Róisín Dubh 🥀🎵🌊
I sometimes forget to sing for play and how important that is to keep my love for it going…and keep perfectionism at bay. Because Irish music is the first music I ever started to sing, it feels like a recalibration to check in with my musical home base. And when I’m trying out a new song (in this case, one I’ve always loved but never felt ready to sing) is when I’m the most vulnerable as an artist, the most susceptible to flaws, and sometimes, therefore, the most connected. Connected to what, I’m not sure—the song? Myself? That “other” plane where the ancestors are singing? I don’t know, but to sit down after a long recording session for work, turn up the gain and verb, and sing something to close out my “practice” just feels right. Here’s the first verse of “Róisín Dubh”, an iconic anthem of a song (and a marathon of breath and big feelings). The song has been on my brain ever since Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh released her new album “Róisín Reimagined” with the Irish Chamber Orchestra earlier this year—an entire album of Sean-nós songs arranged for singer and orchestra by 6 different composers—sublime! If you have the teensiest bit of Irish (or you’ve been to the bar in Boston), you know that the title means “Dark Rose”, but it ALSO means Ireland. (For what woman in an Irish song doesn’t represent Ireland herself?😂) It’s a common phenomenon in the canon, but famously so for this piece. The first line is “A Róisín, ná bíodh brón ort fé'r éirigh dhuit…” (Róisín, don’t have sorrow for all that has happened to you.) It is a very special song, and it never fails to move me. I hope this clip of it gives you a moment of peace🤍

TikTok/Instagram: @madelyn_monaghan