Moya Brennan, the singer, harpist and founding member of Clannad, died yesterday on April 13, 2026, aged 73. Irish media reported the news, citing a family statement that said she died peacefully in Donegal, surrounded by loved ones.

Tributes have already followed from Irish political leaders. Taoiseach Micheál Martin called Brennan “an iconic Irish voice,” while Tánaiste Simon Harris said she went from Gweedore to international recognition with Clannad.

Tributes from fellow Irish musicians quickly followed. Donegal singer Daniel O’Donnell said he and his wife were “deeply saddened” by the death of their “dear friend” and called her “a beautiful lady who will be greatly missed.” Gaoth Dobhair singer and fiddler Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, who co-founded Altan and also performed with Brennan in T with the Maggies, said Brennan “paved the way for people like myself to come along” and called her “my hero growing up.”

Fiachna Ó Braonáin, guitarist and vocalist with Hothouse Flowers, said it was “an absolute privilege to be in her world,” adding that “She always made you feel you were part of the family.” Frances Black, the Dublin singer who first came to prominence with The Black Family and later became an independent senator, described Brennan as “one of the most beautiful people I know in the music industry.”

In a comment Chicane (real name Nick Bracegirdle, the British electronic/dance producer known for hits like “Saltwater,” which featured Moya Brennan and Clannad) posted a personal tribute: “I am deeply saddened to hear the news of the passing of Moya Brennan, she & her Clannad bandmates were responsible for some the most emotive music I have ever been privileged to hear & am eternally grateful for her letting me create Saltwater & get involved in the project RIP”

I am deeply saddened to hear the news of the passing of Moya Brennan, she & her Clannad bandmates were responsible for some the most emotive music I have ever been privileged to hear & am eternally grateful for her letting me create Saltwater & get involved in the project RIP 🙏

— Chicane // Nick B (@NickChicane) April 14, 2026

Her most widely known crossover collaboration came in 1986 with Bono of U2 on “In a Lifetime”. The duet appeared on Clannad’s “Macalla” album and was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. It became one of the band’s defining international songs and remained important enough in Clannad’s catalogue that the group later used its title for the 2019 retrospective “In a Lifetime” and the farewell tour that followed.

About Moya Brennan

Born Máire Ní Bhraonáin in 1952, Brennan was the eldest of nine children in the Brennan family from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. She became the lead voice of Clannad and remained central to the group’s identity across its original run, reunion years and farewell period.

Clannad was formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal, by siblings Pól, Ciarán and Máire (Moya) Brennan with their twin uncles Pádraig and Noel Duggan. The group first performed at the family-run Leo’s Tavern and broke through internationally with “Harry’s Game” in 1982. Clannad later won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for “Landmarks”.

Brennan also maintained a solo career outside the band. We last covered her in January 2021, when she teamed up with Trance Wax on “Rivers”, which marked a return to trance after her earlier appearance on Chicane’s “Saltwater”.

Clannad completed its “In a Lifetime Farewell Tour” in October 2024 with a final show at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Update: Geir Jenssen has co-written two of the tracks on “Radiant Green”.

(Photo by Knut Åserud) Good news from Norway as the cult band Bel Canto will release an all new album on April 26th, called “Radiant Green“. “Radiant Green” comes after more than two decades of studio silence since their last album “Dorothy’s Victory” already dates from 2002.

“Radiant Green” will be out digitally and on CD and double vinyl. The material was mixed by Matias Tellez and Gilles Martin. For Martin it means his comeback after having produced the first 3 albums of the band, the last being “Shimmering, Warm & Bright” from 1992. Martin’s production helped establish Bel Canto’s distinctive sound in the early days.

Here’s a first teaser which the band released.

The band also released the cover artwork for the new album.

About Bel Canto

Bel Canto, originally a trio but now a duo, features Anneli Drecker as the lead vocalist and was initially under the Crammed Discs label.

The ensemble originated in Tromsø in 1985, established by Geir Jenssen (handling synthesizers and programming), Nils Johansen (playing synthesizer, violin, bass, and guitar), alongside vocalist Anneli Drecker. Their musical influences span a wide range, including Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), David Bowie, artists from 4AD, Clannad, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, David Sylvian, Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), Ryuichi Sakamoto, Depeche Mode, and the Blue Nile.

