Born and raised in The Liberties, Imelda May has become one of Ireland’s most celebrated artists.
A true creative, Imelda immerses herself in art across many forms, as a singer, songwriter, actor, producer, poet, illustrator and storyteller.
Her self-written & produced album Love Tattoo (2008) remains the best-selling album of all time by a homegrown female artist in Ireland. Her most recent album 11 Past the Hour (2021) marks her fourth Number 1 album in Ireland and fourth Top 10 in the UK. Imelda’s recent albums are a departure from her early rockabilly revival style with a sound that sits firmly outside of any sharply defined genre box, widely spanning blues, rock, soul, gospel and jazz.
Imelda May
Imelda was discovered by Jools Holland, who asked her to support him on tour, and has gone on to perform alongside legendary artists including Lou Reed, Bono, Tom Jones, Noel Gallagher, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Jeff Goldblum & Ronnie Wood. She has performed all over the world in front of royalty & politicians, including former US presdient Barack Obama.
Her television career spans from co-producing and presenting The Imelda May Show for RTÉ in 2018 and co-hosting BBC’s Later with Jools Holland, to co-producing several recent Sky Arts productions. These include the two-part Voices of Ireland, which won the Best Specialist Factual Award at the 2022 RTS Ireland Television Awards, and the 2023 festive special Christmas in Ireland: Imelda & Friends, which she curated, co-produced, and starred in for Sky Arts and Tourism Ireland. This creative partnership with Sky Arts continued with the critically acclaimed 2024 programme Lily and Lolly Yeats: The Forgotten Yeats Sisters. Most recently, Imelda announced the documentary series Amhráin na nGael (Song of the Irish), which was released on RTÉ1 and RTÉ Player in November 2025.
In recent years, Imelda has also turned her talent to the silver screen. Her first major film role was in the 2022 sequel Fisherman’s Friends: One and All alongside James Purefoy and Maggie Steed; the film entered the UK box office top five upon release. She later delivered a stunning portrayal of the villain Eve in The People Before — based on Charlotte Northedge's psychological thriller — which debuted at the Galway Film Festival. Most recently, her role as Pierce Brosnan's wife in Four Letters of Love, alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne, premiered at the 2025 Dublin International Film Festival.
Beyond selling millions of records worldwide and forging a successful screen career, Imelda is also a passionate activist and accomplished poet. Her poem You Don’t Get To Be Racist and Irish resonated powerfully, prompting the Irish government to feature it in their national ‘ReThink Ireland’ campaign on billboards across the country; it has since been added to the Irish school curriculum. In 2021, she released her debut poetry collection, A Lick & A Promise, which debuted at No. 8 on the Irish Times Bestsellers Chart (Hardback Non-Fiction) and has since been reprinted in paperback and audiobook formats.
A proud advocate of Irish culture, Imelda remains a trailblazing and multifaceted artist.