Daniel O'Donnell plays three shows at convention centre By JOHN LAW, NIAGARA FALLS REVIEW Posted 14 hours ago
Don't worry, Daniel O'Donnell has heard all the jokes. He has seen the comedy skits. When you're as clean-cut and non-offensive as he is, the wisecracks are constant.
After three decades, he just laughs and gives them more ammo.
"It's almost a pat in the back that people can talk about you when you're not there and the audience knows who you are," says the massively-successful Irish crooner. "I'm amazed I'm that well-known that people can use me in any way. I don't think they're nasty, they're just joking."
For 30 years, O'Donnell has thrived on appearing to be safe and predictable. In actuality, he points out, his easy-going brand of country, smooth ballads and Irish standards has never been particularly popular. If he wanted to be 'safe' back in 1981, he would have become a pop singer.
Instead, the youngest kid from a family in Kincasslagh (near Ireland's County Donegal) plugged away for a few fruitless years trying to establish himself as a singer while battling debt and washing dishes at Dublin's Central Hotel. O'Donnell's father died of a heart attack when he was six, leaving his mother to raise him and his four siblings.
Performing with his sister Margo, O'Donnell was about to quit music until he spent his slim savings to record a version of Johnny McCauley's hit My Donegal Shore, which he released independently as a 45. If it didn't work, he would likely emigrate to Canada.
Instead, the record built up buzz on the radio, and the owner of Ritz Records took notice. Two years later, after performing to 80,000 people at the London Irish Festival, he had a record deal.
"I was just singing songs I enjoy," he says. "When I started singing, I didn't do what was of my generation. I should have been singing pop music … I went against the grain from the very beginning."
"If I wanted to blend in, then I would have sung pop music. But that's not where my heart was."
O'Donnell's popularity exploded in the '90s with several TV specials, sold out arenas and a legion of mostly female fans. At one point, he owned nine out of the top 15 albums on Billboard's World Music chart.
He met idols like Cliff Richard and Loretta Lynn while cracking the North American market with a series of PBS specials. Adding to the workload was plenty of charity work, including the Romanian Challenge Appeal, which eases Romanian orphans back into society.
"I've been very lucky," he says. "I've enjoyed it immensely. So many good things have happened."
Not that there weren't bumps. In 1992, overwhelmed by live shows and charity requests, he broke down with exhaustion. He returned to the stage three months later, but it took two years to fully recover.
Celebrating his 30th year as a performer, O'Donnell says his schedule was heavier than usual – about 100 concerts. Next year he'll stick mainly to Branson, Missouri, where he's a semi-regular.
"Next year I'm taking a break from touring like this – I'm not doing the one-nighters," he says. "I'll have a lot more time off. It's sort of a holiday for us."
Which means Niagara fans better see him while they can when he returns to the CAA Winter Festival of Lights for three shows at the Scotiabank Convention Centre Niagara, starting Sunday.
"Even though we love coming here to the United States and Canada, it was a very hard audience to get known with," he recalls. "We'd go to places where mainly Irish people were coming to see us, and you're limited. I do sing Irish songs some, but I'm not all Irish."
"So I'm kind of not Irish enough for the people that want to hear Irish!"
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