A song penned by musician Briony O’Toole from Rathdowney, Co Laois, has just been announced as Song of the Year in Russia.
The song ‘Dirty Secret’ has also been named a Golden Gramophone winner, for spending over 20 weeks in the Russian charts.
As the Laois Nationalist reports, Briony co-wrote the song with fellow songwriters Mark “Cappy” Caplice and Cian Sweeney about four years ago.
A music publishing company, The Nucleus, was interested in getting the song out into the world and, through music industry machinations, it made its way to Russian pop star Gregory Leps.
Gregory is one of the biggest artists in Russia and when he released it with reworked lyrics early last year, it went straight into the top 20.
Not only that, it proved so popular that it stayed in the charts so long that it has been awarded a Golden Gramophone award, in recognition of its long stint in the hit parade.
It was also announced on Russian television as Song of the Year and was performed by Gregory in an auditorium full of masked music fans.
Briony told the Laois Nationalist: “It’s great to see the journey our song has taken, From being written in my bedroom in my home in Laois to winning Song of the Year in Russia. It’s quite amazing!”
Briony is a daughter of Marguerite and Ken O’Toole and the granddaughter of Kathleen Lee from Rathdowney.
