Brendan Graham (born 1945, County Tipperary) is an Irish novelist and composer. He has published three novels, The Whitest Flower (London, Harper Collins, 1998), an Irish No. 2 best seller, The Element of Fire (Harper Collins, 2001) and The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night (Harper Collins, 2004).
He also wrote the lyrics for Rolf Løvland's "You Raise Me Up". Løvland was inspired to write the song after reading The Whitest Flower, Graham's first novel. "You Raise Me Up" was a huge international hit for Irish boyband Westlife. Graham wrote the lyrics for one of Løvland's "Mary's Lament", which appears on Secret Garden's 2011 album, Winter Poem.
Graham also composed two of Ireland's winning entries in the Eurovision Song Contest: "Rock 'n' Roll Kids", which won in 1994, and "The Voice", the winner of the 1996 contest. He also wrote the 1976 Irish Eurovision entry, 'When', which was sung by Red Hurley, and the 1985 entry 'Wait until the weekend comes', performed by Maria Christian. He wrote several songs for Celtic Woman, including "O, America".
Famous quotes containing the word graham:
“For you alone I ride the ring,
For you I wear the blue;
For you alone I strive to sing,
O tell me how to woo!”
—Robert Graham (1735–1797)