Finbar Wright

Edward Finbar Wright (born 26 September 1957), known popularly as Finbar Wright, is a popular music singer, songwriter, and poet from County Cork, Ireland.

Born in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland in 1957, Finbar Wright was the youngest of eight children in a Roman Catholic farming household.

Finbar's paternal grandfather, whose family tree includes 7th President of the United States Andrew Jackson, was the son of a Presbyterian farmer living in County Monaghan where he met his future bride, a Catholic from County Cork.

The couple married and moved to Cork to begin a family.

Grandfather Wright started up his own hackney service which became the family business until one son, Robert, decided to go into farming.

Robert later met and married Julia O'Donovan and together raised their eight children on their Ballinspittle farm.

Three years after the arrival of their seventh child, Julia gave birth to Finbar on 26 September, one day after the feast-day of Saint Finbarr, the Patron Saint of Cork.

Robert and Julia both enjoyed singing and, subsequently, made it a priority that all eight of the Wright children were taught an appreciation for music, in one form or another.

At age 6 young Finbar began studying piano with Ms. Maura Hourihane and singing on local stages with one of his four brothers.

At age 11 Finbar, having shown a keen interest and, more importantly, an ability for athletics, was sent to Farranferris College, a diocesan preparatory school known for its hurling tradition.

While there, Wright impressed academically as well, and at 16 was sent to university in Palencia, Spain to study for the priesthood.

While studying in Spain, Finbar developed his lasting appreciation and love for Spanish culture and music.

He returned to Ireland to take a Bachelor of Divinity Degree at National University of Ireland Maynooth, in County Kildare, where he joined the choir and became senior cantor in charge of liturgical singing.

In 1978 Wright, at age 21, was ordained to the Catholic priesthood below the canonical age of 24, a distinction which required special dispensation by the Pope.

1979 saw the historic first visit by a Pontiff to the island nation of Ireland.

On 29 September 1979 in Phoenix Park, Dublin, John Paul II celebrated an open-air Papal Mass to an assembled congregation of 1.25 million, at that time roughly one-third of the population of Ireland.

Wright was appointed deacon for that Mass and, beneath the commemorative 100 ft steel cross, read the Gospel (and sang the Responsories) to the largest gathering of Irish people ever recorded in one place.

As a priest, Fr. Finbar returned to Farranferris College to teach Spanish and Latin.

Formal vocal studies began in 1984 as Wright attended the Cork School of Music, where he studied music theory with George Dunne, singing with Robert Beare and piano with Angel Climent.

He subsequently studied with Ernst Haefliger in Munich, Germany, and with the Romanian soprano Ileana Cotrubaș at Aldeburgh, England.

He was chosen to study with Dr. Veronica Dunne, regarded as Ireland's pre-eminent vocal teacher.

In 1987, following the deaths of his eldest brother and his father, and citing philosophical differences with the Church, Wright, at age 30, made the decision to leave the priesthood and was laicised.

Wright has performed in many of the major concert halls around the world including Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Albert Hall, Dublin's National Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

He began his formal training at 27 and his professional music career at 32: "Even when I went back to Farranferris as a teacher, I stayed interested in singing...".

In 1987, Wright made his television singing debut on RTÉ's The Late Late Show, hosted by Gay Byrne.

He entered the Feis Ceoil competitions in Dublin, winning its major singing awards and, in 1989, he was chosen as Ireland's representative to the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

Wright is a classically trained tenor who emerged during the 1990s in Ireland and has become one of that country's "most popular singers", concentrating on romantic, jazz and pop standards for the adult contemporary audience.

In 1990, Wright began his professional music career in earnest, with recitals and concerts around Ireland.

Referred to as one of Ireland's great romantic singers, his first album, Because in 1991 reached the top of the Irish music charts.

Wright's second recording, Whatever You Believe, also reached the top of the Irish charts with triple platinum certification and produced the number 1 hit single, "Whatever You Believe", now a Christmas favourite in Ireland.

His subsequent recordings have also received gold and/or platinum status.

The two-time IRMA "Male Entertainer of the Year" is best known outside of Europe as one of the Irish Tenors from their PBS specials and recordings.

By 1991, he was starring in his own video for the United States Public Broadcasting System: Finbar Wright in Concert.

His first album, Because (1991), was produced by Phil Coulter and reached the top of the Irish music charts and platinum status.

Later that year, Coulter invited Wright to accompany him on a world tour.

As his popularity grew, RTÉ invited him to co-host the television series Music of the Night with singer/actress Angeline Ball.

Wright's second album, Whatever You Believe went triple platinum in Ireland and made the Mike Batt title song "Whatever You Believe" a Christmas classic in that country.

All of Wright's recordings have reached gold and/or platinum status.

Wright was nominated for, and won, the Irish Recorded Music Association's "Male Entertainer of the Year" for two consecutive years, in 1992 and 1993.

He has performed with Phil Coulter, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jerry Lee Lewis and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.