Christopher John Davison (born 15 October 1948), known professionally as Chris de Burgh (English: /dəˈbɜːr/də-BER), is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and musician born in Argentina. He started out as an art rock performer and progressed to writing more pop-oriented material. He has had several top 40 hit singles in the UK and two in the US. He is more popular in other countries, particularly Norway and Brazil.[1] His 1975 "A Spaceman Came Travelling" became a popular Christmas song and his 1986 love song "The Lady in Red" reached number one in several countries. De Burgh has sold over 45 million albums worldwide.[5]
De Burgh was born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, to Colonel Charles John Davison,[6] a British diplomat, and Maeve Emily (née de Burgh). His maternal grandfather was General Eric de Burgh, a British Army officer who had been Chief of the General Staff in India during the Second World War.[7] He took his mother's maiden name, "de Burgh", as a stage name when he began performing. His legal surname remained "Davison".[8] His father had substantial farming interests and Chris spent much of his early years in Malta, Nigeria and the Belgian Congo, as he and his mother and brother accompanied Colonel Davison on his diplomatic and engineering work.
The Davison family finally settled in Bargy Castle, County Wexford, Ireland, which was somewhat dilapidated at the time. It was a twelfth-century castle which Eric de Burgh had bought in the 1960s. It was converted into a hotel and a young Chris sang for the guests there.[7]
De Burgh attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire, England, where he was in the year below Nick Drake. He wanted to join a jazz band that Drake had formed with four schoolmates, the Perfumed Gardeners, but was rejected because his musical tastes were considered "too poppy".[9] De Burgh went on to study English and French at Trinity College Dublin.[10]
De Burgh signed his first contract with A&M Records in 1974. He supported Supertramp on their Crime of the Century tour and acquired a small fan base. His début album, Far Beyond These Castle Walls, was a folk-tinged stab at fantasy in the tradition of the Moody Blues. It failed to chart upon its release in late 1974. A few months later, he released a single, "Turning Round", from the album. It was released outside the UK and Ireland as "Flying". It failed to make an impression in the UK, but it stayed on top of the Brazilian charts for 17 weeks. This became a familiar pattern for the singer/songwriter, as every one of his 1970s albums failed to chart in the UK or US while they achieved big sales in continental European and South American countries.
In 1975, de Burgh's second album, Spanish Train and Other Stories, was released. It was not a huge commercial success but the album and tour expanded his fan base and de Burgh started to attract a cult following. With the epic title track, other favourite tracks from the album included "Patricia The Stripper" and "A Spaceman Came Travelling" (the latter released the following year as a single). The album made the lower end of the Canadian charts, giving de Burgh his first North American chart exposure. He maintained a fan following and consistent chart success in Canada for the rest of his major label career.
In 1981, de Burgh had his first UK chart entry with Best Moves, a compilation album of his work. It set the stage for 1982's The Getaway, produced by Rupert Hine, which reached number 30 in the UK chart and number 43 in the US. This followed the success of the single "Don't Pay the Ferryman", which became his first single to chart in the UK and reached the US Billboard Hot 100 Top 40.
In 1984, de Burgh's follow-up album, Man on the Line, also performed well, charting at number 69 in the US and number 11 in the UK and topping the charts in Germany and Switzerland[11]. Its first single, "High on Emotion", became an international success and reached the Top 20 in several countries[12]> It entered the top five in Ireland,[13] France and Switzerland and the Top 50 in the UK[14] and US.[15]
In summer 1986, de Burgh released a ballad, "The Lady in Red", which became a worldwide hit single. It reached number one in the UK and number three in the US.[16] Its accompanying album, Into the Light, reached number two in the UK and became the seventeenth best-selling album of the year there. It reached number 25 in the US. That Christmas season, a re-release of his 1975 Christmas song "A Spaceman Came Travelling" became a Top 40 hit in the UK.
