Cara Dillon

Born in 1975, Irish folk singer/songwriter Cara Dillon won the All Ireland Singing Trophy at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann at the age of just 14. Her hauntingly pure voice and talented work has earned accolades including Best Album of the Year for her fourth album Hill of Thieves at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where she was also nominated Folk Singer of the Year. The title song was voted by BBC listeners in Northern Ireland as one of the Top 10 most original songs ever to come out of the province.

In 1992 Cara formed a band called Óige (an Irish word meaning ‘youth’) with school friends Murrough and Ruardhrai O’Kane, bringing her take on Irish traditional songs to Ireland, Scotland and further afield in Europe. She left Óige in 1995 to join folk ‘supergroup’ Equation alongside Sean Lakeman, Sam Lakeman, Seth Lakeman and Kathryn Roberts. Later, Sam and Cara themselves left to form the duo Polar Star. The couple married in 2002.

Cara launched her solo career in 2001 and has since performed in Europe, USA and Japan. Her albums include  Sweet Liberty (2003), After the Morning (2006), If I Prove False (with John Smith) (2008), Cara Dillon (2011), and Hill of Thieves (2009). 

She has also collaborated with a wide range of artists  including Mike Oldfield on Tubular Bells 3 and the 2009 official Children In Need single, All You Need Is Love alongside Peter Gabriel, Terry Wogan,  and Hayley Westenra. In 2010 she recorded the opening song Summer’s Just Begun for Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue as well as narrating the opening sequence. She also sang the lullaby Come Flying With Me in the film credits and recorded Come Dream A Dream for the closing sequence of the spectacular Disney Dreams! developed for the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Paris.