Little did he know when he was young that his musical talent would bring him around the world playing to huge audiences. He was born into a family of six on the Falls Road on the 12th October 1966 but the troubles of Northern Ireland did not allow him to travel much further than the top of his local street. However this was to be a cloud with a silver lining when his thoughts turned to “escaping” the troublesome areas of conflict within Belfast to persue his immense love of music. During this time he teamed up with his brother Bap after he heard Brian sing for the first time which lead him to audition for his band “10 past 7” which also seen the cutting off and bleaching of his hair so that he became unrecognizable just what he wanted for him this was a new start. After a few years of touring locally they knew they had to look into the bigger picture and head to somewhere big. So on the 11th of July 1985 at the tender age of 18, Brian packed up and left for London using the last of his dole money for a one way ticket to start his new life. It was a hard start to his life where the band squatted in Tottenham and even went hungry most nights and lived off stolen milk and busking in the underground.

But after a while with the now renamed “Energy Orchard” Brian realised his heart wasn’t in the band and decided to leave which was a hard decision as going solo was a whole new pathway he had never ventured down before. In 1990 Brian released his first single “Captured” with his newly acquired manager Simon Fuller. It was a strange experience for him when he first heard his voice on the radio as all those years ago in Beechmount he didn’t think that singing would be his career. This then progressed into the release of The Great War of Words, from which the two singles Captured and Town, now classics, are eagerly demanded as part of the set list at all BK concerts.

With Brian now becoming well known he was spotted by another Belfast singer Van Morrison who was an international singing sensational in Brian’s eyes. He was then shocked and honoured that Van wanted him to come on tour with him on the Soul & Blues Tour allowing Brian to meet many of his musical influences along the way – Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Ray Charles to name but a few. He spent six years touring with Van and has alsobacked Van on several albums – Days Like This, The Healing Game, Back on Top. During this time Brian was privileged when Van chose him to sing one of his most famous songs “Crazy Love” for a movie “When A Man Loves A Woman” something that he will always be grateful for. The experience gained from the training and work ethic of those years on the road were crucial to the foundation of his future solo career and he has referred to this time as a ‘magic period’ in his life.

After this roller coaster of being on the road for six years and touring the world with those big names, in 1991 Brian teamed up with Fairground Attraction's Mark Nevin, under the name of Sweetmouth. Together they released an album "Goodbye To Songtown" which was a critical success, making several critic's "best of year" lists. Brian’s second album was released in 1996 A Better Man which immediately soared to No.1 in the charts for many weeks and which went onto have quadruple platinum status in Ireland with the massive success of its three singles, A Better Man, Life, Love and Happiness and Put a Message in the Box, and with it the added bonus of achieving an Irish Music Industry Award (IRMA) for Best Irish Male Album and a Hot Press/2TV Award for Best Irish Male Artist life was looking up for Brian.

Around this time Brian also realised that he had a secret admirer of his work, President Bill Clinton whom he performed the first of many live concerts. Especially Brian’s own take on Carrickfergus, something of an anthem at all BK concerts and which he cannot generally go thorough a concert without someone requesting it.

In October 1999 Brian Kennedy released his third solo album "Now That I Know What I Want". The first single from the album, "These Days", a duet featuring Ronan Keating, the former Eurovision presenter and lead singer with the internationally successful Boyzone, reached number three in the Irish singles chart and achieved platinum status.

With his first decade of his career at an end, the new Millennium burst in with fresh energy and an unpredicted twist in Brian’s musical journey. His desire to face new challenges became a reality when he accepted the role of lead singer in the celebrated Riverdance on Broadway show at the Gershwin Theatre in New York something that couldn’t have came at a better timing. This would turn out to be an exhausting nine months for Brian but he thought it was worth every minute and something that he’d always dreamed of – living in New York. Once everything had settled down it gave Brian time to write “Get On With Your Short Life” which later became another huge hit for him.

One more live performance for President Clinton in New York, then back home for the release of his next album, Won’t You Take Me Home – The RCA Years which was a collaboration of 28 songs that were his most popular and most requested. Then with his new manager Eamonn Mc Cann he flew back to New York to record “Get On With Your Short Life” a title that sticks in everyone’s head and one of Brian’s famous mottos in life.

