Galway Girl Meaning, Lyrics & Chords by Ed Sheeran
Anybody who listens to music is surely to have heard a song by Ed Sheeran. But who really is Ed Sheeran and why is there such a huge reaction over his song ‘Galway Girl’? Before you can start to understand why the song Galway Girl is making such a commotion, you must first know exactly who Ed Sheeran really is.
Ed Sheeran, Who Is He?
Originally born on February of 1991, Ed Sheeran is from Halifax, England. Always being interested in music, he would start playing the guitar at a very young age, which would lead him to start writing his own music not soon after. While Ed was still only a teenager, he would make a huge move to London in order to further pursue his musical career. It is at this time when he would use his creativity to come out with several songs, so many in fact, that he would actually have several different early EP’s and play hundreds of live shows all over the area.
Packed full of talent, Ed would go on to become the No.1 hit on ITunes without having any kind of record deal whatsoever. This would soon change however, when he would sign with Atlantic Records, which has helped him to sell multiple millions of albums worldwide, have one of his songs featured in the second film of the blockbuster franchise, The Hobbit trilogy, and has won Grammys on two separate occasions, once in 2014 for the hit single ‘Thinking Out Loud’, and the other coming in 2017 for his then hit single ‘Shape of Your’.
Now that you know exactly who Ed Sheeran really is and what he is all about, what’s the deal with the Galway Girl song? Here is everything that you will need to know about the Galway Girl song by Ed Sheeran, and why it is stirring up so much controversy.
The ‘Galway Girl’ Song – What’s The Deal?
First off, if you have not yet heard Ed Sheeran’s ‘Galway Girl’ song, none of this is going to make any sense until you listen to it, so do yourself a favor and go check it out real quick. Once you have done that, you are probably wondering yourself, what’s the deal with that song?
Originally debuted off of Sheeran’s 2017 album titled divide, Galway Girl is a song that basically talks about how the narrator has fallen in love with a girl who is Irish. In fact, in an interview Sheeran did with The Irish Times, he even went on to say that the very first line of the song is actually about a real Irish musician who is named Niamh Dunne. Niamh Dunne is well known for her role in an Irish folk band named Beoga. Dunne is the fiddler player in the band and was actually married to an English man in real life. So it has been officially revealed by Sheeran that he did write that opening line in his song Galway Girl about Niamh Dunne. However, the rest of the song is not about anyone in particular and can literally be related to anybody you can think of.
Some Facts About ‘Galway Girl’
- Oddly enough, Sheeran actually wrote the lyrics and recorded the entire song alongside the entire band of Beoga, of which included Niamh Dunne. As mentioned previously in this article, Niamh Dunne is exactly who the entire opening line of the song is all about. At the end of the day, there were a total of 9 different people who helped to writhe this song. They included Sheeran, as well as all the members of Beoga (Liam Bradley, Eamon Murray, Sean Og Graham, Damian McKee, and Niamh Dunne), Amy Wadge, Johnny McDaid, and Foy Vance.
- Once the song was written, it would then go on to be produced by Sheeran, as well as the American record producer and musician Mike Elizondo, who gained critical acclaim for his frequent collaborations with the legendary producer Dr. Dre, as well as Eminem.
- The song in question, Galway Girl, was almost scrapped from Sheeran’s divide album. Sheeran has revealed that he had to repeatedly fight with his record label to keep the song on his album, as they had no interest what so ever to keep that song on his album. They would eventually yield to Sheeran, and agreed to let him keep that song on his album. It would late be revealed by Sheeran that the main reason the label wanted to song off his album was because it was a fold music song. According to the record label, folk music would not perform well at all on would never make the charts. Even with the labels optimism, the song would go on to do extremely well, even reaching the number 1 position in several different countries, some of which included Ireland and Scotland. In the UK, it would enter the UK Singles Chart in the number 2 spot.
- The Galway Girl music video would be filmed and shot by Sheeran himself, and stars a very popular Irish actress who is named Saoirse Ronan.
- This song has played a pivotal role in enhancing the popularity of the band Beoga, especially that of Niamh Dunne, the person that the opening line of the song is talking about.
- This song actually shares the same exact title with another singer and songwriter named Steve Earle. He also had a song called Galway Girl back in 2000. Oddly enough, Earle’s version of he song is also considered to be more of a folk music song, just like Sheeran’s is. Sheeran has admitted that he had known about Earle’s version of the song prior to starting on his own and did his best to change the lyrics as much as possible. However, the effort to change the lyrics would be to no avail.
Now you know everything about Ed Sheeran’s song, Galway Girl. Knowing what we now know and how the song almost didn’t make Sheeran’s divide album, it is safe to say that most people probably are happy that they go to experience it.
