Twenty-two-year-old singer-songwriter’s ‘Over Galway Town’ hits five million Spotify streams as he prepares for Irish and UK dates including Limerick.
GALWAY singer-songwriter Jamie McIntyre has announced his new EP ‘For Folk Sake’ ahead of his highly anticipated Irish and UK tour this October.
The 22-year-old independent artist has been riding high following the viral success of his single ‘Over Galway Town’, which has amassed over five million streams on Spotify.
The track has garnered over 50 million views on TikTok, catapulting the Galway native into the spotlight.
“ I wrote ‘Over Galway Town’ after a night out with my friends in Galway and they loved the tune straight away,” says Jamie. I released the song and it got over 50 million views on TikTok, which is crazy.”
“Something that really helped with that is I’ve done the social media stuff since 2020 with TikTok and Instagram and people have seen my whole journey. So people get invested in that too, and realise that this is just a normal fella from Galway who just loves music.”
‘For Folk Sake’ features recent popular releases including ‘Melbourne’, ‘Outside The City’ and new single ‘You Got It All’.
McIntyre is set to embark on a tour featuring sold-out dates at Whelan’s main room in Dublin, Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick, and two shows at the Roisin Dubh in his hometown of Galway, with further sold-out performances in London and Glasgow.
McIntyre’s musical journey began on the streets of Galway, where he busked daily for years on Shop Street whilst at college.
“I busked nearly every day for three years on Shop Street and made it my job while I was in college,” he explains.
The artist began writing music at 15 following the death of a friend, discovering he could “translate emotions and put them onto a page and into a song”.
“Back in 2020 I saw this American guy singing on TikTok. At the time, TikTok was a kind of dancing parody app,” McIntyre recalls.
“My third ever video got over 100,000 views and that blew me away. I realised that this was going to be the path for the next few years.”
Inspired by Ed Sheeran and Irish bands Kingfishr and Amble, McIntyre has embraced traditional Irish folk elements in his music, recently learning the bouzouki.
“Kingfisher and Amble are massive inspirations for me over the last two or three years, just seeing where they’ve come from and what they’ve done. And I think at the moment, there’s a real trend that being Irish has never been cooler.
I think it’s just something to do maybe with a lot of famous actors, a lot of famous artists and poets have come out of this country,”
His songs resonate with those who have moved away from home, with tracks like ‘Melbourne’ exploring themes of emigration and homesickness.
“I think the connection with home has never been stronger,” he says. “A lot of people have had to move away because of circumstances right now in the country. It’s a reminder that home is still there, no matter where you are in the world.”
Having maintained his independence and funded his projects himself, McIntyre shows no signs of slowing down.
“I’m still playing for the love of the game,” he says. “I’m just loving what I’m doing and playing music and bringing joy to people. The sky’s the limit because I didn’t think I’d get this far so quickly.”
Jamie McIntyre will play Dolans this Sunday October 5 with more gigs to be announced for 2026 very soon. His new EP ‘For Folk Sake’ is available on all streaming platforms.
