Declan Galbraith's Biography

Declan John Galbraith (born December 19, 1991, in Hoo St Werburgh, Kent) is an English singer of Scottish and Irish origin. He and his family live in Hoo, a village near Rochester, Kent. His grandfather, was in a band, played several instruments, took Declan to ‘Fleadhs’ (concerts) he was participating in and the explosive mix of Scottish and Irish musical traditions inspired Declan and became his early musical influence. Declan is known for the control and range of his voice, as well as his ability to interpret and adapt material of differing genres.

His first publicly acknowledged performance was at the age of 7,when he insisted on performing at the annual Rochester Dickens Festival where people would dress up as Victorians to celebrate the life of Charles Dickens and his links with the town of Rochester. It was soon after this when he started entering local talent shows and within a year he had won 15 competitions and more than £1000.

As a result of these wins, major recording companies soon noticed Declan's talent for singing and was very soon signing his first recording contract. His first recording was a version of ‘Walking in the Air’, which was released on a special Christmas Hits album also featuring Westlife, Elton John and Elvis Presley among many others.

His first album entitled Declan was released Sept 22 2002 under record giants EMI. It comprised of some Irish traditional songs and pop standards, but also contained some specially written material. It became a big success and charted in the UK and Ireland. Another big success came during a nationwide tour of Young Voices concerts when breaking the Guinness World Record. It was at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast in December 2002 when he sang "Tell Me Why" live with some 10,000 children and was also simultaneously linked, by radio and satellite, with more than 80,000 children in their schools all over the UK, who accompanied him in achieving the world’s largest choral sing.

On March 29, 2003 Declan won 'Best Young International Performer' at the 'Twenty-Fourth Annual Young Artist Awards'.

He appeared at the Queen’s Jubilee at St Paul's Cathedral, where he sang ‘Amazing Grace’ accompanied by the St Paul’s choir, and at an Elton John concert where at least 22,000 listeners were present.

Two appearances on German TV led German media giant Pro7/Sat1 Media to bring Declan to its new record label Star watch, distributed by Warner Bros. Records. In cooperation with producer Ully Jonas, the resulting album, entitled Thank You, was released on December 1, 2006 and contained many of Declan's personal favorite songs including "An Angel" which was a huge hit in Germany; it was originally sung by the Kelly Family. Thank You was ranked #5 on the German Top 40 in 2006 and the album reached gold in April 2007.

He recently started learning to play the piano and guitar, and writing his own songs.

It was actually his manager who bought him his first guitar. Before that, playing the guitar was just a dream that never really came to anything. Now he practices every day. In his newest CD, You And Me, he has written his very first song, Moody Blues. You and Me is different because it combines country and gives it a more modern sound. He says, " It would have been too drastic to go from Thank You, which was all covers, to all originals". So he decided to create a combination of covers and originals on his newest CD You And Me. He says that he is very pleased with his new album because it is more of the style of music he likes and listens to and would like to sing. It is kind-of a tribal rock sound. He has recently toured in China and has become very popular all over Europe over the years.

He appeared on the Louis Theroux documentary.