Dermot Kennedy, this singer with a honeyed and melancholy voice who has more than 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify, will visit Quebec this Wednesday. Find out more about the man they call Ireland’s Ed Sheeran.
His beginnings on the street
The Dublin singer’s music career only really took off when he was in his mid-20s. Dermot Kennedy, now 31, learned the basics of the craft at the age of just 17 on the streets of his native Ireland. In an interview with Irish media Extra.ie in April, Kennedy spoke about the benefits of busking before a professional career.
“[En jouant dans la rue], you say to yourself, come what may; I still tell myself that before I go on stage, but it’s special to see people intentionally coming over to listen to me now.”
The star status he currently holds does not prevent the singer from returning to his roots and from time to time offering surprise performances on the streets of Dublin, to the great delight of his admirers.
A hip hop lover
Listening to Dermot Kennedy’s ballads, it’s hard to imagine that he looks up to rap and hip-hop artists like Kendrick Lamar and Meek Mill, but that’s actually the case. Called to the attention of Billboard magazine in 2020, Kennedy mentioned that “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” a cult album by 50 Cent, was the first CD he bought with his own money.
Later in this interview, the singer named Jay-Z and Billie Eilish as artists he would like to see on the same stage if he had the opportunity to organize the concert of his choice.
The Irishman also lent his voice to the soundtrack of the film Fast X, in which he can be heard alongside NBA YoungBoy and Bailey Zimmerman in the track Won’t Back Down.
Promising football player
Before Dermot Kennedy shone on stages around the world, he worked his magic on football pitches. The singer was once considered a candidate with potential to make it to the Premier League, the best league in England. Now she devotes herself to sports for fun and to forget the pressures of the showbiz world.
“Artists often say how free and light they feel on stage; “For me, it’s what I feel on a football pitch,” he said when the UK branch of Rolling Stone magazine sat down with him in 2022.
Homage to Metallica
In 2021, Dermot Kennedy teamed up with around fifty artists to create “The Metallica Blacklist”, an album that celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Black Album, the cult project of the group Metallica, by covering each of the songs. For the occasion, Kennedy brought his voice to Nothing Else Matters; a timeless classic of heavy metal training.
Revenue from this album exceeded one million dollars and the entire amount was donated to charity.
Dermot Kennedy will be at the Videotron Center in Quebec City on October 11th and then travel to Ottawa where he will perform at the Canadian Tire Center on October 13th.