“Every minute of every day, Irish people’s lives are enhanced by music, whether this is the radio keeping them company as they commute to work, attending a festival during the summer… or the band that livens up their Friday night, we cannot escape or deny the powerful and all-encompassing impact of music on our lives.” – IMRO pre-budget submission July 2023
For the last twenty years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work at Ireland’s first, regional, youth, music radio station Beat 102-103 and prior to that, I worked at local radio station, WLR FM. This means that music has always been front and centre of my working life. IMRO’s Vision Statement is “A world where music is valued, and its creators are championed” a philosophy which resonates hugely for us at Beat.
Earlier this month, global music streaming platform published its annual Spotify Wrapped list. Billed as “a conversation starter. Compare your WRAPPED highlights with friends, and the world”, it’s a genius, marketing concept. I would argue, though, that the original social medium, radio, has been doing its own version of this for years but radio has been so ever present in the lives of Irish people that this annual list has been somewhat taken for granted. A random flick through every radio station in Ireland around New Year’s Day and you’re guaranteed to hear “top 20/50/100 songs” chosen by listeners that have been played on that radio station in the previous 12 months.
As Beat celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, Head of Music/Beat Breakfast Host Niall Power and I have taken a nostalgic journey back, to reflect on some of the big Irish tracks that have dominated playlists on our station over the last two decades. As we pored over hundreds of songs, Niall Power unearthed some interesting nuggets “when we launched in 2003, most Irish music was pop or rock. Twenty years on, we see quality Irish music across all genres, electronic and dance, hip hop, r&b, and rap. Irish music on the radio in 2003 was also overwhelmingly male.” Thankfully, in more recent years, there has been a concerted movement among most radio stations, including Beat, to reflect the more diverse society in which we broadcast. More on that later but first let’s look at the top ten Irish acts broadcast on Beat in the station’s inaugural year.
Ten Most Played Irish Acts on Beat in 2003
- Paddy Casey – Saints and Sinners
- The Thrills – One Horse Town
- Micky Joe Harte – We’ve Got The World Tonight
- D’Side – Invisible
- Westlife – Mandy
- Simon Casey – A Better Plan
- The Thrills – Big Sur
- Relish – Father, Brother, Lover, Son
- Paddy Casey – The Lucky One
- Westlife – Hey Whatever
What I love most about this historical list, is the emotion it evokes. Music unites everyone. Each of us has a different song that’s been the soundtrack to each milestone in our lives. When Niall Power shared the 2003 list with me, I was immediately transported back to the early days of Beat 102-103. In the lead up to going LIVE on July 1st, 2003, then CEO Kieran McGeary asked if any of us broadcasters had the “cúpla focal.” I nervously revealed that I’d gotten a “B” in Honours Irish in the Leaving Cert. Somehow, that was enough to “qualify” me as the “Beat Gaeilgeoir” to represent the station in a TG4 interview about the launch of Beat. I remember rehearsing repeatedly, to try and make myself come across as natural as possible speaking “as Gaeilge” on national TV. (side note: years later, I re-watched the clip and let me tell you, there is nothing natural about it!) Anyway, at the end of the interview segment, I was asked to introduce my favourite Irish song of the time by saying “is maith liom The Thrills.” Two decades later and I still cringe at the memory as it all sounded so contrived!
In the last few weeks, to coincide with the release of 2023 Spotify Wrapped, we invited our listeners to finish the sentence “my favourite song by an Irish artist is…” With above list in mind, Niamh Doran from Waterford shared with us “my favourite song is Mandy by Westlife because I’ll never forget my first concert in Croke Park and the 10+ concerts after that!” Another Westlife fan, Catherine from Waterford said “Westlife… brings me back to being at their concert in Croke Park with a really close friend, there were tears, lots of different emotions but very special memories; the words of that song can be deep!”
Fast forward to 2013 and the Beat list looked like this:
Ten Most Played Irish songs on Beat in 2013
- Hozier – Take Me To Church
- Kodaline – Brand New Day
- Walking On Cars – Catch Me If You Can
- The Script – If You Could See Me Now
- Original Rudeboys – Never Gonna Walk Away
- Kodaline – High Hopes
- Hudson Taylor – Care
- Keywest – Electric Love
- Walking On Cars – Two Stones
- Pat Byrne – End Of The World
For me, it’s number 10 on this list that stands out. By 2013, I had taken on new roles at the station, ones which I still hold to this day, CEO and Programme Director of Beat 102-103. To mark the station’s 10th birthday, I invited Pat Byrne to perform at a special, intimate gig at Fade Street Social in Dublin for Beats’ friends, past and present. These days, the Irish singer songwriter is brewing up a storm in Austin, Texas but in 2013, Pat Byrne had been crowned The Voice of Ireland the year before, and as the Carlow native had just released his debut album “All or Nothing”, Beat was delighted to showcase Pat at the station’s 10th anniversary gig.