During this time a Norwegian group called “Secret Garden” got in contact with Brian to ask him to appear on their “Once in a Red Moon” album. The song they had chosen for him started its life as an instrumental and once Brendan Graham a dear friend of Brian’s was asked to add lyrics to it, they knew Brian’s voice would be perfect. This song has gone on to become one of the most popular and re recorded songs in history with over 400 artists doing their own version.

By this stage in Brian’s life he had toured the world and was a renowned singer/songwriter but once approached by the BBC to do his own show on the history of Irelands songs called “On Song” & “On Song 2” his talents grew into being a first class TV presenter, and also allowed Brian to work with famous faces like Lulu, Moya Brennan, Paul Brady, Sinead O’ Connor and Ralph Mc Tell to name but a few.

Touring has been such a joy and privilege to Brian By November 2003 he was back in his hometown of Belfast at the Waterfront Hall, for the unique Live in Belfast concert, subsequently filmed and released as a double CD and DVD set, featuring the superb collection of 22 tracks of material written and gathered over his extraordinary 15-year career that has shaped and made his singing career such a success. His first-ever live recorded concert has become another landmark in the journey and which many fans relish in their collections at home and one of the DVDs that would well and truly be constantly out of its case.

While all this was happening little did anyone know that Fergal Flynn epict was being conceived and another of Brian’s hidden talents was being used to great effect. In September 2004, Brian’s debut novel, The Arrival of Fergal Flynn, came hot of the press unknown to anyone and jumped straight into the Irish Best Book List at No.3. The story is inspired by Brian's own life experience as a young and obviously different youth struggling for any quality of life in an abusive family in the early 1980's. This then left fans wanting more of Fergal’s escapades and with that another book was born “Roman Song”

With Brian thinking life couldn’t get anymore predictable he was approached to represent his own country in The Eurovision Content 2006 a show that he was always a “secret fan” he took this challenge on with open arms and gave a give a heart-rending performance bringing Eurovision back to its old roots and showing people world wide what singing is really about and the emotions involved. After sailing through the semi finals Brian was into the final and did Ireland proud by coming 10 th on the 20 th of May 2006. This once in a lifetime experience has left Brian being known widely throughout the world.

With this all going on, unexpectedly the football legend George Best died and so on the 3 rd of December 2005 in Stormont the home of Northern Ireland Politics Brian was honoured to sing “ You Raise Me Up”and “ Vincent” an experience Brian describes as one of the hardest and moving things he has ever done in his life.

In February 2006 Brian was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D Litt) from the University Of Ulster in recognition of his contribution to the arts, a well deserved acknowledgement of the goals that he has achieved in his short time in the music industry.

Brian was then asked by RTE to present a 10 part series called “1 to Remember” which involved covering No.1 hits from the Irish charts throughout the years, in which Brian was joined by a variety of stars from the music world in a bid to see which was the public’s favourite Irish song. This series proved to be a great success and allowed Brian to collaborate with world wide singing sensations.

It was with this that Brian’s ninth album was in the pipe line which he had already started to work on with Calum Mc Coll which was inspired by life changes in his life including moving to his new home in Dublin and wine fuelled night involving shoplifting with Eddi Reader it was sure to be a creative and another successful album that would be enjoyed by his huge fan base. Brian seen most of 2006 and 2007 touring with his new record worldwide to Australia and Dubai and then to the UK and back home to Ireland to much delight of his fans.

2008 has only just began and Brian has been busy in the studio recording his new album “Interpretations” described by Brian as “the clue is in the cover” As he had written the two novels and Homebird all of which had been his own original stuff he believed that by doing this record would be a challenge and received suggestions from friends so that he wouldn’t be drawn to songs that had a “safety net” around them. This has led to a beautifully mastered 13 track album creating new melodies to other artist’s songs. His tenth album is sure to be a success and will leave fans eagerly awaiting more.

And in terms for what the future has in hold for Brian Kennedy well as he puts it in Christopher Street “You just never know what’s up the road ahead, do you?”