The Voice Of Authority

Is there no end to Brian Kennedy’s talents? Over the years he has been a singer, songwriter, novelist, occasional TV/ radio presenter, not to mention Eurovision competitor and Riverdance participant (even as I write, his soft Belfast accent is wafting across the airwaves as he “guest presents” East Coast Radio’s morning show – another new departure!). But his first love will always be music, as he confides before embarking on the next leg of his own version of what Bob Dylan calls the never-ending tour. And first and foremost, he sees himself as a singer.

“The thing about music for me is that it’s completely addictive,” he says. “I can’t but give all my energy to it. If I have more than a couple of days off I’m climbing the walls.”
Fair enough, but if music is his life, does he ever feel distracted by his involvement in other extra-curricular, non-musical activities? Or are they now being pushed into the background?
“I think one thing feeds the other,” he laughs. “What happens with me is when I’m on the road and I haven’t a minute, and so I’m dying to stand still for a while. When I’m in the studio, I’m dying to get out on the road. When I’m writing a book, it’s pure stillness. All of those things appeal to me in different ways. But being a torch singer is what I want to do now, and playing in front of an audience is the best thing I do. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.”
Kennedy insists he performs live a lot more than some people at home might realise.
“People in Ireland might think I do a few shows here and there and then take a long break,” he says, “but I’m always touring. We’ve two tours planned for the UK, one this summer and one in winter. I would also go and do maybe five weeks in Australia or two weeks in the Middle East playing places Bahrain or Dubai, and these are sold-out gigs.”

His latest album, Interpretations, his tenth album to date, marks yet another departure in that it contains all covers rather than originals or co-writes. As it turns out, it’s a powerful testament to just how good a singer Brian Kennedy is. “I wanted to get out of my comfort zone,” he says “If it was up to me I’d just record a Joni Mitchell tribute record and I probably will do that one day! Creatively, I’d done a lot of writing and I was very happy with the output. But then I thought, ‘What would be something that would be hard for me to do? And writing your own album is always hard, but it’s familiar hard. Whereas I’ve never really done a full orchestral record, with carefully chosen songs.”
The album showcases Kennedy’s extraordinary voice and his ability as an interpreter. The songs include his take on U2’s ‘Stuck In A Moment’ Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ and Declan O’Rourke’s ‘Galileo', a particular favourite of his. “There are two kinds of songs,” he says simply, “good and bad. And when I first heard that song about four years ago I knew I was going to record it. It’s such a beautiful song.
“With U2 it’s difficult to single out any one of their songs and I’ve got every record they ever made and I’ve seen them live on every tour. Again the words are extraordinary. But I picked ‘Stuck In A Moment’ because I was intrigued by that idea that it was to do with Michael Hutchence; I met him once in a rehearsal studio. It’s almost Motown-like, or soulful, for U2 and they’re such rockers.”
For many, Kennedy’s emotional and heart-rending performance of Brendan Graham’s ‘You Raise Me Up’ at George Best’s funeral has become almost as iconic a moment as Elton John’s performance at Princess Diana’s funeral. It also expanded his international audience considerably.
“Yeah, the reaction to that has been immense and it’s ongoing,” he reveals. “I get letters from people about it all the time and of course it’s on YouTube. People stop me in the street and want to talk about it – even in the taxi this morning it was brought up. It was so tragic in one way, but it was an honour that I was asked to do it and that I was able to keep it together long enough to be able to sing the words.”

Among his many achievements to date, Kennedy represented Ireland in the 2006 Eurovision with his own song ‘Every Song Is A Cry For Love’. How does he feel about this year’s Dustin debacle, with a puppet being chosen to represent a country that was once renowned as specialists in the Eurovision, with a song sending up the whole event?
“As always with the Eurovision it’s about entertainment, ridiculous outfits, and mad songs – half the people who are involved in it look insane,” he laughs. “So there is that spectacle element to it. The tragedy is that once the texting came on board and the money and revenue that brings came into the equation – there is no way they’re going to go back from that.”
Would he have gone up against Dustin?
“Honestly, I was not up for competing with anybody when I did it, so I wouldn’t have been in the line-up. I was approached by the national broadcaster to perform the Irish song and that’s that only way I would have done it. Once I heard what was going on with Dustin I knew what would happen in Ireland. Kids love to vote for puppets. But, maybe in the long run, Dustin has done us all a favour and we’ll get back to sending real performers. I mean years ago, the Eurovision winners were so annoyingly catchy. Who remembers the winning song these days?”

Brian Kennedy’s Interpretations is out now on Curb Records