In 1986, the trio relocated to Brussels, releasing their debut album, “White-Out Conditions,” through Crammed Discs a year later. Following their second album, “Birds of Passage” (1990), Jenssen departed to pursue a successful solo career as Biosphere, leaving Drecker and Johansen to achieve a commercial breakthrough with “Shimmering, Warm and Bright” in 1992. By this time, their music had transitioned from ethereal dream electropop to a synth-based pop sound enriched with world music elements.

Anneli Drecker occasionally paused her involvement with Bel Canto to focus on solo projects and collaborations with other artists and bands, including Röyksopp and a-ha, in addition to her work in film and theater. Nils Johansen, meanwhile, composed music for film and television and continued his involvement with his other band, Vajas.

In 2010, following a reunion concert in Oslo, Side-Line interviewed the original members, who revealed they were working on a new album, although tensions were apparent. Ultimately, Geir Jenssen left the band once more, and the project was left unfinished.

A previously unreleased track from 1988, “Flowerbeds,” surfaced in 2009 on the Norwegian compilation “Maskindans: Norsk synth 1980–1988,” released by Hommage Records. In 2017, Bel Canto graced the stage at Øyafestivalen in Oslo, delivering a performance that spanned their hits in a set lasting nearly an hour. During an interview, Drecker expressed the band’s enthusiasm for more live performances and the potential for new music.

In June 2022, Anneli Drecker and Nils Johansen shared news of their ongoing work on a forthcoming Bel Canto album.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Out January 27 on Anjunabeats is a brand new trance collaboration between Clannad’s Moya Brennan and Trance Wax (aka Belfast’s Garry McCartney). The result, “Rivers”, means a return for the singer to trance who in 1999 had a massive hit as vocalist on the Chicane track “Saltwater”. A track which had such a pulsating beat and chorus that Bet 365 fans went extatic.

Moya Brennan: “Garry sent some ideas to us and I listened to them for a couple of days. I couldn’t wait to get into the studio because you kind of feel that sense of a canvas and adding the colors. The more I keep hearing, the more I sing. I concentrate first of all on the melody and make sure that I’ve captured the sense and the essence of the chorus. I was thrilled when I sent it to Garry and right away loved it. Garry is an amazing musician, and he’s really into delving into all sorts of alternative ways of using the different vocals. I sent him a lot of different ideas, the verses, the choruses, the harmonies, and a few other bits. I sent him the lot to see if he could use any of it and he ended up using it all.”

Here’s the track:

About Trance Wax

Trance Wax is an alias of Belfast’s Garry McCartney, also known as Ejeca. The project was launched as an anonymous series of vinyl-only bootlegs back in 2015. Included were edits of classics from Yves Deyurter, BT, and Mauro Picotto with each vinyl run selling out in hours.

In 2020 Anjunabeats released a self-titled LP debut from Trance Wax featuring 14 original compositions.

About Moya Brennan

Moya Brennan, also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She began performing professionally in 1970 when her family formed the band Clannad, and is considered as the “First Lady of Celtic Music”.

Moya released her first solo album in 1992 called “Máire” and has recorded music for several soundtracks, including “Titanic”, “To End All Wars” and “King Arthur”.

More recently, in 2020, Brennan was part of an Irish collective of female singers and musicians called “Irish Women in Harmony”, that recorded a version of the song “Dreams” in aid of the charity Safe Ireland, which deals with domestic abuse which had reportedly risen significantly during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Dark) folk fans are morning as the news broke out 2 hours ago that Pádraig Duggan, musician, songwriter and founding member of Clannad died this morning, August 9th 2016, in Dublin, Ireland. He was only 67 years old. Pádraig passed away in Blanchardstown Hospital, Dublin following a recurring illness. He is survived by his wife Jan.

Pádraig along with twin brother, Noel, were the youngest of six children of Aodh (Hugh) and Máire Duggan and grew up in the Gaoth Dobhair Gaeltacht in Northwest Donegal.

They formed The Duggans duo and came to prominence in the 1970s with the folk group Clannad. It would take the duo until 2005 to release their 1st studio album “Rubicon” made up of traditional songs and ballads in the Irish language along with self-penned songs in English. The album featured Moya Brennan, Finbar Furey and Orla Fallon among others.

Our condolences to the family.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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