Irish heartthrob Daniel O’Donnell is at the NIA in Birmingham later this month - two days after his 45th birthday. He tells Cathy Spencer about his fond memories of the West Midlands.
Daniel O’Donnell says he loves meeting his fans from the West Midlands - because they are so friendly.
“I get a warm reception when I come to Birmingham and I love to speak to fans after the show,” Daniel says in his soft Irish accent.
“A lot of people say the nicest things and it amazes me how much the songs touch people in a greater way.”
“One of my most memorable moments in Birmingham was when a woman thanked me for singing a song which held a special place in her heart.
“She had been through a tough time and I could see that my song had really touched her and made her happy - that meant a lot to me.”
Daniel is established as Britain’s most successful easy listening and country entertainer and has surpassed sales of five million albums and 1.5 million videos.
He is coming to the NIA on December 14 - just two days after his 45th birthday - and is back again in April next year.
“I am looking forward to both my December and my April shows at the NIA,” he says. “In December it is Christmas music and then in April it is my rock ‘n’ roll show.”
Daniel fills the NIA with loyal fans - many of them old enough to be his grandmother. But he says he is just happy people enjoy his music.
“It is great to have such adoring fans and it doesn’t bother me what age they are,” he says.
“I try to spend as much time after the show talking to fans but at the NIA there is a 1am curfew so I don’t have as long with people.”
Daniel’s singing career started in 1980 when his sister Margo, who was a household name in Ireland, agreed he could sing in her band.
The first songs he recorded were My Donegal Shore, Stand Beside Me, London Leaves and Married By The Bible.
He says: “I’ve never sung to make money. When I’m performing I never think about how much I’m making on the night.
“I sing because I love it and the money is just a bi-product of what I do. My biggest payment is being on the stage and that is a big part of the secret of my success.”
Recognised for his services to the music industry, Daniel was awarded an Honorary MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in 2002. But he says the award he holds dearest to his heart is the Donegal Person of the Year accolade.
But Daniel says having good fans in the Midlands has helped him get used to the accent.
“I come to Birmingham quite often because I have friends in Sutton Coldfield - I know the area quite well.
“I have been doing concerts in Birmingham since 1982 and so have got used to the accent.”
Daniel says he loves all the songs he sings on stage and one of his favourite tunes is Miss You Nights by Cliff Richard. “I’m not influenced by many singers,” he says. “My favourite is country singer Loretta Lynn but her songs are personal so I don’t sing any of them.
“I also like Jim Reeves and I am, of course, a fan of Cliff Richard - who I worked with on his latest album when we sang the Carpenters song Yesterday Once More.”
Daniel was brought up in Kincasslagh, County Donegal in Ireland with his two brothers and two sisters.
His father, who worked on farms in Scotland, died when Daniel was just six-years-old.
Daniel says: “It was hard, manual labour and a far cry from my own lifestyle today.
“From about the age of nine I went to work in the Cope, which is a general store in our area, and I earned a weekly wage of two pounds.
“I loved working there but if there’s one chore I hated as a child, it was cutting turf in the bog, to be used as fuel for the fire.
“Christmas, for me, centred around the church as I always sang in the choir, even as a child.
“I always feel a real closeness to people in church and Christmas Eve in the chapel was something special.”
Daniel’s life went through a dramatic change in the autumn of 1999 when friends Tom and Marion Roche introduced him to their daughter Majella.
Despite a busy career they continued their long distance relationship and he proposed to her on Christmas day five years ago.
He says: “I was so content and so happy it was almost sickening.
“We were married on November 4, 2002, and we had the most fantastic day of our lives.”
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