Eleanor Mcevoy biography
Eleanor McEvoy (born 22 January 1967) is one of Ireland's most accomplished contemporary singer/songwriters. McEvoy composed the song "Only A Woman's Heart", title track of A Woman's Heart, the best-selling Irish album in Irish history.
Biography
McEvoy's life as a musician began at the age of four when she began playing piano. At the age of eight she took up violin. Upon finishing school she attended Trinity College, Dublin where she studied music by day and worked in pit orchestras and music clubs by night.
McEvoy graduated from Trinity with an Honors Degree in music, and spent four months busking in New York City. In 1988 she was accepted into the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra where she spent four years before leaving to concentrate on songwriting.
She built up a following in clubs in Dublin with her three piece band, Jim Tate on bass, Noel Eccles on drums, and latterly Bill Shanley on guitar.
During a solo date in July 1992, she performed a little-known, self-penned song, "Only a Woman's Heart". Mary Black, of whose band McEvoy was a member, was in the audience and invited her to add the track to an album of Irish female artists. The album was subsequently titled A Woman's Heart and the track was released as the lead single.
In the same week that A Woman's Heart was released, Tom Zutaut A & R from Geffen Records, who had previously signed Guns & Roses, Motley Crew, and Edie Brickell, offered McEvoy a worldwide recording deal after watching her perform at The Baggot Inn in Dublin.
The album went on to sell over three-quarters of a million copies in Ireland alone and was (and remains) the biggest selling Irish album of all time.
Eleanor McEvoy, the self-titled debut offering, recorded in Windmill Lane Studios, was released in February 1993, and tours in the United States, Asia, and Europe followed. Back on Irish soil, McEvoy was awarded Best New Artist, Best New Performer, and Best Songwriter Awards by the Irish entertainment and music industries.
As she began writing her second album, Tom Zutaut departed Geffen Records, so when Columbia U.S. offered her a new deal, she jumped ship and began working on a new, edgier second album, which would eventually be titled What's Following Me? The album was released in 1996 and the sound was louder and grungier that her debut. The single "Precious Little" built to a Top-10 radio hit in the United States, giving McEvoy the exposure she needed for a headline tour of the U.S. She was invited to contribute of a number of movie and TV soundtracks.
"A Glass Unkissed" was featured in ABC Television's Clueless and "Whisper a Prayer to the Moon" was featured in the Pierce Brosnan film The Nephew. which was released in August 1998.
At home, the success of A Woman's Heart continued to overshadow McEvoy's solo work and fans of the mammoth hit were disappointed with the rock elements of the second album and those that might have identified with her bittersweet lyrics, sensual vocals, and loud guitars turned a blind eye to the album.
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