Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Irish was the first language Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh spoke, and it runs through everything she sings. Born in 1978, she grew up in the Irish-speaking communities of Dún Chaoin in County Kerry, on Inis Oírr in the Aran Islands and on Cape Clear off County Cork, where early exposure to Irish-language song, especially the sean-nós tradition, shaped her later career. She began on piano and fiddle as a child, moved on to whistle and then flute, and travelled to sessions with her father, the fiddler Feargal Mac Amhlaoibh. She now also makes electronica as half of the duo Aeons.

Her career has moved through several stages. She spent six years with Siamsa Tíre, the national folk theatre, before taking over as lead singer of Danú in 2003. With Danú she recorded The Road Less Travelled in 2003 and released When All is Said and Done in 2005. Her first major solo album, Daybreak/Fáinne an Lae, appeared in 2006, followed by Dual in 2008, a recording in Irish and Scottish Gaelic made with Julie Fowlis. In 2016 she and Pádraig Rynne recorded the single Bealtaine as Aeons, and the duo's album Fís followed in 2018.