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Cara Elizabeth Dillon (born 21 July 1975, in Dungiven, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish folk singer. In 1995, she joined the folk supergroup Equation and signed a record deal with Warners Music Group. After leaving the group, she collaborated with Sam Lakeman under the name Polar Star. In 2001, she released her first solo album, Cara Dillon, which featured traditional songs and two original Dillon/Lakeman compositions. The album was an unexpected hit in the folk world, with Dillon receiving four nominations at the 2002 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
Dillon's second album, Sweet Liberty (2003), entered the Irish album charts and UK Indie album charts. In 2004, Dillon received the Meteor Irish Music Award for Best Irish Female. Her third album, After the Morning, was released in 2006. The album's opening track “Never in a Million Years” gained Radio 2 Airplay, while other tracks featured the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Paul Brady. Also in 2006, Dillon sang at the opening of the Ryder Cup in Ireland.
In 2009, Dillon released her fourth album, the award-winning Hill of Thieves. The record marked a return to Dillon's traditional roots with a purer production and arrangement style. The titular track “Hill of Thieves”, a Dillon\Lakeman original, was voted by BBC listeners as one of the “Top 10” original songs to have come out of Northern Ireland. The album also won 'Folk Album of the Year' at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
Before releasing A Thousand Hearts in 2014, Dillon found that her music had gained popularity in China, with her first album used in English lessons there. She has since embarked on several popular Chinese tours.
Her next release was the Christmas themed album, Upon a Winter's Night which was followed in 2017 by Wanderer.
Despite her relatively low profile in the world of mainstream music, Dillon’s voice has been acclaimed by notable artists such as Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Ellie Goulding.
As of 2023, Dillon continues to tour regularly and work with her husband, Sam Lakeman, who backs her on piano and guitar.
Dillon is the sister of fellow folk singer Mary Dillon, formerly of Déanta.
In 2024, Dillon released a new album, Coming Home, that "blurs the lines between spoken word and song, featuring her original poetry and music, inspired by the daily lives of the people, places and ancestry she holds closest to her heart".
In 1991 she formed a band called Óige (an Irish word meaning 'youth') with school friends Murrough and Ruadhrai O'Kane, bringing her take on Irish traditional songs to Ireland, Scotland and further afield. During this time she also performed with big names such as De Dannan and Phil Coulter. Óige recorded two albums with Dillon: a studio and a live album. Inspiration was recorded in 1992 to sell at concerts in Europe. The live album, simply called Live, was recorded at a concert in Glasgow on 15 August 1993. A Compact Cassette version also exists under the name Live in Glasgow. Dillon left Óige in 1995 after being asked to replace Kate Rusby in a so-called folk supergroup Equation; however, she guests on their second studio album, Bang On, playing fiddles on the last track, "Maids of Mitchelstown".
Dillon left Equation with original band member Sam Lakeman because of musical differences and together they immediately signed a separate deal with the same label. The duo was known as Polar Star. During this time Dillon formed a strong musical partnership with Lakeman. They recorded several albums with top songwriters and producers in the UK and San Francisco, but none of their work was released. Dillon provided the vocals to the song "Man in the Rain" on Mike Oldfield's 1998 album Tubular Bells III, where she was credited as "Cara from Polar Star". By 2000, Dillon and Lakeman had decided that they would never be able to give the label what they wanted. Circa summer 2000, Dillon and Lakeman ended their five-year relationship with Warner Music Group and signed to Indie label Rough Trade Records.
In January 2004, Dillon travelled to Japan on a promotional tour of the album. Dillon's solo career up this point was polished with her receiving The Meteor Irish Music Award for Best Irish Female. With two albums under her belt, Dillon's music was showcased on an international scale. Her relationship with WOMAD played a crucial part in this. The couple returned to the studio again in summer 2004 to record their third album.
Her third album, After the Morning, was released on 27 February 2006. The album was the longest in the making to date and featured several guest appearances. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra recorded for two tracks on the album, Garden Valley & The Snows They Melt The Soonest; Martin Simpson, the acclaimed blues guitarist featured on Grace; two of Ireland's finest traditional musicians Mairtin O'Connor and Cathal Hayden perform on Bold Jamie and Cara duetted with Paul Brady on album highlight The Streets of Derry.
