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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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So let me get this straight, the NTA ( a tax payer funded bunch of overpaid pen pushers) fine public transport operators who are also tax payer funded, then presumably the tax payer pays the fines, wait a minute!!
@Tom Mc Donnell: yup. Opus Dei Ireland
@Tom Mc Donnell: The customer pays the fine will increased fares.
@Tom Mc Donnell: robbing Peter to pay Paul…. It’s all only a ‘circular’ game at tax payers expense
@Thesaltyurchin: What has it got to do with Opus Dei group lol
@Tom Mc Donnell: it’s a joke, totally agree with you
@Tom Mc Donnell: That’s not what happens. The NTA isn’t fining the companies. What it basically is doing is withholding money the companies would have been given. A bit like not paying someone for doing a bad job.
@Buster Lawless: but there is no cost to the tax payer – income for NTA offset by cost to Dublin Bus. Pretty simple really, but not surprising that the concept is beyond your scope of understanding
@Louise Marie: I’m ‘mortified’ for you … ha! *symbol crash
1 million for 6 people a years wages not including benefits what a great little country we are
So, someone has come to the conclusion that services can be improved by reducing funding. Good one that. Meanwhile, no one will be held responsible for the disgraceful failures outlined in the full report.
@Minnie Mouse: it’s called privatisation—or put anopther way. politicians outsourcing the provision of vital services so pals and benefactors can screw us all as they pursue profit. But it must be said, we get exactly what we vote.
The whole transport system would be a disgrace in a war torn country. Go most places around the world and see what public transport is. How we quietly tolerate this is beyond me.
@GoodBrother: Bus Service in Dublin City is very good and cheap, always packed
@Peter Byrne: it’s trash. In which right mind would you put the 3 of the SAME going at the same time and instead of every 5 minutes and not having to wait 20/25 minutes between those buses. The timetable are completely garbage.
@GoodBrother: Third World services, First World Taxes & First World payments for the CEO’s, Ireland is a mess. Young workers at home in their childhood bedrooms should look at countries that are functioning, rather than being screwed in a failed State.
@SV3tN8M4: guess who has never used public transport in a developing country
@Peter Byrne: It is packed because people need it and have no alternative. Not because it is remotely good.
@SYaxJ2Ts: he is still right, 3rd world service and he is being nice. Ireland is a big joke for the taxes we are paying. I am guessing it goes straight to brown envelopes and your welfare.
@Alex: he’s not right, but nothing new there
@SYaxJ2Ts: If you only knew, lots more life experience in all aspects of life than you have ever had & your stint in London is only in the h’penny place.
Constant problems with tfi service in dublin, surprised they are allowed to operate with the amount if problems they have. On numerous occasions, they fail to even stop at the bus stop even when the bus isn’t full. I have emailed them a number of times and am not satisfied with their ridiculous responses.
@Trisha Lavelle: And to add to your complaint that the Dublin bus app is still downloadable.
Could we maybe put that 17.9m into providing a better service in the first place? More public transport to commuter towns and rural areas. It seems services are only offered at the moment if it makes financial sense to do so. Put the infrastructure in place and make more areas viable places to live for commuters. If you build it, they will come.
A good mirror image of how a Quango operates in Ireland, without actually achieving anything. So we have a CEO on a mega salary with mega Pension entitlement, who will probably walk away with a mega Exit package like the RTE crew when the time comes. You then have 30 other Employees earning over a €100K & their expenditure increased by well over €200 Million, costing nearly an incredible €2 Billion to run. This Quango doesn’t provide any positive benefit to Public Transport in Ireland, other than enriching a few & leaching Billions from the Exchequer. A cost benefit analysis of all these Quangos is needed & get rid of those that are just costing the State Billions.
@SV3tN8M4: why bother with the cost benefit analysis? Seems you’ve made up your mind already
@SYaxJ2Ts: You see, a cost benefit analysis would assess whether the whole set up is worthwhile & even if it wasn’t breaking even but providing an essential service or massive improvement, you would then keep it. It has absolutely nothing to do as to what is my opinion or your opinion of it would be, it’s whether it’s good for our country or not. That would be my view, your view would be to load it with loads of your political cronies & pay them extravagant salaries & then pay them massive Exit Packages with NDA’s when they fukk it all up.
Clearly no one has a clue about traffic congestion. Part of Ireland’s issue with traffic congestion is the fact daily traffic laws are ignored by a majority of Irish drives. People driving too fast, too slow, double parking, inattentive driving, U-turns, Y-turns etc.. In essence, these things hold up traffic, slows traffic down. Until there dedicated traffic police… Public transit will continue to be slow.
And buses will continue to be fined.
@Seriously Really: We really do need a dedicated traffic police!
@Seriously Really: There are dedicated traffic police, the garda traffic corps. They are probably understaffed and underfunded as well. Legalisation, regulation, and taxation of drugs would free up a lot of Gardai to put on traffic duty.
@Todd Hebert: i drive a bus and its dealing with the drunk and off the head fcukwits that we need more proper transport police not less.
Maybe if they monitor the bus lanes it might help, technology could be useful, cctv. fines in the post.
Excellent, well deserved!
Bus Service in Dublin in brilliant and cheap
The luas is a disaster, the trams don’t seem to go beyond the red cow and all the passengers get chucked off there.
Irish people are so ego-centric, it’s impossible to build a republic.
@offside again: want to live in a mcmansion in the middle of nowhere and want public transport !
It’s embarrasing how Ireland pretends to be a modern country, without any kind of infrastructure that would make it so.
French colleagues, taking the pee, asked me if it was a real country.
It isn’t.
I only use Public transport if I have to.
I planned to use the no.16 bus 3 times in the last few weeks, on each occasion, my Bus ‘disappeared’ yes…dissapeared. ill stick to my I.C.E honda jazz in future
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