Unsurprisingly, the song that predominantly features for our listeners from the 2013 list is Hozier’s “Take me to Church.” Daniel Collins revealed on our Instagram account that he chose this song because “of how much emotion [Hozier] sings it with.” While Noelle Cummins commented on Beat’s Facebook page that her favourite Hozier song was in fact “In a Week”. She describes it “as a haunting melody featuring the beautiful voice of Karen Cowley about a love and the security of being locked in love… oh, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It’s a heartfelt offering from an amazing songwriter and musician. Irish artistry at its finest.” Wow, high praise indeed… I must go re-listen to that one!
Before I fast forward to 2023, allow me to take you on a mini detour to 2019. Ahead of entering a new decade, we asked our listeners back then to pick their top 100 songs from the previous ten years. I’m pleased to share that Beat listeners remain incredibly passionate about Irish music as two of the top three artists to feature on that long list were Irish. Number One was aforementioned Hozier “Take Me To Church” and grabbing the number 3 spot was Picture This “Take My Hand.” (you’ll have to @MrNiallPower on social media to find out what was number two on that list!)
Finally, it’s time to reveal Beat listeners’ favourite tracks by an Irish artist this year.
Ten Most Played Irish Artists on Beat in 2023
- Jazzy – Giving Me
- Niall Horan – Heaven
- Picture This – Get On My Love
- Robert Grace – Casper
- Moncrieff – Love Somebody
- Chasing Abbey – Oh My Johnny
- Cian Ducrot – I’ll Be Waiting
- Cian Ducrot – Heaven
- Darren Kiely – Mom & Dad
- Brad Heidi – Dancing In My Head
Yasmine Byrne from Crumlin, professionally known as Jazzy, exploded on to the Irish music scene in 2022 as a guest vocalist with Belters Only and this year, Beat’s listeners couldn’t get enough of her. In August, we invited our audience to select their song of the summer. Jazzy’s track “Giving Me” came out on top. The infectious, pulsating song from the Irish-Jamaican newcomer was blaring on radio stations and in clubs/pubs across Ireland, all summer long. It’s brilliant to see a female artist taking top billing but with no other female artist on that top ten list, we clearly have a lot more work to do around gender, equality, diversity and inclusion. I’m proud to be a part of a national GEDI steering group within the Irish radio industry, currently developing a strategy to help tackle this issue. In addition, Beat was recently awarded Sound and Vision funding from Comisiún na Meán for a variety of projects “to help build strong, diverse communities” in 2024. One of these projects which we currently have in pre-production, will be focused on a diverse range of artists based in the South East of Ireland who are trying to build a career for themselves in the challenging music business next year.
As a market leading radio station that consistently champions music from new Irish artists, with a special emphasis on those from the South East, it would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to highlight some other gems from our region, currently producing impressive musical works. Beat’s Niall Power kindly obliged my request and compiled this additional list:
South East acts who have rated highly on Beat, outside the Top Ten in 2023
- 49th & Main – Icy (Kilkenny)
- John Gibbons – All I Need (Carlow)
- CODYY – Time 2 Be (Waterford)
- Welshy – Used To Be (Kilkenny)
- State of Mind – Lonely (Wexford)
- 2Time Charlie – Levitate (Waterford)
We had the pleasure of the latter band on that list, performing at Beat’s 20th birthday party this summer and they put on quite the live show for our invited guests. Watch this space with lots more to come from 2TimeCharlie.
For me though, my favourite Irish artist of the last few years must be Moncrieff (and no, I’m not just being biased because he’s from Waterford where I live!) I was not surprised that he featured as one of my top three most played artists on my Apple Music playlist this year. The fact that we share a bleak statistic (we’ve both lost siblings too soon in life, two for him and three for me) means his lyrics and melodies have a particular emotional impact on me. I find immense solace in the relatable lyrics of his track ‘Ruin’ especially the lines “I’ve lost so many people in my life, it’s f%*ked with my head… step two feeling better now.” For me, it also speaks highly of a performer when locals back him so solidly. Earlier this month, Moncrieff released details of his biggest tour to date, SELFCARE which will see the Waterford native return to the place of his inaugural sell out gig last year, The Olympia, Dublin among other venues here and in London. As I browsed Moncrieff’s Facebook page this week, it struck me that there was none of the Irish begrudgery that can often accompany a local succeeding at something they love. The prevailing sentiment from commentators on social media was one of “no one deserves it more.” Things you love to see.
Speaking of things I love to see, considering the time of year and the mammoth Irish music event that occurred earlier this month, the death and subsequent unique, lively funeral of Irish music singer, songwriting legend Shane MacGowan, I was moved by how many of Beat’s listeners chose “Fairytale of New York” among their all time favourites. Beat’s target audience is a youth oriented one, (15-34 year olds) so the fact this young and fickle audience connects so much with this iconic song years later, epitomises the powerful connection music has with all of us. Mourners, young and old, lined the streets of Dublin and Nenagh to pay their respects. They further demonstrated their respect by ensuring the Christmas classic finally claimed top spot on the Irish charts this week. One of Beat’s Instagram followers, Naomi Jessup aptly sums up what the timeless track means to all of us in Ireland “It’s Christmas, it’s time to go home and be with family.”
This blog was written for IMRO by Beat’s CEO/Programme Director Gabrielle Cummins with contribution and compilation lists from Beat’s Head of Music Niall Power.
