Wallis Bird

MCD PRESENTS WALLIS BIRD

Tickets for Wallis' headline Dublin show in The Academy are priced at €23 inclusive of booking fee and go on sale this Friday at 9am from ticketmaster.

With the recent release of her album, Architect, Irish artist Wallis Bird has etched another milestone in her career – a career that has been fought step by step; a career that has been built slowly but solidly, as her growing legions of fans will testify; and a career with as many ups as downs, but very few compromises. To build a house, you have to put the foundations in place first, and Architect represents the culmination of a long journey of self-discovery and reinvention.

It may sound like something from Spinal Tap that Bird lost all the fingers on one hand in a lawnmower accident as a baby, but it’s no exaggeration, and it didn’t stop her picking up a guitar as a child, flipping it upside down, and carrying on as if nothing had ever happened. Today she’s a veritable virtuoso on the instrument, and with a chuckle, she describes that fateful “lawnmower incident” as having given her “her mojo”. That mojo carried her to record deals with Island and Columbia Records, several high profile awards and nominations, and tours across the world with the likes of the Gossip, ZAZ, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Billy Bragg and Emiliana Torrini.

But we should go back a bit. Before her first major label signing, Bird self-released the single Blossoms in the Street. The track spent twenty weeks in the airplay charts in Germany, and grabbed the attention of Island Records who signed her almost on the spot. Through Island, she released her debut album Spoons in 2008, which hit the Top 5 digital album charts in the UK and led to her receiving the Irish Meteor Award (equivalent to a Brit Award) for Hope for 2009.

Her follow-up album, New Boots came in 2010. In Ireland it made the Top 15 in the Official Album Chart, and Bird found herself personally invited to tour all over Europe with Rodrigo y Gabriela. She also earned another Irish Meteor Award – this time for Best Irish Artist.

The self-titled third album came in 2012, and Wallis toured extensively, reaching over 30,000 people across 80 dates. International praise rolled in, culminating in a nomination for the prestigious Choice Music Prize in her native Ireland (the equivalent to the UK’s Mercury Prize) and album chart entries around the continent.

Please note, Strictly Over 18's only - passport with up-to-date photo, or EU ID card, or drivers licence, or Garda age card required.