March 2023 – Choice Music Prize

RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year 2022

CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead

RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year 2022

Moncrieff – Warm

Irish Artist of the Year 2022

Fontaines D.C.

Irish Breakthrough Artist of the Year 2022

Cian Ducrot

Classic Irish Album

I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got by Sinéad O’ Connor

CMAT has been announced as the winner of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year 2022 for the album If My Wife New I’d Be Dead. Last year’s winner Dave Balfe (For Those I Love), made the announcement in Vicar St after the judging panel, made up of Irish music media professionals and chaired by Jim Carroll, met up this evening to decide on the winning album.

CMAT received a cheque for €10,000, a prize which has been provided by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), as well as a specially-commissioned award. Irish Drag Queen Lavender collected the award on her behalf as CMAT is away on tour.

The event, hosted by RTÉ 2FM’s Tracy Clifford, took place live in Vicar St and was broadcast live on 2FM with Jenny Greene, including exclusive performances from five of the nominated artists.

Moncrieff has been voted the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year for his song ‘Warm’. The song was selected from a shortlist of 10 songs by public vote (Ireland only), via the RTÉ 2FM and Choice Music Prize websites. Fans were given the chance to get behind their favourite Irish song of 2022 until midnight last Sunday.

Conor Curley from Fontaines D.C. picked up their Irish Artist of the Year prize. Dave Fanning presented Sinéad O’ Connor with her award for the Classic Irish Album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. And Cian Ducrot won the Irish Breakthrough Artist of the Year.

RTÉ2 will broadcast a one-hour TV programme of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize, featuring performances from the five acts, along with interviews by Bláthnaid Treacy on Thursday 16^th March at 22.30.

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The 18th annual RTÉ Choice Music Prize, once again, celebrated the best in Irish recorded music. The Prize has become one of the music-industry highlights of the year since its inception in 2005.

The winning Album of the Year act receive €10,000, a prize fund which has been provided by The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). All shortlisted acts received a specially commissioned award.

RAAP, Culture Ireland, FMC, the BAI and Minding Creative Minds are also official project partners of the RTE Choice Music Prize.

Through its funding of the Music From Ireland programme, Culture Ireland’s support of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize will be directed towards shortlisted artists, as well as assisting the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Conversations.

Classic Irish Album

And the winning album is…

I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

Sinéad O’ Connor

The winning album in the inaugural RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Classic Album, in association with IMRO & IRMA, has just been announced by Tracy Clifford on 2FM. The winning album is: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got by Sinéad O’ Connor

The judges for the prize are Ann Maire Shields (BIMM), Jenny Huston (SiriusXM), Rick O’ Shea (RTÉ Gold), Stuart Clark (Hot Press) with Paul Russell (2FM) as the non-judging chairperson. In choosing I Do Not Want What I haven’t Got by Sinéad O’Connor (released by Ensign / Chrysalis Records in 1990) the panel felt the ten songs on this album represented “a stunning body of work by an Irish artist, scorching with originality in songs that are as resonant today as they were more than 30 years ago.”

Released in the same year as Bossanova by Pixies, Fear Of A Black Planet by Public Enemy and Sonic Youth’s Goo, Sinéad’s second album is testament to her extraordinary musical and vocal talent and her determination to stand apart. From her take on Thatcher’s Britain in “Black Boys On Mopeds” to the drum-sampled interpretation of 17th century poem “I Am Stretched On Your Grave”, this is an outstanding Irish album. And, at its heart is the riveting and unmistakable voice of Sinéad O’Connor.

“Sinéad O’ Connor’s distinctive voice, fiery temperament and shaved head made her famous by the age of twenty-one. Unafraid to call out hypocrisy wherever she saw it, O’ Connor was unapologetic”. – Rememberings

Sinéad’s dominant presence in Irish music, both at home and abroad, spans five decades thanks to her iconic voice and her uncompromising approach to life. The RTÉ Choice Music Prize is honoured to have her as a guest at the event on Thursday to collect the prize.

RTÉ Choice Music Prize Winners 2022