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THREE IRISH ARTISTS are among ten acts to be named on BBC Radio 6 Music’s Artist of the Year list.
The list, which is announced every November, features ten acts who have been championed by the station and have made a cultural impact over the last year.
CMAT, Fontaines DC and Kneecap all made this year’s list, which was announced on the station’s Breakfast Show by Nick Grimshaw.
The other acts named on the list are Charli XCX, English Teacher, Fat Dog, Jamie xx, Kim Gordon, Little Simz and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
CMAT’s second studio album, Crazymad, for Me, was released to universal acclaim last year and was ranked by The Guardian as the 50th best album of 2023.
It is the singer’s second studio album, following 2022’s If My Wife New I’d Be Dead. CMAT was also nominated for a BRIT Award, an Ivor Novello Award and the Mercury Prize this year.
“A 6 Music Artist of the Year? I’m CMAT and I approve this message!” the singer said, adding that having John Grant join her on stage for a duet at the 6 Music festival in Manchester this year was “one of the highlights of my life”.
Dublin band Fontaines DC released their fourth studio album, Romance, in August this year. The album reached number two in the Irish and UK album charts and was the first of the band’s albums to chart in US Billboard 200.
The post-punk band have just toured Romance across North America, with a series of UK and Ireland dates to follow later this month.
They recently won Best International Rock Video for their track Starburster at the UK Video Music Awards, and have been named as the ‘Best Band in the World’ by NME magazine.
“We’re delighted that 6 Music have picked us as one of their Artists of the Year. Thanks for all the support over the years,” the band said.
Kneecap released their second studio album Fine Art in June this year, which debuted at number two on the Irish album chart. The release came just before the band performed at Glastonbury.
The rap group gained acclaim for their blend of Irish and English rap about the realities of growing up in post-Troubles Belfast. It was first featured on Irish radio by late-Raidió na Gaeltachta broadcaster Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuí.
The band’s film, a self-titled, dramatised biopic of the rap trio’s origin is currently enjoying widespread success, having surpassed €1 million at the Box Office.
“We’re buzzing to be one of the 6 Music artists of the year,” the band said.
“It’s especially important to us given our use of Irish language, and for it to be now fired out by the BBC thanks to you lot! We hope this inspires other artists using indigenous languages worldwide to be confident in their own identity.”
Meanwhile, Charli XCX released her sixth studio album Brat over the summer, which quickly became a viral sensation.
The term ‘Brat’ was named as the Collins Dictionary Word of the Year for 2024. The album saw Charli XCX nominated for a Mercury Prize in September.
Alternative indie band English Teacher won the Mercury Prize in September this year for their debut album, This Could Be Texas.
South London band Fat Dog released their debut studio album, Woof, in September to critical acclaim. The band toured the UK in April and May of this year and are playing in Dublin this month.
DJ and producer Jamie xx released his second solo album, In Waves, in September. His first in nine years, the album features songs with The xx members Romy and Oliver Sim, as well as Robyn and Erykah Badu. He is currently touring the album worldwide.
American musician Kim Gordon, formerly of the rock band Sonic Youth, released her second solo studio album, The Collective, in March and has since been touring the album worldwide.
Award winning UK rapper Little Simz released her EP Drop 7 in February. Her fourth album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, won the 2022 Mercury Prize and earned her the 2022 Brit Award for Best New Artist.
Australian alternative rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their eighteenth studio album, Wild God, in August. The band is currently on tour and will perform in Dublin this month before.
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The richest country in Europe again depending on charity and volunteers to solve a crisis the people who govern us will ramble back mid January with no vision and same mantra thank god for these wonderful volunteers who have worked free over the Christmas with donations from ordinary decent people to keep these vital services going and doing the work of politians
@Stephen Byrne: any country in Europe who don’t have charities? Charities that exponentially increase their activity during Christmas?
@Stephen Byrne: if it was easy for politicians to spend taxpayers money on every good cause I gather they would
@Stephen Byrne:
More then 24 differant “homeless” charity’s in Dublin alone. Employing over 700 people offering below that number in beds.
Time to clean up the charitie industry.
Then the money donated wll go to the ones who need it.
@Darius Guppy: An excellent example is GoBanyo in Germany, founded by a formerly homeless man, he brought the Duschbus to the streets.
Kitted out with three private bathrooms, one wheelchair accessible, people can look after their personal hygiene.
@Temp Stuff: Instead the fools squander it on bike sheds, bus stops fax machines, travel etc. Don’t mention the hospital. If there was any accountability in this kip, heads would roll and dubious reputations laid to rest.
Jaysus, Glen Hansard would show up at the opening of a phone box
@Niall Boyle: Jaysus, this same comment shows up every year on this same article.
Nearly 15000 people homeless in Ireland now, thanks people for voting Ff and FG back in government, well done.
@Bills n Stuff: And horribly high numbers in the six counties, too.
@Bills n Stuff: you’re welcome
@Bills n Stuff: 15,000 living in FREE ACCOMODATION.
@Bills n Stuff:
Less then a thousand people in the country sleep on the streets. And there is a bed in a hostal for all of them.
Father Mc Ferry? Has stated on radio that when they send out a van to collect someone, by the time they get there someone will have given the person a tent, a sleeping bag, and sandwiches and they are no longer interested in heading back to the hostal.
@Athena: How much did they squander on a Children’s hospital? Nothing.
Little wonder they don’t want anything to do with this 26 pantomime.
Eh you forgot to mention the little known Dermot Kennedy who also showed up to play some tunes!
Government spending money on everything but the homeless and especially on themselves with exorbitant pensions salaries and expenses
@Pauline Cahill:
This is a great chance for the lefty left and Typhoid Mary to pull a good news story by living on the average industrial wage and donating the differance to a homeless charity.
Bunch of chancers will go home to their big homes in the nicer parts of Dublin and preach to the rest of us for the rest of the year.
What happened to the surplus home sweet home money donated.
We were promised the accounts would be made public a number of years ago.
Glen Hansard and age gaps with the women he’s with are very suspect, especially your own from Once. Would rather not have him celebrated still
@Lewis Armstrong: try that again.
@Philip Kennedy: he was being polite. Theres a persistent rumor that Hansard is a creep and dated underage girls in his 30s, allegedly..
Temp stuff a home is an necessity and if previous governments were doing their job 15000 people wouldn’t be homeless of which over 4000 are children how are your kids tonight volunteers work aloside people earning big money
@Stephen Byrne:
Yunkies, drunks and wife beaters are not intitled to taxpayers money. That’s the job of charities.
@H Woo: What a pathetic comment.
The Cranberries dedicated their song Linger to Glen Hansard. He’s akin to that silent flatulence after a spud dinner that just won’t go away.
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