Imelda May has announced an 18-date “Raised on Songs & Stories” tour across Ireland for February 2026, including a performance at the University Concert Hall on February 4.
The intimate evenings will feature stripped-back versions of songs from across her discography, interwoven with poetry and storytelling. May describes the tour as a departure from her usual meticulously planned performances, embracing spontaneity and connection.
“This will be a shared night of what music, art, connection and creativity means to me, with you,” she explained. “It feels right to stay in that space where I exist and love most, where I write and create. Someone might ask for a song I haven’t visited in a while and I think ‘yeah let’s give it a go’, or I can tell you the stories behind the songs and how I ended up working with some of the people I’ve worked with so far.”
May is also set to present and executive produce a new six-part RTÉ series, Amhráin na nGael: The Songs of the Irish, exploring Ireland’s great music collectors. The series follows May through the Gaeltacht regions as she examines her relationship with the Irish language through songs and sean-nós singing.
The Dublin-born artist has become one of Ireland’s most celebrated female performers as a singer, songwriter, actor, producer, poet, presenter and storyteller. Her breakthrough album Love Tattoo (2008) remains the best-selling album of all time by a homegrown female artist in Ireland, whilst her most recent release, 11 Past the Hour (2021), marked her fourth number one album in Ireland and fourth top 10 in the UK.
Her debut poetry book A Lick & A Promise (2022) is already in its third reprint, with one poem featured on billboards across Ireland for the government’s “ReThink Ireland” campaign and included in the school curriculum.