Chris de Burgh

Chris de Burgh (born October 15th, 1948) is an Irish musician and songwriter.

Born Christopher John Davison in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Charles Davison, a British diplomat, and Maeve Emily de Burgh, an Irish secretary, his father's career moved the family to numerous places around the globe such as Malta, Nigeria, and Zaire. At the age of twelve, the family returned home to live in Tomhaggard in County Wexford, Ireland, where his father bought the twelfth century Bargy Castle and converted it into a hotel.

A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, as a performer, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his stage name. The de Burgh family can trace their roots to King Richard the Lionheart. Performing songs crossed between Driving Rock and Middle of the Road catchy pop, De Burgh is famous for his single "Lady in Red" from the album Into the Light. For that album, released in 1986, he included the song "For Rosanna" he had written to celebrate the 1984 birth of his daughter. Rosanna Davison won the Miss World title in 2003. He also has two sons named Hubie and Michael by his wife Diane.

His other notable songs include "Spanish Train", "A Spaceman Came Travelling", "Don't Pay the Ferryman" (with its background quote from the Tempest), "Missing You", "Borderline", "Say Goodbye To It All" and "The Snows of New York". In the year 2001 he travelled to Germany and recorded "Separate Tables" in a new duet version with Vicky Leandros. His songs have appeared in films as diverse as Arthur 2, American Psycho and Dodgeball and his records have sold more than forty million units internationally.

De Burgh is often the subject of ridicule by, amongst others, the comedian Bill Bailey, who refers to him as "the monobrowed purveyor of ultimate filth", lampooning his style in the song Beautiful Ladies in Danger, and a De Burgh style version of The Combine Harvester by The Wurzels. Lady in Red is parodied with a hillbilly version (Cousin In Red), and West Country and Cockney versions. He was also on the "scale of Evil" (along with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and others) in Bailey's stage show Part Troll.

Discography

Chris de Burgh was signed to A&M Records for many years, but he now has his own label, Ferryman Productions.

1. Far Beyond These Castle Walls, 1974
2. Spanish Train and Other Stories, 1975
3. At the End of a Perfect Day, 1977
4. Crusader, 1979
5. Eastern Wind, 1980
6. Best Moves, 1981
7. The Getaway, 1982
8. Man on the Line, 1984
9. Into The Light, 1986
10. Flying Colours, 1988
11. Spark to a Flame - The Very Best of Chris de Burgh, 1989
12. High on Emotion - Live from Dublin, 1990
13. Power of Ten, 1992
14. This Way Up, 1994
15. Beautiful Dreams, 1995
16. Live in South Africa, 1997
17. The Love Songs, 1997
18. Quiet Revolution, 1999
19. Timing Is Everything, 2002
20. The Road To Freedom, 2004
21. Live In Dortmund, 2005
22. The Ultimate Collection, 2005

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chris de Burgh".