Maybe “Lady in Red” wasn’t written for this season, but it certainly is the kind of romantic song that would make for a perfect background sound for a couple sitting in front of a warm fireplace … Or elsewhere.
That song and its creator, Chris De Burgh, a singer who had this hit with “Lady in Red” 35 years ago, is as popular today as ever. Born Christopher John Davison on October 15th, 1948, he’s known professionally as Chris de Burgh, a British-Irish singer-songwriter and instrumentalist who started out as an art rock performer but subsequently started writing more pop-oriented material. He has had several top 40 hits in the UK and two in the US, but is more popular in other countries, particularly Norway and Brazil. His 1986 love song “The Lady in Red” reached number one in several countries. De Burgh has sold over 45 million albums worldwide.
Born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, to Colonel Charles John Davison, MBE, a British diplomat, and Maeve Emily (née de Burgh), an Irish secretary, De Burgh’s maternal grandfather was Sir Eric de Burgh, a British Army officer who had been Chief of the General Staff in India during World War 2. The singer/songwriter took de Burgh, his mother’s maiden name, as a stage name when he began performing, while his legal surname remains Davison. His father had substantial farming interests, and Chris spent much of his early years in Malta, Nigeria and Zaire, as he, his mother and brother accompanied Colonel Davison on his diplomatic and engineering work. The Davisons finally settled in Bargy Castle, County Wexford, Ireland, which was somewhat dilapidated at the time. It was a 12th century castle which Eric de Burgh bought in the 1960s. He converted it into a hotel, and the young Chris sang for the guests there. De Burgh attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire, England, where he was in the year below Nick Drake; de Burgh asked to join a jazz band Drake had formed with four schoolmates, the Perfumed Gardeners, but was rejected as his taste was “too poppy.”
De Burgh went on to graduate from Trinity College Dublin, with a Master of Arts degree in French, English and History. Chris de Burgh has been married to his wife Diane since 1977 and lives in Enniskerry, County Wicklow, in Ireland, having moved there from Dalkey, Dublin, in 1997. They have two sons, Hubie and Michael, and a daughter, Rosanna, best known as the winner of the Miss World competition in 2003 for Ireland. His second cousin, Danny Kinahan of Castle Upton, served as Member of Parliament for South Antrim between 2015 and 2017.
In 1994 he was found to have had an affair with his children’s 19-year-old Irish nanny, Maresa Morgan, who was assisting the family while de Burgh’s wife Diane was recuperating in the hospital from a broken neck suffered during a horse-riding accident. De Burgh later said he felt very guilty about the affair and subsequently reconciled with his wife.
In 2011 bottles from de Burgh’s vintage wine cellar sold for over $500,000, including a world record set for a magnum collection of postwar vintages. De Burgh has a noted interest in war history, especially that of the First and Second World Wars. His songs contain numerous references to soldiers and battle, and in 2006 he purchased a rare First World War letter written by an unknown soldier.
With a life story that could the material of several films, De Burgh has said that he is “certainly a believer in Christ” but he has always had a deep distrust of organized religion. De Burgh believes in the power of spiritual healing as an alternative therapy to reduce pain. He claims that he has been able to heal people with his own hands and that he gained an “all-encompassing strength” that was contacted through prayer.
During the ‘70s de Burgh received mainly positive feedback from the music press, as he attempted to build his career. However, since the release of “The Lady in Red” in 1986, both the music and news media have become significantly more negative towards him, both personally and professionally.
De Burgh has pursued and won 16 defamation actions. The Irish Independent said he has always been a bit prickly about criticism. Peter Crawley, a theatre reviewer at The Irish Times, received a directed response from de Burgh when he wrote a less than sympathetic review of de Burgh’s show in Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre in September 2009. Crawley wrote: “He departs the stage for ‘Lady in Red’, invading boxes and draping himself over audience members … Certain toes will never uncurl after this experience, but it is almost admirable how unaltered de Burgh has remained by the flow of time.”
In a lengthy, much-publicized reply to the critic, de Burgh made his feelings known, particularly in the postscript: We were wondering by way of explanation and, as you seem to portray yourself as a bitter and unfulfilled man, were you much teased by your school chums in the schoolyard and called ‘Creepy Crawley’?
AllMusic critic Greg Prato has stated: “Depending on who you ask, Chris de Burgh either specializes in pretentious, bombastic art rock disguised as pop or is a master of penning soaring and majestic compositions.” The BBC has said of de Burgh: “To his millions of fans, Chris de Burgh is the ultimate romantic singer. But to many others he’s a figure of fun.”
When the staff of Melody Maker were putting together a lampoon edition of a new arts and music magazine, they chose de Burgh for the cover. His signature song, “The Lady in Red”, has been repeatedly voted one of the public’s most disliked songs. In 2006, Neil Norman, writing for The Independent, described de Burgh as “the world’s naffest balladeer”. In his favor, Mike DeGagne, writing for AllMusic, has acclaimed de Burgh as “a genuine master of the soft ballad” and “one of the finest mood-invoking artists ever.”