Mary Black

Fact Sheet

Occupation	Singer
Birthplace	Ireland
Official site	http://www.mary-black.net/

Mary Black is an Irish singer. She was born in 1955 to a musical family. Her father had been a fiddler, her mother a singer, and her brothers have their own group. She sang in her family's group in her her youth and her mother Patty had a song in her brothers' 1996 album, What A Time/Shay, Michael and Martin Black.

She went on to play in other groups including the traditional Irish band De Dannan from 1984-1986. After 1986 she had a successful solo career where she went on to do try contemporary styles ranging from jazz to country. She was named "Best Irish Female Artist" in the Irish Recorded Music Awards poll for two years running. Her albums include "Mary Black", "By the Time it Gets Dark", "Without the Fanfare", "No Frontiers", "The Holy Ground", "Babes in the Wood", "Circus" and "Shine".

For a number of years, What Hi-Fi? magazine considered Black's voice to be so pure that it was used as an audiophile benchmark for comparing the sound quality of different high fidelity systems. She is married to Joe O'Reilly of Dara Records and they have three children.

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