Irish composer gets ‘Million-Air’ status

AN IRISH composer who penned one of the bestselling tracks around the globe has been honoured in an exclusive list of international lyricists.

Brendan Graham, who wrote You Raise Me Up, has been awarded Million-Air status by the American Performing Rights Society, BMI.

Only the world’s top songwriters make the Million-Air list when a track has been broadcast more than a million times on American radio.

You Raise Me Up, with music by Secret Garden’s Rolf Lovland, was first recorded by Secret Garden featuring Brian Kennedy.

Over the last six years more than 300 recordings of the single were made by some of the world’s biggest acts including Josh Groban, Westlife, IL Divo, Paul Potts, and Celtic Woman.

It has racked up sales of over 80 million copies and the track was performed at the Winter and Summer Olympics, Superbowl, the Nobel Peace Prize, the opening of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the White House and the state funeral of George Best.

Less than 4,000 (0.06%) songs, of the 6.5 million works which BMI represent, have ever been awarded Million-Air certificates.

Graham, a Mayo-based author and songwriter who was a founding member of The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), now joins song-writing legends like John Lennon, Van Morrison, Enya, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Ben E King, Sting, Otis Redding and Roy Orbison.

The Corrs (Breathless), Mick Hanly (Past The Point of Rescue) and Ronan Keating (The Long Goodbye), written with Paul Brady, are among the other IMRO songwriters who have achieved the status.

A modest Graham said he was originally told You Raise Me Up would never work in America, and puts its success down to chance and circumstances.

“All songwriters are optimists in that ‘the next song is always going to be the one’,” Graham said.

He said things changed when actor Michael Nouri heard Brian Kennedy’s vocals on Secret Garden’s album and brought it to producer David Foster.

“He [Foster] happened to be making an album with Josh Groban. Josh and David worked their magic and it became a very big hit there.

“Then Westlife repeated that success on this side of the world,” said Graham.

“Now you can’t escape the song, not only in America, and, given the initial reaction in America, there’s a certain irony in that.”