It’s been a whirlwind start to the year for Irish artists with Brit nominations, Sundance award-winning films and debut albums taking the UK charts by storm. Add to that the ever divisive Choice Prize nominations and the pearl clutching reaction to Bambie Thug winning Eurosong, there’s been plenty of goings on this January.

In a move Cotton McKnight would be proud of, Kneecap utilised the DUP as their defacto PR team, harnessing their political outrage to pique the interest of the international press, gaining worldwide coverage for their upcoming debut movie Kneecap starring Michael Fassbender.

The more the politicians complained the better things went for Kneecap. Debuting at Sundance, Kneecap became the first film at the festival to be picked up by a major studio and subsequently went on to win the Audience Award and there is now an Oscar buzz about the project. Hopefully, the DUP will be as successful on their return to Stormont as they have been in their unintentional public relations role for Kneecap.

Meanwhile, this month international teen pop sensation CMAT became besties with Kylie Minogue when the pair connected over socials when they were both nominated for Best International Act at The Brits. Padam indeed. Joining CMAT at The Brits will be breakthrough Irish artist Jazzy, whose single Giving Me was nominated for International Song of The Year. Good luck to both on the night.

Back home, the pair featured heavily across the recently announced Choice Music Prize Awards with CMAT being nominated for best album, artist and song, while Jazzy was nominated in the song and breakthrough artist categories.

Did your favourite release make the shortlist for Irish Album of the Year? Here’s the full list of nominations below.

And speaking of excellent Irish female acts, ahead of St. Brigid’s Day 2024, we put together this playlist of 100 Irish tracks by 100 Irish artists.

And who could forget one of the highlights of January 2024, people losing their tiny minds because Bambie Thug was chosen to represent Ireland at the Eurovision this year.

January Albums:

There was an unusually spectacular showing of debut albums this month with Sprints, NewDad and Armagh’s Conchúr White all releasing excellent debut albums.

Sprints

Sprints proved their political doubters wrong with the release of their excellent debut album ‘Letter To Self’.

Conchúr White

Armagh’s Conchúr White’s debut LP ‘Swirling Violets’ is a dazzling delight of power pop infused Americana.

NewDad

Galway’s NewDad delivered a near perfect shot of modern shoegaze with their debut album ‘Madra’.

Under The Radar:

With an unusually large amount of big releases this month you could be forgiven for missing some of the other releases this month including Jehnova‘s ‘1OU 5’ and debut EPs from CABL and Megan Nic Ruairí.

Jehnova

Irish hip hop stalwart and in demand collaborator Jehnova proves he’s got the goods in his own right with ‘IOU 5’

Megan Nic Ruairí

Made of Sin features the excellent single The Woods and a wonderful version of The Whole of The Moon which Mick Scott of The Waterboys has described as one of the best versions ever.

CABL

UK based Irish act CABL prove why they are one of the most fancied acts in the new wave of Irish shoegaze with ‘See You In A Year and A Half’.

Singles:

On top of all these albums there’s been some notable singles from big hitters like Pillow Queens, Villagers and James Vincent McMorrow, while there were welcome returns for Melts, Spider, Nell Mescal and TravIS and Elzzz – yiz were robbed of a Choice nomination lads… Check out the highlights of the year so far on our playlist below.