Eoghan McDermott has his eyes set on a huge American act to take part in CEOL 2017, and admits that they would be "equally as big a steal" as Ed Sheeran, who starred on this year's Irish CD.
The 2fm DJ received an award from Conradh Na Gaeilge on Thursday to thank him for supporting the Irish language and for encouraging well-known artists like Ed Sheeran, Kodaline and The Coronas to spread their love of singing through our native tongue.
McDermott told RTÉ he is thrilled to be spreading the Irish language to schools and third level students around the country, and admitted it's awesome to know the CD was picked up by an impressive 50,000 people.
The Voice of Ireland host says it was a dream come true having Ed Sheeran singing Thinking Out Loud as Gaeilge for Ceol 2016, and revealed the 25-year-old singer made the deadline by the skin of his teeth.
"It was a pure case of luck with Ed Sheeran. I used to work for a radio station in London right around the time that Ed's career was taking off. We played his music before he was getting mainstream radio play," he said.
"He was always really appreciative. We kind of palled around a bit in a similar circle for a small while in London.
"He obviously never forgot that. When he came to Croke Park I asked him to do it but we just couldn't find the time. I thought it was dead in the water and then about five months later, he emailed me and said 'Can we still do this thing?'.
"The deadline was the next day and he recorded it in the middle of the night in Australia in a little studio and went over and beyond, and the results were amazing."
Ed Sheeran just about made the deadline for CEOL 2016
2fm DJ @eoghanmcdermo says it was "pure luck" getting @edsheeran involved in #CEOL2016https://t.co/bSIwxjN56M
— RTÉ Entertainment (@RTE_Ents) July 15, 2016
McDermott says he tried to make Sheeran's experience of mastering the Irish language as easy as possible and sent him the text phonetically.
"I recorded it into my iPhone and I was like if you can make heads or tails of it this is how it should hopefully sound.
"There were a few words that didn't rhyme with anything in English which I'd imagine he found difficult to get down - but he nailed it," he added.
Work has already begun on CEOL 2017 and McDermott hopes that it will be bigger and better than the previous project.
"We've started to plan for 2017 already. I don't know how we'll quite top Ed but we're going to ask him again.
"We have our eyes on an American artist but I won't say who in case it doesn't happen. I feel like they would be equally as big a steal as Ed was.
"We have our eyes on a few other big fish too," McDermott added.
The full line-up on 2016's album included Ed Sheeran, Kodaline, The Coronas, Delorentos, The Riptide Movement, Ham Sandwich, The Academic, Hudson Taylor, Keywest, Daithi, Seo Linn, Roisin O, Preasráiteas.
Eoghan McDermott as proud as punch with his award from Conradh Na Gaeilge and Raidió Rí-Rá
