Culture
20 Jul 20

Brendan Graham records spoken version of 'You Raise Me Up' for Médecins Sans Frontières

The popular track has been covered around 1,400 times since its origin in 2001.

Songwriter and lyricist Brendan Graham has released the first spoken word version of the classic track 'You Raise Me Up', previously covered by artists Josh Groban, Westlife, Celtic Woman and Aled Jones.

The song's original composer, Rolf Lovland, had been making album demo recordings for his duo act Secret Garden, which also featured violinist Fionnuala Sherry.

The melody was titled 'Silent Story,' and later became 'You Raise Me Up' after recording the song using only a keyboard and violin (while half-asleep).

Secret Garden released the song in March 2002 as a single, featuring vocals from Brian Kennedy and Tracy Campbell.

The single reached No. 1 on the Norway Singles Chart, and two years later Josh Groban released a rendition that spent six weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Chart and earned him a Grammy nomination.

Irish boyband Westlife also brought the song to No. 1 in the UK, making it their biggest single ever.

Brendan Graham had wanted to do something personally proactive to honour frontline workers and raise funds for the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and found the answer in 'You Raise Me Up'.

"This recording came about through a series of unplanned happenings, but it all felt right and timely to be something I could do to help and I presented the idea to the Irish branch of the MSF, with whom I have a longtime association," Graham said.

"I made it to help the Worldwide Covid Frontline Work of the Doctors of MSF who daily risk their own lives fighting to save the lives of others in over 70 countries," Brendan added.

"These Doctors work amongst some of the poorest, displaced–by-war and discriminated against people in the world...in war-torn places of conflict where there are no proper hospitals, or even living conditions.

The spoken version of 'You Raise Me Up' was officially launched today on RTE Radio One's 'Sunday with Miriam' programme.

Watch the accompanying video of Brendan Graham's rendition below, through which people can denote directly to Médecins Sans Frontières: