Pat Byrne (singer)

Pat Byrne is an Irish singer and recording artist from Borris, County Carlow. In 2012, Byrne was crowned the winner of the first series of The Voice of Ireland.

Early life

In 2007, Byrne formed a three piece Pop Punk band called Mr Lightweight with his close friend Des Foley, where his main role was playing drums. They were joined by Ronan Donahue on bass guitar. After recording a six track EP in the summer of that year at Manor Park Studios, Co. Antrim, the band later recruited former Scuba Dice bassist Eoin 'Spud' Murphy, and Ronan was replaced by Kristian McGrath on guitar. The band toured, wrote and recorded music for another year before Des eventually left in early 2009 to start a new band, Jody Has A Hitlist. Pat, Spud and Kristian continued for several more months before quiting in Autumn. The following year Pat joined a new band called 'Moses Moorhouse and the Dinosaur Palace' with his friend, Jack O'Leary. He played drumsagain. The band eventually split up after several members moved to London.

A desire to pursue music beyond these ventures led Byrne to audition for The Voice of Ireland.^[2]

Career

2012: The Voice of Ireland

Byrne entered The Voice of Ireland in 2011, singing Bruce Springsteen's "The River" at the blind auditions. All four coaches turned around but Byrne ultimately chose Niall "Bressie" Breslin as his coach. During the battle rounds, Byrne was pitted against Dara Molloy; they sang "If It Makes You Happy" after which Bressie decided to send Byrne through to the live shows. For the first live show, Byrne sang "You Do Something to Me" and was saved by the public vote. In week three, he sang "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and was safe. For the fifth live show Byrne sang "The Day We Caught the Train" and was sent through to the quarter final by public vote.^[3] Before the final, his version of "What a Wonderful World" topped the iTunes charts in Ireland.^[4] Louis Walsh said he could crack America.^[5] On 29 April 2012, Byrne was crowned the winner of the first series.

Performances on The Voice of Ireland

• ^{^[a]} All four coaches turned around. Pat joined team Bressie.
• ^{^[b]} Pat Byrne was against Dara Malloy. Bressie sent Pat Byrne through to the Live Shows.
• ^{^[c]} Pat Byrne was in the bottom two with Kiera Byrne. Bressie chose to save Pat,
• ^{^[d]} Byrne's version of this song was released on iTunes. Each download counted as a vote for the final. It got to number 1 on the iTunes chart in Ireland.
• ^{^[e]} The songs the final four artists performed for the semi-final were released on iTunes. Each download counted as a vote for the final. Each coach had 100 points to divide between their two artists how they wished.

Debut album

Pat Byrne released his album's debut single, titled "End Of The World" on November 2 2012, following the release of its music video on October 30 2012. The single reached a disappointing No.61 in the Irish Singles Charts. The album, titled "All Or Nothing", was released on November 22 2012 and reached No.10 in the Irish Album Charts. A second single from the album, also titled "All Or Nothing", was released on March 15 2013 and only reached No.80 in the charts. This followed the release of its music video on March 8 2013. A third single from the album was planned but never released.

Since the release of End Of The World, Byrne hasn't released any new music and has become less popular in the public eye, without any updates regarding new projects.

In an interview in April 2015, Byrne confirmed that he is still constantly gigging and writing new music. He also announced in the same interview that he was dropped by Universal in 2014, and that he hopes to self-release an album in 2016.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References