Susan McKeown
Irish songwriter, folk singer and producer
Susan McKeown (born February 6, 1967) is an Irish-American folk singer, songwriter, and producer. Dubbed the "Celtic High Priestess," she has contributed to more than seventy albums over a career spanning upwards of three decades. She won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album for Wonder Wheel with The Klezmatics.
Since 1989, she has served as the front woman of Susan McKeown & the Chanting House. Their 1996 album Bones garnered international recognition, with Time magazine remarking, "this is the kind of music that will link Ireland’s musical past with its future." Her 2004 album Sweet Liberty—a blend of Celtic folk with elements of Mexican mariachi and Malian Tuareg music—was nominated at the 2005 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. McKeown’s 2012 album Belong was a critical and commercial success, and its lead single, "Everything We Had Was Good," reached No. 1 on the U.S. Folk Singles Chart.
Throughout her career, McKeown has performed at numerous venues including the Glastonbury Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Hollywood Bowl, and the National Concert Hall. Her music has been featured on PBS, NPR, PRI, BBC, and RTÉ, as well as in ad campaigns for Audi, Jaguar, and Olay.
Alongside poet Paul Muldoon, she serves as co-artistic director of Feis Teamhra, an annual festival of poetry and music held at the Hill of Tara, an ancient ceremonial site in County Meath, Ireland.
The public source identifies “Susan McKeown” as irish songwriter, folk singer and producer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Susan, McKeown and Irish.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7648168. VIAF identifies the subject as 71653550. The Library of Congress control number is no98097397. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967, 2007, 1989 and 1996.
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This entry incorporates text from “Susan McKeown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.