Maria Kelly

 

Growing up in Mayo, Ireland, Maria spent many years crafting and developing her sound into a delicate blend of atmospheric-alt-folk. First taking influence from the story-telling elements of Irish-trad, as well as artists like Regina Spektor and Lisa Hannigan, her music aims to share deeply personal, humanising and heartbreaking experiences. Maria arrived in 2015 with the delicate ‘Before It Has Begun’ (Veta Records) before playing the Other Voices Music Trail. ‘Stitches’ (Veta Records) followed, praised by the 405 and quickly named one of ‘The 50 Best Tracks of 2016’ in The Irish Times. The track went on to garner an impressive 160,000 streams on Spotify. In 2017, Maria was named one of ’50 People to Watch’ in The Irish Times, which was followed by the release of her debut EP, ‘The Things I Should’. The four track EP, produced by Matt Harris (HAWK) has received praise from various online publications including Wonderland, Mahogany and The Line of Best Fit. Live, Maria has toured extensively across the UK and Ireland supporting the likes of KT Tunstall, James Vincent McMorrow, Marc Cohn and Billie Marten. This year, Maria completed an Irish headline tour before playing the Great Escape, Electric Picnic and Hard Working Class Heroes. Following the release of her debut EP, Maria returns this November with another poignant yet profound new single, ‘Hollow’, followed by a string of dates as a special guest to Paul Noonan (Bell X1, Printer Clips) on his forthcoming autumn tour. Maria also won the public vote, out of 1,000 entries, for this year’s Other Voices Open Call and will perform at the Other Voices festival this December.