One of the biggest music festivals in the world was held again in Glastonbury, England with another great lineup of headline bands. The 2022 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts took place last weekend. On the Pyramid Stage three headlining acts were Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamer and Diana Ross performing in the Legend’s slot. Irish acts Imelda May and Orla Gartland were among the acts that had been added to the 2022 Glastonbury line-up, joining fellow Dublin talents Fontaines DC. Before I get to introduce you to one of Ireland’s great talents I have to say that Billie Eilish was superb and gave a typically energetic performance, running and dancing across the stage, wearing a black and white graphic outfit with black striped arm-warmers and her hair in space buns. The 100,000-strong crowd sang along with her on every song from her hit albums, wow I know she is just fabulous.
So now I am going to introduce you to Orla Gartland who performed on the Avalon Stage and from all responses she was just fabulous with a stunning performance that took the crowd by storm.
Orla is an Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist from Dublin, Ireland who gained popularity from posting cover songs on her YouTube account. As of December 2021, her YouTube channel has received over 271,000 subscribers, and 24.3 million total views.
She describes her music as folk pop, most heavily influenced by Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, and Imogen Heap. She frequently refers to herself as a “music makin’ ginger nutcase”.
In August 2011 Gartland released her first EP “Laughing at My Own Jokes”. The album artwork was done by a fan who won a contest. In 2012, she released her debut single, “Devil on My Shoulder”, which entered the singer-songwriter iTunes charts in Ireland. At the end of 2013, Gartland released her second EP, “Roots”, after which the Irish Mirror featured Gartland in a full-page article and stated that on iTunes, the EP had topped the main Irish albums chart while hitting number 15 on the main UK albums chart and number two on the US singer-songwriter albums chart.
Gartland’s third EP, “Lonely People”, was released on January 18, 2015, while her fourth EP, “Why Am I Like This?”, was released on May 24, 2019. Her fifth EP, “Freckle Season”, was released on February 21, 2020 and features previous singles “Did It to Myself”, “Figure It Out”, and “Heavy”. Her debut album, “Woman on the Internet”, was released on August 20, 2021.
In an interview by Campus.ie, Gartland is quoted: “I played violin, fiddle, and trad and Irish stuff from the age of about five years old … my parents got me into lessons and the guitar at about 12 years old and it went from there.”
She posted her first YouTube video at age 13 about which she stated “I had been playing guitar for just over a year and wailing alongside the chords. I hadn’t a clue how to sing; the breathing or any of the technical stuff (still haven’t the foggiest) – so just wanted some feedback on that really!”. In June 2021, Gartland publicly came out as bisexual on Twitter.
In 2009, Gartland launched her YouTube channel under the name “MusicMaaad”. She posted covers and then started posting originals. The first original she posted was titled “Green Eyed Monster”.
In 2011, Broken Wall Films made a video of Gartland’s song “All The Little Details.” The video was shot in a coffee shop which remained open for business during the filming. “All The Little Details” was Gartland’s first professionally recorded song. It was included along with two other songs on her “Laughing At My Own Jokes” EP.
In 2012, Gartland opened for Britain’s Got Talent contestant Ryan O’Shaughnessy at The Academy and for Scottish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt at Bewley’s Cafe Theatre.
Her debut single “Devil on my Shoulder” reached No. 2 on the Ireland singer-songwriter chart. The single was launched at a sold-out show headlined by Gartland at The Academy in Dublin.
In March 2013 Gartland announced her first tour, headlining five shows in the UK and in Ireland during July 2013. In November 2013 Gartland released her four-song EP “Roots” on iTunes. The titular track “Roots” was named Apple iTunes Single of the Week in the UK and Ireland.
She toured in support of the album in February 2014 visiting ten cities in Ireland and in the United Kingdom.
Gartland contributed the song “Cast Your Stone” on the album “Simple Things”, a compilation album released in November 2013 by Niall Breslin in support of suicide prevention in Ireland. She participated in a group performance of “Simple Things” musicians on RTÉ program “Show”.
The Irish Daily Star selected Gartland as one of “20 music acts to watch in 2014.” The Irish Independent selected Gartland as one of “Ireland’s most influential teens.” Golden Plec selected Gartland as their “Plec Pick” of 2014, chosen as one of the best solo artists in Ireland.
Gartland, along with Greta Isaac, performed the song “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” which they contributed to the compilation album “It’s Coming on Christmas”. The album raised funds for the breast cancer charity, CoppaFeel!.
Gartland has played alongside Dodie Clark in all three of her EP release tours, and acted as a supporting act in Clark’s 2019 “Human” tour.
Gartland’s second EP, Lonely People, debuted in 2015 and was described by Atwood Magazine as an “undeniable triumph” that “captivates” by combining funk and alt-pop.
In September 2019, Gartland released the single “Did It to Myself”, followed by “Figure It Out” in November, and “Heavy” in January 2020, all of which appear on her EP “Freckle Season”.
“Figure It Out” is described as being about a relationship between individuals where neither can escape from it and the idea of needing space from someone you still care about.
“Heavy” featured in the BBC Three trailer for the 2020 adaptation of “Normal People”, with “Did It To Myself” featuring directly in the TV series. She was also a co-writer of K-pop boy band BTS’s song “134340” from the album “Love Yourself: Tear”.
In 2020, Gartland was part of an Irish collective of female singers and musicians called “Irish Women in Harmony”, that recorded a version of the song “Dreams” in aid of the charity Safe Ireland, which deals with domestic abuse which had reportedly risen significantly during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Gartland also released her fourth and fifth EPs, “Why Am I Like This?” and “Freckle Season” respectively, as a vinyl in 2020 titled “Why Is Freckle Season Like This?”. The vinyl included the tracklist of both EPs in addition to a currently unreleased song, “Don’t Fall in Love with A Musician” and an acoustic version of “Figure It Out”.
In October 2020, Gartland released a single called “Pretending”. The song discusses the difficulty and trouble of pretending to be the person someone else wants, in order to be a “people pleaser”. This was the first single released from “Woman on the Internet”, her debut album. The second single, “More Like You”, was released in January 2021.
According to Gartland herself, the song deals with identity, jealousy, and the desire to have the life of someone who seems to have everything easy. The third single, “Zombie!”, was released in April 2021. It deals with the topic of toxic masculinity and with Gartland entreating another individual to open up about their emotions and stop repressing their true feelings. The song was produced alongside Pete Robertson, a producer for beabadoobee and The Vaccines.
I am telling you now that you are going to be hearing quite a lot from her in the near future.