''Celtic Woman'' is the debut album released by the group

Celtic Woman Celtic Woman is an all-female Irish musical ensemble conceived and created by David Kavanagh, Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show ''Riverdance.'' In 2004, Downes recruited five Irish female music ...

Background

The group first featured on a musical special of the same name on American television broadcaster

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, filmed live at the Helix Theatre in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in September 2004. With the help of the special, which was later made available on DVD, the group reached number one on the

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World Music charts within weeks of their debut, and remained there for a record eighty-six weeks. This success led the group's composer and musical director, David Downes, to adopt the title of "Celtic Woman" as their permanent name. Although originally intended as a one-time-only event, the group's music was so warmly received by the public that they immediately followed up with their first concert tour in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The album and special feature vocalists

Chloë Agnew Chloë Alexandra Adele Emily Agnew (born 1989) is an Irish singer and songwriter, best known for being an original and former member of the Celtic music group Celtic Woman. Early life and career Agnew was born to Irish entertainer Adele " ...

Órla Fallon Órlagh Fallon (born 24 August 1974), professionally known as Órla Fallon, is an Irish singer, songwriter and former member of the group Celtic Woman and the chamber choir Anúna. Early life and education Fallon was born in Knockananna, Irela ...

Lisa Kelly Lisa Kelly (born 7 May 1977) is an Irish singer of both classical and Celtic music and a voice teacher. She has taken part in many musical theatre productions and concerts, and is a founding and former member of the musical group Celtic Woman ...

Méav Ní Mhaolchatha Méav Ní Mhaolchatha ( , ), mononymously known as Méav, is an Irish singer, songwriter and recording artist specialising in the traditional music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary ...

, and fiddler

Máiréad Nesbitt Máiréad Nesbitt ( , ) is an Irish musician. She is known for performing Celtic and classical music and being the former fiddler for '' Celtic Woman''. She was also one of the two original fiddlers in Michael Flatley’s '' Lord of the Dance'' ...

, all of whom had never previously performed together prior to the group's formation.

Track listing

Personnel

Note: All information from liner notes.Celtic Woman. "Celtic Woman". EMI/Manhattan. 2004. Celtic Woman *

- vocals *

- vocals, harp *

- vocals *

- fiddle *

- vocals Musicians * David Downes - keyboards, piano, celesta, harpsichord, low whistle, whistle * Eoghan O'Neill - bass guitar * Martin Johnson - solo cello * Ray Fean - percussion * Robbie Casserly - percussion * Des Moore - guitar * Andreja Malir - harp * John O'Brien - uilleann pipes, low whistle *

David Agnew "David Agnew" is a pen name that was employed on BBC television drama programmes of the 1970s as a scriptwriting credit. Conditions of use The pseudonym "David Agnew" was most often used when the original freelance scriptwriter was unable to acc ...

- oboe The Irish Film Orchestra * John Page - conductor * David Downes - arrangements, orchestrations Aontas Choral Ensemble * Rosemary Collier - director

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

2005 debut albums Celtic Woman albums Manhattan Records albums European Border Breakers Award-winning albums {{2000s-album-stub