07-08-2025
In tune - Evening Song with Shirley Keane comes to RTÉ lyric fm
Evening Song with Shirley Keane is an hour of beautiful song from the greatest singers, airing each Sunday evening on RTÉ Lyric FM from the end of July to the end of September - listen to the first show above.
Presenter Shirley Keane, a singer and an actor by trade, tells us about how her love of song came about and what to expect from her new show.
I am really excited at the chance to turn a spotlight on the world of song. Evening Song will cover quite a wide range of styles. Song of course in a classical sense brings composers like Schubert or Faure to mind but I promise there will be some interesting tangents.
Performing has been my profession for a long time. From a very young age I was drawn to singing and particular singers, especially in the old musicals. Singers like Barbra Streisand or Doris Day were mesmerising. I loved Ava Gardner in Showboat or Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle, only to learn years later their voices were dubbed in those films by opera singers Annette Warren and Marni Nixon.
I hope listeners will find themselves transported, memories triggered, new favourites discovered, as you make the dinner, take a walk or relax on an early Sunday evening.
As my own performing career developed in theatre and opera there was a natural parallel interest in the performances of the great recitalists, I realised how vital is the collaboration between instrumentalist and singer, the challenges for singer and orchestra, and to not overlook the simple purity of a singer on their own. The art of song is in how much can be conveyed in 3 or 4 minutes. Sometimes it is an intense expression of anger or grief, but there is also wry musical comedy which can drop in a sudden surprise.
Interestingly, the song repertoire shows off many women composers from Renaissance times to today. Often kept out of the concert hall and certainly ignored by opera companies, many women composed songs for their own convent, church or the salon. It was a calling card of sorts and a way into the world of composition. Today, many composers will create works for smaller numbers as the cost of staging a new opera production is prohibitive, but a singer and piano or small ensemble can tell wonderful tales and entertain audiences in a unique and powerful way. It is a little like comparing a play with a poem in the first instance, and on Evening Song we follow it, like a river as the song becomes a short scene or is developed for orchestra.
Irish songs, singers and composers will feature right across the ten weeks of Evening Song. Lyric plays an important part in continuously highlighting the musicians, the orchestras and composers who are an essential part of the Irish music scene. For centuries, we could be rebellious in our songs, if not in our everyday lives, we could express love or sorrow through impromptu performances by firesides or at wakes, not forgetting the ghost stories and creepy old ballads. These songs continuously reappear, in schools, at rugby matches and on the recital stage. I couldn't watch a horror film, but I enjoy the shivers, the heartbreak, the thrills of these sung stories. You don't have to look too far to find similar stories run through even the most classical of concert hall programmes.
I hope listeners will find themselves transported, memories triggered, new favourites discovered, as you make the dinner, take a walk or relax on an early Sunday evening. These songs could take you anywhere.
