved international success. His major breakthrough was with the single Lady In Red which together with his album Into The Light became a world wide number one

smash hit. He followed this up with several hit albums and singles. His latest album Quiet Revolution was released in October 1999. It reached the top 10 in Germany and top 40 in the UK.

The tracks Quiet Revolution, Saint Peter’s Gate and The Last Moments Of The Dawn are all featured on the album Quiet Revolution and were written by Chris himself.

Westlife were created in 1998 with 3 boys from Sligo (Shane Filan, Mark Feehilly and Kian Egan) and 2 boys from Dublin (Nicky Byrne and Bryan McFadden). Their management team and gurus were none other than Louis Walsh and Boyzone lead singer Ronan Keating. Originally touring the UK and Ireland with Boyzone in 1998, they recorded their debut album Westlife in 1999 using internationally renowned songwriters. Their first single Swear It Again went straight to the top of the British and Irish

charts in April 1999, becoming the biggest selling single from a debut artist in their home country. Their next four single releases all went straight to the number 1 position in the UK putting them

in the record books.

Change The World is written by Mark Topham, Karl Twigg and Lance Ellington. The composers are part of the highly successful Stock Aitken and Waterman team. Previous hit songs have included After The Love Has Gone for Steps and Pray for Tina Cousins.

Gerry Carney is a singer songwriter. Previous albums included a self-titled album and the 1995 album called Are You Being True? 1999 saw the release of the album Together Alone on the RTE label. It was a collaboration with 1993 Eurovision Song Contest winner Niamh Kavanagh. The album comprises 12 tracks, two of which are duets with Gerry and Niamh and both performers have 5 solo songs each. The album includes Niamh singing a new version of In Your Eyes.

More Or Less was written by Gerry Carney and he sings it as a solo on the album Together Alone.

B*Witched all hail from Dublin and are twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Sinead O’Carroll and Lindsay Armaou. Inspired by Shane Lynch of Boyzone, the twin’s brother, the four girls moved into a flat together and began writing songs. They appeared in a documentary about the dance studios in which they rehearsed and this drew them to the attention of their now manager. They signed to a record company and released C’est La Vie which went to number 1 in Ireland and the UK. It was a world-wide hit making the top ten in America. They were the first act to have 4 singles go straight in at number 1 in the UK. In 1998 their first album B*Witched sold 3 million copies world-wide. Their second album Awake And Breathe met with somewhat less success.

Jesse Hold On was written by the girls along with Hedges/Brannigan/Hodges. It is about an engagement with someone on their way to say yes to the proposal. Jesse can be a boy or girl depending on the listener. Martin Brannigan and Ray Madman Hedges are the producers of the B*Witched albums. Ray has also produced Boyzone’s albums and worked on writing the track Saltwater with Chicane and Maire Brennan of Clannad.

Dara is a Dublin based musician who has fronted several bands. He launched his solo career with the single The Way and followed it up with a second single Damage.

The Way is written by Dara O’Toole himself and was released as a single in early 2000.