You Raise Me Up ~ Celtic Woman ~ Ireland

"You Raise Me Up" is an inspirational song with music by Secret Garden's Rolf Løvland and lyrics by Brendan Graham, a veteran songwriter from Ireland. The song was originally written as an instrumental piece entitled "Silent Story." The melody is based around the traditional Irish tune "Danny Boy" especially the opening phrase of its chorus, which in turn was based upon the tune of "The Londonderry Air". Løvland approached Irish novelist and songwriter Brendan Graham to write the lyrics to his melody after reading Graham's novels. It was originally released on the 2002 Secret Garden album Once in a Red Moon, with the vocals sung by Irish singer Brian Kennedy, and sold well in both Ireland and Norway. My great grandmother was Irish, and my grandfather (who I was close to) half-Irish. I love Irish music and humour! ;-)