Brendan Graham

Brendan Graham (born 1945)^[1]) is an Irish novelist and composer.

Graham was born in County Tipperary. He has published three novels, The Whitest Flower (London, Harper Collins, 1998), an Irish No. 2 best seller, The Element of Fire (Harper Collins, 2001) and The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night (Harper Collins, 2004).^[2]

He also wrote the lyrics for Rolf Løvland's "You Raise Me Up". Løvland was inspired to write the song after reading The Whitest Flower, Graham's first novel.^[3] "You Raise Me Up" was a huge international hit for Irish boyband Westlife. Graham wrote the lyrics for one of Løvland's "Mary's Lament", which appears on Secret Garden's 2011 album, Winter Poem.

Graham also composed two of Ireland's winning entries in the Eurovision Song Contest: "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", which won in 1994, and "The Voice", the winner of the 1996 contest.^[4] He also wrote the 1976 Irish Eurovision entry, 'When', which was sung by Red Hurley, and the 1985 entry 'Wait until the weekend comes', performed by Maria Christian. He wrote several songs for Celtic Woman, including "O, America". Also, for a similar group, Celtic Thunder, Graham wrote songs including "My Land ", "Voices", and "Always There" (written especially for a CT member Emmet Cahill).

Entries in the Eurovision Song Contest

• "When" by Red Hurley, Ireland, (Eurovision Song Contest 1976), 10th place
• "Wait Until the Weekend Comes" by Maria Christian, Ireland, (Eurovision Song Contest 1985), 6th place
• "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" by Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan, Ireland, (Eurovision Song Contest 1994), 1st place
• "The Voice" by Eimear Quinn, Ireland, (Eurovision Song Contest 1996), 1st place

References

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