Nominees

Mary Black is an internationally renowned female Irish singer. She is well-known as an interpreter of both folk and contemporary material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland, and in many other parts of the world.

Mary Black was born in Dublin, Ireland into a musical family. Her father was a fiddler, her mother a singer, and her brothers had their own musical group called The Black Brothers and her younger sister Frances would go on to achieve great success as a singer in the 90s. Due to the large musical influence in her family, Mary began singing traditional Irish songs at the age of eight. As she grew older, she began to perform with her siblings (Shay, Michael and Martin Black) in small clubs around Dublin.

Black joined a small folk band in the late 1970s called General Humbert, who she toured Europe with and released numerous albums. In 1982 she developed a professional relationship with musician/producer Declan Sinnott and recorded her first ever solo album, Mary Black. The album performed well in the Irish charts and it went gold. In 1983 it was honoured by the Irish Independent and it is still referred to as one of the best Irish albums of the 1980s. Black ventured into the traditional Irish music band De Dannan and toured with them around Europe and in the US. The album she recorded with them Anthem, won the Irish Album of the Year award. During her time with De Dannan, Black continued with her solo career with albums such as Collected (1984) and Without the Fanfare (1985). These recordings took Black into a more contemporary musical direction. Along with the success of these releases, IRMA named her Entertainer of the Year in 1986 and Best Female Artist in 1987 and 1988.

Black departed from De Dannan in 1986 and 1987 saw the release of her first multi-platinum Irish album, By the Time it Gets Dark. However, Mary's popularity reached new heights with the release of the ground-breaking album, No Frontiers, in August 1989. It rocketed to the top of the Irish album charts (it stayed in the Top 30 for over a year), and achieved triple-platinum status. Mary's popularity grew in the United States, due to several tours and widespread radio exposure.

Because of the unprecedented success of No Frontiers in the United States and the extensive airplay received by the lead track "Columbus", Black became a hit NAC recording artist. In the spring of 1991, she embarked on an American tour that would forever secure her status as a successful artist on both sides of the Atlantic. Her 1991 release, Babes in the Wood, entered the Irish charts at No.1 once again and remained there for six weeks. Her single "The Thorn Upon the Rose" reached No.8 on the Japanese singles chart after it was used in a national railroad television advert. Babes in the Wood performed very well in the US and it was voted one of the top 10 albums of the year in the United Kingdom by Today newspaper. The success of the album brought about a sell-out tour and her first concert at the Royal Albert Hall in January, 1992, which was broadcasted on Channel 4 a year later. She was once again named Best Female Artist by the IRMA.

As a result of her success, Mary was featured on the cover of Billboard magazine in a story hailing her as "a firm favorite to join the heavy-hitting ranks of such Irish artists as Enya, Sinéad O'Connor and Clannad's Máire Brennan in the international marketplace".

Her next album The Holy Ground would reflect the huge success of her previous two albums. Once again, reaching the top of the Irish album chart. She also toured the US during October/November 1993, in support of the album. The next project saw Mary join forces with six Irish female artists to record the ground-breaking compilation album, A Woman's Heart. Which included her sister Frances Black, Eleanor McEvoy, Dolores Keane, Sharon Shannon and Maura O'Connell. Its massive sales success spawned another album, A Woman's Heart 2.

Black recorded two duets with American folk singer Joan Baez in the spring of 1995 for Baez's album Ring Them Bells. A greatest hits album of Mary's work, Looking Back, was released and she went touring mainly in the US, Germany and Scandinavia to support the release. Black released three more albums in the 1990s, Circus, Shine, and Speaking with the Angel. Critically, they were received well and she was named "Best Female Artist" in 1994 and 1996 for the fourth and fifth time.

Mary released her first live album in 2003, Mary Black Live. She also released her only studio album of the 2000s, Full Tide.