Donal Skehan
| Donal Skehan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 3 June 1986 |
| Origin | Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupations | Singer, television personality, author |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Associated acts |
Streetwize Industry |
Donal Skehan (born in Dublin, Ireland on 3 June 1986) is an Irish singer, television personality/presenter, food writer/chef and photographer. He was also a member of the boy band 'Streetwize' and vocalist with Industry, earning two #1s on the Irish Singles Chart in 2009. He also took part in Eurosong 2008 to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008.
Early life
Skehan was interested very early in music. In 2006, he became part of the global/international boy band project Streetwize (alongside Irish Lee Mulhern, English Lee Hutton and Swedish Jonathan Fagerlund). The original members made a tour in Ireland, UK, Sweden, and appeared on the US television station CN8,[1] a cable television station where they performed in a morning show hosted by Greg Coy singing "Room in Your Heart".[2] Skehan and Jonathan Fagerlund were disenchanted with the progress of the band and left early to be replaced by Venezuelan Antonio Jones and American Kyle Carpenter.
Career
Television personality
After quitting the project band Streetwize, Skehan became an announcer on the Irish entertainment specialty channel Bubble Hits, broadcasting music and entertainment news and celebrity gossip segments. This also created good contacts to take part in Irish preliminaries for Eurovision and in launching the band Industry.
2008 Irish Eurosong preliminaries for Eurovision Song Contest
On 23 February 2008, Skehan took part in Eurosong 2008 in a bid to represent Ireland in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Double Cross My Heart".[3][4] It is a pop song, described by Skehan as "Eurovision by numbers". Composed by Joel Humlen, Oscar Gorres and Charlie Mason, it was performed by Skehan with two male and two female back-up dancers, as well as a male back-up singer.[5][6] Skehan was one of the Final 6, alongside Dustin the Turkey, Maja, Leona Daly, Liam Geddes and Marc Roberts; with Dustin the Turkey winning with the song "Irelande Douze Pointe".
Industry
In 2009, Skehan joined the Irish band Industry alongside the English Lee Hutton (his former band mate in Streetwize) and Irish band members Michele McGrath and Morgan Deane. Industry had good success in the Irish charts including two chart topping singles "My Baby's Waiting" in June 2009 and "Burn" in August of the same year on the Irish Singles Chart. In 2009, they were also a supporting act for The Pussycat Dolls at Fitzgerald Stadium. Later Industry single releases like "In Your Arms", "My Mistake", "Drown in the Music" and "Kill the DJ" did not chart. The band broke up in 2010.
Food author and presenter
An avid food enthusiast, Skehan started a blog in 2007 called Good Mood Food that evolved into a cookbook.[7][8]
After many appearances on television, and giving of live demonstrations at social events and shows, he was featured in his own weekly food programme, Kitchen Hero, on RTÉ One that was launched on May 16, 2011 (Mondays at 8:30 pm). A second series and a Christmas special was aired in 2012. UKTV network Good Food began airing the show in April 2012.
In 2011, he published his second book, also titled Kitchen Hero, based upon the television series.
In 2012, Skehan became a co-presenter and judge on Junior MasterChef on the BBC, appearing alongside John Torode.[9]
Bibliography
- 2009: Good Mood Food: Simple, Healthy Homecooking!
- 2011: Kitchen Hero: Bringing Cooking Back Home
- 2012: Kitchen Hero: Great Food For Less
Discography
Singles
- As part of Industry
- 2009: "My Baby's Waiting" (#1 on the Irish Singles Chart)
- August 2009: "Burn" (#1 on the Irish Singles Chart)
- November 2009: "In Your Arms"
- December 2009: "My Mistake"
- February 2010: "Drown in the Music"
- February 2010: "Kill the DJ"
- Solo
- February 2008: "Double Cross My Heart"
References
- ↑ CN8 performance and interview with Streetwize band members including Donal Skehan
- ↑ Performance of Streetwize including Donal Skehan on CN8
- ↑ Presentation of Donal Skehan and the writers of "Double Cross My Heart"
- ↑ Viniker, Barry (2008-02-19). "Ireland: Donal Skehan speaks to esctoday.com". ESCToday. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
- ↑ Eurosong 2008 (2008-02-23). Radio Telefís Éireann. Retrieved on 2008-09-27.
- ↑ Irish Eurovision site interview with Donal Skehan
- ↑ Interview of Donal Skehan in launching of Good Mood Food book
- ↑ Irish Independent: Donal dishes up class act at school
- ↑ "Skehan is Junior MasterChef UK judge". rte.ie. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 06-11-2012.