Rock and ceol - the Irish at The Grammys

The 63rd Grammy Awards take place this Sunday night in LA with Fontaines D.C. flying the flag for Ireland. However, aside from one obvious band, Irish acts have not won as many Grammys as you might think . . .

You’ll often hear - quite correctly - that Ireland punches above its weight on the global music stage but when it comes to the Grammys, Irish acts have not fared as well as you might expect despite inspiring fervent fanbases and more importantly selling lots of records.

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Which is weird considering the huge influence Ireland has had on some of America’s oldest forms of music, not to mention many other US institutions and traditions. Look, we’re not bitter, but what is wrong with you damned yankees? We built your country, you swines!

Of course, we could apply the Jack Charlton rule and claim numerous Grammy victories since the ceremony began back in 1959 (after all, Irish-American Billie Eilish is in the running this year) but let’s make this a sober appraisal of the Irish at the Grammys, pop fans.

In any case, Irish eyes and ears will be on the Staples Center this Sunday night when Fontaines D.C. take on The Strokes, Sturgill Simpson, Michael Kiwanuka, and Grace Potter in the Best Rock Album category at this year’s Grammys.

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The Irish five-piece, who hail from Dublin, Mayo, Monaghan and Spain, have had a spectacular rise over the past three years and they’re in the running on "music’s biggest night" for their superb second album, A Hero’s Death, a record that journeys through a (stout) glass darkly from the blunt punk of their celebrated debut, Dogrel.

The competition for the award is fierce. A resurgent Strokes delivered their best album in yonks with the aptly titled The New Abnormal, Sturgill Simpson’s Sound & Fury was a stonker (was it George Strait goes disco or Black Sabbath goes country?), and both Kiwanuka’s self-titled third album and Potter’s Daylight are both great records.

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However, Fontaines deserve to win and even non-music obsessives in Ireland will be cheering them on as the sole Irish act nominated at this year's awards.

There are no Grammys for guessing which Irish act have won by far the most dinky golden gramophones over the past 33 years.

With a truly impressive 46 nominations and a total of 22 wins, U2 are not only the most Grammy-garlanded Irish act ever but also the most Grammy-awarded band of all time.

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It’s easy to see why. Love 'em or loath ‘em, only a churl would be unimpressed by the band’s achievements in the past forty years. Always on message and always wholesome, America and the Recording Academy, the suits and artists who run the Grammys, have long embraced U2 to their bosom.

Here is a band who have long celebrated and lambasted America’s mythical sense of itself and the Academy likes that. A lot.

And let’s not forget, U2 also do, or used to anyway, something the Grammys have always loved - sell records and make lots of money for the US music industry.

Cynicism aside, from their first win in 1988 for Album of the Year for The Joshua Tree to their Grammy Hall of Fame win in 2014, they deserve it.

But what other Irish acts have done well at the Grammys?

Those peerless gentlemen of the road, The Chieftains, will always have something to keep in the downstairs loo, having won an impressive six Grammys between 1979 and 1994.

Nine-time nominated Celtic demi-goddess Enya sculpts seductive choral ambient tapestries which she hates to see described as New Age Music even though she has won four Grammys in the New Age Music category. Clannad themselves won the award in the same category for their album Landmarks in 1999.

Eight-time nominee Sinéad O'Connor has only won once. In 1990 she was gonged for Best Alternative Music Performance for I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. She repaid the favour the following year by boycotting the whole event. Good for her!

You could call Van Morrison the Paul Newman or the Marty Scorsese of the Grammy Awards. The Belfast cowboy was too long in exile and his two wins arrived long after he did his best work.

Back in 2002, future of Irish pop Samantha Mumba saw her song Baby, Come Over (This Is Our Night) nommed for the all-important Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical gong but she went home empty handed, while in 2007, Celtic Woman were given the nod for Best World Music Album for their album, Destiny.

More recently, Hozier was nominated for the ubiquitous not to mention epochal Take Me to Church in the Song of the Year category in 2015 but frankly someone should have called the LAPD when he lost to Stay With Me by sad Tellytubby Sam Smith.

There’s only one thing left to say, c’mon Fontaines!

Alan Corr @CorrAlan2

Rock and ceol - the Irish at The Grammys

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