Ethereal and sensual singer songwriter

10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Acoustic, FOLK: Contemporary Celtic

Show all album songs: Clear Songs


Details:
Sheila O'Donnell
"Lighting up the World with Music"

This Chicago born singer-songwriter is a thoughtful lyricist that attributes her ability to weave intoxicatingly beautiful entrancing songs into the hearts of her listeners to her musical family upbringing. Sheila's father Sean, a folk musician from Donegal, Ireland first started teaching her to sing when she was old enough to talk and from that point on, Sheila focused her incredible talent and energy into developing her diverse musical career. Today, she is a dynamic, charismatic performer whose passionate and clear voice blends world, folk-rock, Celtic and pop styles. She attended Saint Mary's College of Notre Dame, Indiana and studied abroad in Rome, Italy. Inspired by the passionate lifestyle of the Italians, she performed every chance she got, from singing on the street to performing in Italy and throughout Europe at the Trevi Fountain Restaurant, the Piazza del Pantheon, Fiddler's Elbow and The Piper's Rest. After college, Sheila continued to perform both traditional Irish and popular music all over the Chicago area at a numerous venues including The Apollo Theatre, Chicago Cultural Center, Abbey Pub, Gaelic Park and The Old Town School of Folk Music. She released an album of Irish Songs in honor of her father in 1999 entitled, âCome by the Hillsâ and kicked off Celtic Fest 2000 in Grant Park singing the National Anthem before a crowd of 30,000 people.

When her younger sister Maureen (age 20) suddenly passed away of "a fever of unknown origin" over Memorial Day weekend in 1997, this changed Sheila's life dramatically and marked the beginning of a spiritual awakening for her. Sheila went through a very dark period of questioning and came out the other side with faith in unconditional love. She then wrote her first original song, "Waking Up" and performed it two weeks later at a songwriter's open mic event at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Her first producer, Greg Crook of Tic Toc Entertainment was in the audience that night and was so taken with her talent and performance that he offered to produce an album of songs with her. Sheila now had a clear sense that her mission was "Lighting up the World with Music" and the songs just flowed out of her with such uplifting messages of hope and peace and love that they seemed to be directly from the angels. A little over a year and a half later on November 11th, 2000 at the Hothouse in Chicago, Sheila released her first CD of original songs entitled "Waking Up". This record release came on the heels of her explosive success on the MP3.com Internet music site where in July of 2000 three of Sheila's songs were in the top five on the mp3.com charts: "Beautiful" was #2 on the Soft Rock chart, "Waking Up" was #4 on the Folk Rock Chart and "Water is Wide" was #3 on the Celtic Chart. Her most profound influences have been Judy Collins, Enya, Sarah McLaughlin, Loreena McKennitt and Sarah Brightman. Sheila's songs communicate a heartfelt invitation to live life fully and playfully, with love and respect for all people and her lyrics invite the listener to dive in to a new way of thinking. Ultimately she hopes that her music has a positive effect in the hearts of her listeners and that it will in some way have an impact on creating world unity.

In October 2001 she moved out to Los Angeles and continues to perform throughout LA at venues including Genghis Cohen, The Viper Room, The Knitting Factory, The Mint and the Derby and in November of 2003 she was a featured act at the VH-1 Save the Music Foundation party in Beverly Hills. She has just released her newest album "Clear" on November 11th 2007 and seven of her songs will be featured in the independent short film, âI Heard the Mermaids Singingâ which will be featured in the Santa Barbara Film Festival in January 2008.