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FROM RAP TO chamber music, Irish talent was well represented at last night’s Grammy awards.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar added five more gramophones to his trophy cabinet, including another Record of the Year award for ‘luther’ and Best Rap Album for ‘GNX’.
But it wasn’t only Lamar who was celebrating these wins but also Kerry native Ruairi O’Flaherty, who has been nominated for seven Grammys throughout his career.
O’Flaherty, from Killarney in Co Kerry and currently living in California, was a senior mastering engineer on the record ‘luther’ and the album ‘GNX’.
Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious and important awards at the Grammys and O’Flaherty took home a Grammy in this category for his work on luther.
This year, O’Flaherty was also nominated in the Album of the Year category for his mastering work on Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Man’s Best Friend’, as well as in the Record of the Year category for Carpenter’s ‘Manchild’.
Elsewhere, Dublin-born composer Donnacha Dennehy took home a Grammy award for Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance.
Dennehy took home this award for the album ‘Dennehy: Land Of Winter’, which is performed by Alarm Will Sound and conducted by Alan Pierson.
Land of Winter is Dennehy’s third album and was also nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Aoife O’Donovan meanwhile won Best American Roots Song with her band I’m With Her for the song ‘American Light’.
The band also won Best Folk Album for ‘Wild and Clear and Blue’.
O’Donovan’s late father, Brian O’Donovan, was well-known for being a champion of Boston’s Irish music community and previously said she grew up “singing a ton of Irish songs” because of her father.
Meanwhile, a host of Irish figures were nominated for Best Opera Recording for ‘O’Halloran: Trade & Mary Motorhead’.
This included the opera’s composer Emma O’Halloran, singers Naomi Louisa O’Connell, John Molloy and Oisín Ó Dálaigh with the Irish National Orchestra.
The Irish National Opera recording of Trade/Mary Motorhead, with a libretto by Mark O’Halloran, was released in August 2025.
Naomi Louisa O’Connell was further nominated in this category for her work on ‘Kouyoumdjian: Adoration’.
Cork-born Elaine Kelly was also the conductor on O’Halloran: Trade & Mary Motorhead last year became the first ever Irish conductor to earn a Grammy nomination for her work on Akathist.
The award for Best Opera Record was won in the end by ‘Heggie: Intelligence’.
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