Daithí Ó Drónaí

Daithí Ó Drónaí^[1] (born 16 March 1990) is an Irish musician, best known for playing original music on the electronic synthesised fiddle as the artist "Daithi". He began his music career performing on the first series of The All Ireland Talent Show in 2009.

After reaching the final, where he came in sixth place, Ó Drónaí appeared on several television series including Sky1's Must Be The Music,^[2] and has gone on to develop a successful music career in Ireland. Daithí is currently working on his debut album, and has released several songs and remixes online, including "Carraroe" featuring Elaine Mai ^[3] and an official remix of Young Wonder's "Tumbling Backwards",^[4] which was placed as the no.4 Irish remix of 2012 on the music blog, Nialler9.^[5]

Early life

Ó Drónaí was taught the traditional fiddle by his family whilst growing up in Ballyvaughan, County Clare.^[6] He progressed to playing the bass guitar in bands such as Keepsake and The Shackletons>^[1][6] He further developed his fiddling skills by the use of loop pedals and sounds.^[6]

The All Ireland Talent Show

Ó Dronaí auditioned for the first series of The All Ireland Talent Show in 2009. He was selected to represent the West and was mentored by namesake Dáithí Ó Sé.,^[7] and went on to perform in the Final of the show ^[7]

Must Be The Music

In August 2010 Daithi appeared in the audition phases of Sky 1's Must Be The Music, gaining three yes votes from the judges. He later was chosen as one of the 15 Semi-Finalists, and his tracks became be available to download on Sky Music. He became the first of two acts to reach the final of the show, and his track "Carraroe" reached number 6 in the UK Indie singles chart on the same night.^[8] The final of the show took place in Wembley, where Daithí performed to a 10,000 capacity crowd.^[9]

2011 - present

Daithí has become a regular name in the Irish gigging circuit, and has been performing his Irish traditional tinged dance music all over the country.^[10] He has performed in major Irish music festivals such as Electric Picnic,^[11] Castle Palooza ^[12] and Forbidden Fruit festival.^[13] Daithí has supported several successful international artists in Ireland, such as The XX,^[14] Dj Shadow ^[15] and Santigold.^[16]

Chart success

Singles

References

External links

• Photo of performance at the 2nd Clare Burren Marathon Challenge — The Clare People