Dermot Kennedy announces new album SONDER with powerful video for 'Dreamer'

Irish singer-songwriting superstar Dermot Kennedy has announced SONDER, his long-awaited sophomore album - landing September 23rd via Island Records / Interscope.

The news arrives alongside the brand new track and accompanying video for 'Dreamer'; a softer, piano-lead cut from the upcoming record that’s set to be a live favourite. The track's tenderness and singalong potential is guaranteed to have fans enthralled from start to finish.

The track comes after the lead single from the album, 'Something to Someone’, dropped last month to wide critical acclaim and has already topped over 20 million streams across platforms. Across May and June, Dermot performed nine huge sold out shows at outdoor venues across Ireland, selling over 110,000 tickets in total.

The run finished last week with three huge shows in Belfast, Dublin and Cork and from now until the end of August, Dermot support Shawn Mendes on the first leg of his 2022 North American ‘Wonder The World Tour’.

The announcement of Sonder follows the global success of his million-selling, number 1 debut album Without Fear.

The title ‘Sonder’, the encapsulating phrase for “the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”, instantly resonated with Dermot and transformed into the perfect way to tie up a feeling in a record.

Speaking on the thinking behind the title, Dermot explained: “The meaning behind ‘Sonder’ has resonated with me so much for years. I exist in an industry where we’re encouraged to constantly only think about ourselves and I find that exhausting and uninspiring. I want to learn about you. Let us share all of our triumphs, all of our troubles. Let this music belong to all of us, to find our own stories and our own solace within it.”

The Dubliner was nominated for the ‘Best International Male’ BRIT Award in 2020, has now amassed nearly 4 billion streams across platforms and has the best-selling debut album in Ireland of this millennium. Without Fear has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide to date, making him a platinum-selling artist in over 12 countries.

Notably, his singles, 'Outnumbered’, ‘Power Over Me’ and ‘Giants’ and his collaboration with Meduza on single 'Paradise’ have all now been certified Platinum, with ‘Paradise’ alone streaming over 500 million times.

Pre-order SONDER here.

Check out the new video for 'Dreamer' below.

Revisit his 2021 cover story with Hot Press here.