Susan O'Neill (singer)

‘In The Game’ saw Susan receive nominations for the Choice Music prize and the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards for 'Album of the Year', 'Female Folk Artist' of the Year, and take home the Best Original Folk Track award for the collaborative song ‘Chain Reaction’. Susan was also shortlisted for the ‘Vanda and Young’ Award for her song ‘These Are the Days’. The collaboration album ended up being the biggest selling Irish independent record of 2021.

Recorded between Los Angeles, Maine, Co. Clare and Wexford Ireland during the spring of this year, the EP see’s Susan working once again with Tony Buchen (the producer of ‘In The Game’ the 2021 collaboration record with Mick Flannery), Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Lake Street Dive) and her fellow bandmates, brothers Cillian and Lorcan Byrne.

In 2020, SON teamed up with singer-songwriter Mick Flannery for a duet track Baby Talk. The song was produced by Tony Buchen and Christina Best.

A collaboration album with artist Mick Flannery, and following the success of their song Baby Talk, the pair released this full album of duets. Recorded during the lockdowns of 2020 remotely with producer Tony Buchen, it reached No. 2 on the official album chart in Ireland. After a closely fought battle for the top spot with Drake, the pair knocked Metallica out of the No. 2 spot and charted ahead of Kanye West's Donda and Olivia Rodrigo's 'Sour'. In The Game received numerous accolades from the press on both sides of the pond with American Songwriter calling it, 'A sorrowful Masterpiece', Irish Times proclaiming, 'Two Stars are Reborn', and UK Publication The Line of Best Fit saying, 'Every song on in the Game takes you on a journey, each player has their moment, each instrument sharing the weight of the record’s gloriously heavy sentiment'. The pair toured the record in the U.S. directly after it was released sharing dates with Kathleen Edwards, appearing at the Americana Festival in Nashville, and were also invited to open for Phoebe Bridgers at her Philadelphia show at the Mann Center. In The Game although only releasing towards the latter part of 2021 has racked up the most independent sales of an Irish record in Ireland for 2021.

In 2019, SON toured Australia, Europe, Cana and North America.

SON’s 2018 debut album found myself lost saw her being favourably compared with the likes of Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Adele and Florence Welch. It was one of Hot Press magazine’s ‘Albums of the Year’ and garnered her a number of heavyweight fans – most notably U2’s Bono and Irish trad superstar Sharon Shannon (who invited SON to support her sold out tour of Australia and New Zealand).

Although she plays the guitar, harmonica, trumpet her true love lies in the soulful type singing that she is steadily building a reputation with. Under her own guise Susan has supported Mundy, Paddy Casey, Mick Flannery, Wyvern Lingo and Sharon Shannon on her 2018 Irish tour.

When the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree came about in March 2017, she was invited to cover one of U2’s songs. SON opted for that album’s edgy penultimate track ‘Exit’.