All-female Irish trad supergroup BIIRD sells out venues without a debut album

BIIRD has built the kind of momentum most acts chase for years without a debut album to its name. The 11-piece all-female Irish trad collective has sold out venues across the UK and Ireland, packed festival tents and moved from a first public performance in front of about 10,000 people in London’s Trafalgar Square to stadium stages with Ed Sheeran.

The group was founded by Mayo musician Lisa Canny, a seven-time All-Ireland champion on harp and banjo, who began imagining the project roughly 10 to 12 years before it launched. Canny wanted to change the narrative around women in traditional music and present a more contemporary image of the genre. The original idea involved 14 members, but Covid-related delays reshaped the lineup before BIIRD settled on its current 11-member form, with performers including Laura Jo, Zoran Donohoe, Sal Heneghan, Miadhachlughain O’Donnell, Aisling Sage, Niamh Hinchy, Aoife Kelly, Ciara Ní Mhurchú, Hannah Hiemstra, Claire Loughran, Laura Doherty and Nicole Lonergan.

BIIRD’s rise shows how live performance, social media and touring can now bypass the old release-first model. A May 2024 report said the members collectively had around 600,000 followers and 65 million views, a built-in audience that helped carry the band far beyond Ireland. That online reach fed the buzz around their debut show at the London Irish Centre in Camden, announced for May 25, 2024, after their St Patrick’s Day launch in Trafalgar Square. Hotpress described their emergence as a seismic shift in a genre often seen as static.

The band has also pushed its image beyond sound alone. BIIRD has worked with Irish designers and stylists as part of an effort to change how trad is perceived worldwide, pairing the music with a sharper visual identity aimed at younger, international fans. That approach has helped turn the group into a cultural product as much as a touring act, with sold-out headline shows including Vicar Street in Dublin and appearances at major festivals.

Ed Sheeran’s embrace of the band underlined how far that model has carried them. In September 2025, he said BIIRD would join his North American Loop Tour in 2026 after meeting the group during a surprise Fleadh Cheoil appearance in Wexford, where he played with them on Irish traditional tunes. RTÉ reported then that BIIRD had sold out Vicar Street the previous May and was working on its debut album, but the bigger story is how completely the group has already rewritten the path to scale.