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LAST UPDATE | 20 Jun
ZACH BRYAN IS not necessarily a household name – but he’s getting there.
The musician released his first album in 2019, coming to global success in 2022, and already he’s managed to snag three nights at the Phoenix Park – that’s a combined 180,000 people (although at the time of writing, he has not managed to sell it out).
Bryan has ascended to the spot of being the second-most listened to artist in Ireland, surpassed only by Taylor Swift. However, there seems to be a generational divide in the 29-year-old’s reach in Ireland: half of The Journal‘s newsroom had never heard of him.
So, who is he? And why has he amassed such success in Ireland?
Bryan was born in 1996 in Japan and raised in Oologah, Oklahoma in the United States. In 2013, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the US Navy, becoming an Aviation Ordnanceman – described as “enlisted sailors that serve as aircraft armament specialists charged with handling weapons”.
In 2016, his mother passed away. The following year, in 2017, he began uploading self-produced music to YouTube, and in 2019, he released his first album, DeAnn, which was dedicated to his late mother. He had his first concert that October.
In 2020, he released his second album, which was also self-produced. He married Rose Madden, who also served in the Navy, that same year.
Eight years after joining the Navy, he signed a deal with Warner Records and subsequently was formally discharged to pursue his music career full-time in 2021. He also got divorced from Rose Madden.
The song most people will be familiar with from Bryan is ‘Something in the Orange’. This was released in 2022 and propelled him into the mainstream music scene. To this day, the song has over 1.25 billion streams on Spotify. If that’s not ringing a bell, ‘I Remember Everything’ with Kacey Musgraves has over 1.1 billion streams on the same platform.
The latter song also took Bryan and his collaborator home a Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group performance in 2024.
In the end of 2023, he was arrested for refusing to comply with a police officer after he and his security guard were pulled over for alleged speeding.
Bryan gained more – negative – traction online with the end of his relationship with influencer Brianna LaPaglia (also known as Brianna Chickenfry) in late 2024. LaPaglia has millions of followers across a number of TikTok accounts and Instagram, and is the host of a popular podcast. The two parted ways on bad terms and LaPaglia later alleged emotional abuse had resulted in the end of the relationship.
As of now, he has released five studio albums, and is embarking on his tour ‘Quittin’ Time’. His Spotify claims that this is “his last tour ever”, although no other formal announcement appears to have been made.
Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions, which is tasked with promoting Byran’s Irish shows, told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday that Bryan has “come from nowhere”.
“His songs are about heartbreak and loss and all the things that people don’t like talking about any more,” he said.
“Maybe [those] in Dublin aren’t aware of him, but people outside Dublin are very well aware of him,” Aiken added, describing him as the “real deal” and “not country per se, but very Springsteen.”
Bryan’s last performance in Dublin was in 2023, when he played the comparatively humble Helix.
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