Held at The Royal Albert Hall in London on 5th April 2017
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Now in its 18th year the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate the stars of folk, roots and acoustic music and their achievements in the previous year. Past winners have included Tom Paxton, Cat Stevens, Don McLean and The Dubliners and the awards have notably spotted young talents who have gone on to dominate the genre through the Horizon Award for the year’s best newcomer with past winners including Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Jim Moray, Spiers & Boden and Cara Dillon.

Held at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 5th April 2017, Daoirí was nominated for three awards, more than any other artists in 2017. He was also asked to perform live at the ceremony. He went on to win the Best Traditional Track Award for Van Diemen’s Land and the Horizon Award for best newcomer which was presented to Daoirí by former winners of the same award, Rachel and Becky Unthank.

Described by Dónal Lunny as ‘One of the most important traditional singers to emerge in the last decade’, Daoirí Farrell is a former electrician, who decided to change profession after seeing Christy Moore perform on Irish TV’s Late Late Show.

Daoirí had cut his teeth as a singer in Dublin’s famous Góilin Singers Club, where he was spotted early on by Christy Moore, and at other sessions across the city, many of which he still visits. Following his studies he quickly found work accompanying artists including Christy Moore himself, as well as a list of names that sounds like a who’s who of folk music: Dónal Lunny, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill, Alan Doherty, Danú, Dervish, Julie Fowlis, Arty McGlynn, The John Carty Big Band, Kíla, Sean Keane, Gerry O’Connor (Banjo), Gerry O’Connor (Fiddle), Lynched and more. In 2013 he won the All Ireland Champion Singer award at the Fleadh in Co. Derry, and in 2015 won the prestigious Danny Kyle Award at Celtic Connections in Glasgow with the line-up FourWinds.

He launched his live solo career at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections in January 2016 and hasn’t looked back since. Festival dates and three tours of the UK will be followed by festivals in 2017 in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Canada and Australia at Australia’s National Folk Festival.

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