Today FM's 'Songs in the Key of Life' celebrates one year anniversary

'Songs in the Key of Life' started on Dublin's TXFM as a show devised and pitched by Nadine O'Regan. After kicking off with humble beginnings, 'Songs in the Key of Life' gained traction when it won a PPI radio award in October 2015, for a memorable show featuring Blindboy of the Rubberbandits.

One of the most popular shows on TXFM, 'Songs in the Key of Life' transferred to Today FM in 2016, where it found a welcome berth on Sunday nights and where it has remained ever since.

In a statement ahead of their birthday, the crew at 'Song in the Key of Life' had this to say:

Songs in the Key of Life marks its first birthday on Today FM this July and to celebrate, the popular Sunday night programme, presented by Nadine O'Regan, will become available as a weekly podcast, with 20 of the top shows from the past year being released simultaneously.

July is an exciting month for 'Songs in the Key of Life', because July is the month when the show officially becomes an unruly toddler and turns one year old on Today FM.

Presented and produced by Nadine O'Regan, Songs in the Key of Life is the award-winning music and chat show, where guests, drawn from the world of the arts and beyond, play DJ for the hour and pick the tunes, as O'Regan sends questions their way about life, the universe and everything.

To celebrate the occasion, Songs in the Key of Life is getting its own weekly podcast, so listeners who enjoy the radio show can now listen back it via the podcast at their leisure.

Twenty of our favourite shows from the past year will also be released simultaneously on Sunday July 23rd, when Gus Unger-Hamilton from indie rock chart-toppers Alt-J will be helping us to blow out the candles officially and also -- of course -- chat through his favourite tunes. (We can reveal that he might just have tunes from Radiohead, Father John Misty and Ghostpoet in his playlist for the evening.)

We've had some lovely successes over the past year -- listenership went up in the most recent JNLR survey by 1,000 listeners -- and guests on the show have included Christine of Christine and the Queens, Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, iconic Trainspotting novelist Irvine Welsh, David Gray, Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers and Passenger, as well as acclaimed Irish artists including Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, Panti, Damien Dempsey and Mick Flannery.

We've had some great moments on the show itself -- we've learned about the time that Irvine Welsh was sent off to buy shoes for Iggy Pop in Los Angeles (Iggy gave his to a homeless man), how Cathy Davey likes to sing to her pet pigs on her farm, and how comedian Alison Spittle was particularly pleased to get to dictate the playlist for people ("I'm a big control freak," she said).

Podcasts from the 2016/2017 opening year will feature Neil Hannon, economistDavid McWilliams, David Gray, James Vincent McMorrow and many more.

"I'm thrilled to see Songs in the Key of Life celebrate its first birthday on Today FM," said presenter Nadine O'Regan. "It's been a brilliant year. I feel like the luckiest presenter in the world, getting to spend time with people whose work I admire -- and hearing about the songs they love."

Songs in the Key of Life airs every Sunday evening from 9pm and is available via listen back on Todayfm.com and from July 23rd via podcast.

Songs in the Key of Life In Statistics

The most popular artists picked on Songs in the Key of Life?

Talking Heads, The Smiths and The Cure. "Everybody wants to play The Cure," said Nadine. "Being honest, we're coming close to the ''No Stairway' in guitar shops rule' with regard to The Cure."

The oddest of reasons to play a track?

We're going to say either Irish comedy writer Stefanie Preissner picking 5ive's Megamix, because it reminded her of going to Coppers nightclub or social media entrepreneur Mark Little picking Jackson Five's I Want You Back, as a song to play at his funeral.

Guilty pleasures?

There's no such thing as a guilty pleasure, of course, but TV3 presenter Elaine Crowley admits to loving a bit of Pitbull on the dancefloor. Brian Deady won't say no to a bit of Ultravox doing Vienna, and Phil Collins occupies a special place in Bressie's heart.

Best unexpected singing voice?

Sing Street director John Carney gave us a blast of Thin Lizzy's 'Old Town' on the show -- and he got Phil Lynott's vocal down pat. At an instrumental level, meanwhile, Neil Hannon proved surprisingly adept at making a synth noise straight from The Human League's oeuvre. You can listen to both in our clips attached.

Notable behind-the-scenes detail about the programme?

Nadine is constantly contriving to get her guests to pick songs that are under five minutes long. "It's an hour-long show," she protests. "And Kashmir cannot be cut without listeners sending me angry missives written in cat blood." But guests are constantly trying to outfox her, pleading for radio edits and the like. Sometimes they succeed.

Dream guests for 2017/2018?

Nadine has been on a quest to get both Hozier and Dermot Bannon on the show -- so far, both have eluded her, but the dream persists. "I'm curious about the songs that both of them would pick," she said. "For very different reasons. And wouldn't it be kind of amazing if Dermot Bannon only picked songs by artists related to bits of houses? The Frames, The Doors, A House -- it would be quite something."