Flying Colours (1988), a follow-up to Into the Light, produced a second UK top five hit, "Missing You", and the single topped the Irish chart. The album entered the chart at number one in the UK and Ireland but failed to enter the US chart. De Burgh did not have another hit in the US and his commercial fortunes began to slide in the UK in the early 1990s. He retained a following around the world.[17]
In 1997, de Burgh wrote "There's a New Star Up in Heaven Tonight", dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales, who counted de Burgh among her favourite music artists.[18] The song was released as a 100-copy limited edition and included on the compilations The Ultimate Collection (2000) and Now and Then (2009).[19]
2007–2021
In 2007, a concert in Tehran was planned for mid-2008 with local band Arian, which would have made de Burgh the first western pop singer to perform in Iran since the 1979 revolution. The concert was cancelled because he had not been given permission by the Iranian authorities to perform in the country.[20]
In 2008, de Burgh released Footsteps, his seventeenth album, which included cover versions of thirteen songs that had inspired him throughout his career[21] by artists including Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Toto and Pete Seeger.[21] The album reached the top five in UK.[22] In 2011, de Burgh released his follow-up, Footsteps 2, which entered the UK Top 40.[23] De Burgh was the first Western act to play in Lebanon after the Lebanese Civil War.[24]
On his 73rd birthday, 15 October 2021, de Burgh released a music video for his single "Legacy" directed by Iranian filmmaker/animator Sam Chegini. It came from the animated music video for his 27th studio album, The Legend of Robin Hood.[25][26]
2024–present: 50
In October 2024, de Burgh released a new album called 50, which chronicled his 50 years in the music business.[27] He made a guest appearance on LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland, during which he sang "The Lady in Red" for the contestants.[28]
In 1994, de Burgh was found to have had an affair with his children's 19-year-old Irish nanny, Maresa Morgan, who was assisting the family while de Burgh's wife Diane was recuperating in hospital from a broken neck, suffered during a horse-riding accident. De Burgh later said he felt very guilty about the affair and was subsequently reconciled with his wife.[31]
In 2011, bottles from de Burgh's vintage wine cellar sold for over $500,000, which included a world record set for a magnum collection of postwar vintages.[32] De Burgh has an interest in war history, especially of the First and Second World wars. His songs contain numerous references to soldiers and battle, and in 2006 he purchased a rare First World War letter written by an unknown soldier.[33] He enjoys classical music, including Handel, Bach and Pachelbel.[34]
De Burgh has said that he is "certainly a believer in Christ", but he has always had a deep distrust of organized religion.[35] He believes in the power of spiritual healing as an alternative therapy to reduce pain. He claims that he has been able to heal people with his own hands and that he gained an "all-encompassing strength" that was contacted through prayer.[36]
Media profile and criticism
During the 1970s, de Burgh received mainly positive feedback from the music press as he attempted to build his career. Since the release of "The Lady in Red" in 1986, both the music and news media have become more negative towards him, both personally and professionally.[citation needed]
De Burgh has pursued and won 16 defamation actions.[37]The Irish Independent said he has always been a bit prickly about criticism. Peter Crawley, a theatre reviewer at The Irish Times, received a directed response from de Burgh when he wrote a less than sympathetic review of de Burgh's show in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre in September 2009. Crawley wrote: "He departs the stage for 'Lady in Red', invading boxes and draping himself over audience members ... Certain toes will never uncurl after this experience, but it is almost admirable how unaltered de Burgh has remained by the flow of time."[38] In a lengthy, much-publicised reply to the critic, de Burgh made his feelings known, particularly in the postscript:
We were wondering by way of explanation and, as you seem to portray yourself as a bitter and unfulfilled man, were you much teased by your school chums in the schoolyard and called 'Creepy Crawley'?[39][40]
AllMusic critic Greg Prato stated, "Depending on who you ask, Chris de Burgh either specializes in pretentious, bombastic art rock disguised as pop or is a master of penning soaring and majestic compositions."[2] The BBC said of de Burgh, "To his millions of fans, Chris de Burgh is the ultimate romantic singer. But to many others he's a figure of fun."[41] When the staff of Melody Maker were putting together a lampoon edition of a new arts and music magazine, they chose de Burgh for the cover.[41] His signature song, "The Lady in Red", has been repeatedly voted one of the public's most disliked songs.[42][43][44] In 2006, Neil Norman, writing for The Independent, described de Burgh as "the world's naffest balladeer".[45] In his favour, Mike DeGagne, writing for AllMusic, acclaimed de Burgh as "a genuine master of the soft ballad" and "one of the finest mood-invoking artists ever".[46]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
