Born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on August 4, 1952 in Dublin, Ireland, the new age and folk singer, harpist and songwriter also known as Máire Brennan, earned her "First Lady of Celtic Music" title through her membership of Irish family band Clannad, who she joined in 1970, and a discography that encompasses numerous solo albums and multiple collaborations. She released her debut solo album, Máire, on RCA in 1992, with her second album, Misty Eyed Adventures, coming in 1994. In 1998, she released Perfect Time, and Whisper to the Wild Water landed the following year, for which she picked up a Grammy nomination for Best New Age Album in 2001. She went on to release a steady stream of albums over the next few decades, including 2003's Grammy-nominated Two Horizons, her seventh solo album Signature in 2006, Canvas, which was co-written by her two children, Aisling and Paul, in 2017, and 2019's Timeless with Cormac de Barra. She has collaborated with Shane MacGown, Chicane, Bono, Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Ronan Keating, and more artists, over the years. Moya Brennan has also ventured into soundtrack work, recording music for Titanic (1997), To End All Wars (2001), and King Arthur (2004). In 2020, she became part of the Irish Women in Harmony collective and recorded a version of "Dreams" by The Cranberries in aid of domestic abuse charity Safe Ireland. In 2023, she collaborated with Minco Eggersman, Theodor Borger and Nils Petter Molvaer on Unifony III, then released her last solo album, Nollaig Gaelach. On April 13, 2026, Moya Brennan died at the age of 73.