The album gave Dillon her most successful radio hit to date, Never in a Million Years, garnering a good amount of airplay on radio stations in the UK and Ireland. The song featured on the Radio 2 playlist for six weeks and was record of the week on BBC Radio Ulster and RTÉ Radio 1. Despite the encouraging reception of the song, an official single release was never given to the song and it was released on download-only by iTunes a week prior to the album release and climbed into the top 40 most downloaded songs that week. An official single release was planned for after the album came out but it did not happen. The next single to be released from the album was a double A side: This Time/I Wish You Well. It featured a new radio mix of This Time with added vocals and guitars. The single generated some airplay on Radio 2 in July 2006 and was scheduled for release on 14 August, however Rough Trade cancelled it, citing a lack of airplay.
The success of Hill of Thieves meant that the follow up A Thousand Hearts was not released until 2014. Similar to Hill of Thieves it features more traditional production and arrangements than Dillon’s first three albums. The album contains traditional songs (including two sung in Irish Gaelic) as well as two modern covers, "Shotgun Down the Avalanche" by Shawn Colvin and "River Run". Released in conjunction with Sony Music, the album entered the UK indie charts at number 6.
Dillon’s sixth solo album was 2016’s Upon a Winter's Night, featuring eight arrangements of traditional carols and three original compositions. The album was the foundation of subsequent special Christmas shows which have been a regular part of Dillon’s tours since.
The release of the Wanderer in 2017 saw Dillon returning to Irish folk ballads, especially the themes of emigration, both historical and contemporary. The record saw a stripped back approach with it chiefly just being Dillon on vocals with producer / husband Sam Lakeman on keyboards or guitar. It was well received by critics upon release. The Guardian's Neil Spencer described the album with the headline "gorgeous homesick blues" and awarded the album four stars.
2021 saw the release of Dillon’s first live album ‘ Live at Cooper Hall’ which featured material that had originally been broadcast as part of two special shows available free online during the Covid epidemic. The songs chosen were a wide representation of Dillon’s career to date, ranging from fan favourite ‘Black is the Colour’ to unreleased material: " The Water Is Wide” and the Disney Tinkerbell film track “ Come Flying With Me".
Also on the dance scene, Dillon's award-winning version of Black Is The Colour was remixed by DJ Pete Devine (2Devine/Coco & Green) and became an instant hit on the dance floors in 2005. Over the next year, the popularity grew steadily and the track topped many polls and became a favourite of the top DJs on the scene. Following legal difficulties with the clearance of the track the release on the Anjunabeats dance label was not until 19 March 2007.
The year 2006 Dillon was honoured with the invitation to perform at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club in Ireland. She sang the Irish song Mo Ghile Mear to an audience estimated at 500 million worldwide with Afro Celt Sound System vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird, a 60 piece choir and 23 piece band. In October 2006, she performed at the re-opening of the prestigious Grand Opera House in Belfast. In 2006, Judge Jules released his debut album, to which Cara provided vocals on the lead UK single Ordinary Day. The trance track was a big club hit and entered the UK dance charts at 3. 2006 also saw Dillon involved with the BBC Radio 2 Radio Ballads, and her vocals feature on the episode Thirty Years of Conflict. This was released on CD and an album of songs from the radio ballads has also been released (see Discography). In 2009, Cara recorded the official Children in Need single, All You Need Is Love alongside Peter Gabriel, Terry Wogan, Hayley Westenra and others at Abbey Road Studios. In September she also recorded a live DVD called "Cara Dillon – Live at the Grand Opera House" in the Opera House in Belfast with the line up from her award-winning album Hill of Thieves. Acclaimed loudspeaker manufacturers Bowers & Wilkins used 11 songs from this recording in their Society of Sound music club which showcases ultra high quality audio recording for audiophiles. The live recording of "The Hill of Thieves" was also used by Bowers & Wilkins as a demonstration song in-store throughout the world on their Zeppelin Air iPod Speaker.
In 2010, Cara recorded the opening song "Summer's Just Begun" for Disney's Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue as well as narrating the opening sequence. She also sang a lullaby called "Come Flying With Me" featured during the credits for the movie. It reached the Box Office Top 10 upon its national cinema release in the UK in August 2010 and is the third instalment of Disney's highly successful franchise.
In January 2012 Cara recorded the vocals on a song called "Come Dream A Dream" which forms the closing sequence of the nighttime spectacular show, Disney Dreams!, which was designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Paris. In the summer of 2012 Cara performed two concerts with the Ulster Orchestra. The first was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Ulster Hall at an event called the Great Northern Songbook where "Hill of Thieves" was voted by BBC listeners as one of the "Top 10" original songs to come out of Northern Ireland. The second was a concert where the Ulster Orchestra joined Cara and her band in the Grand Opera House in Belfast.
Despite being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2008, Dillon has continued touring, recording and performing interviews throughout the world. She announced her illness and her strong Roman Catholic faith on Aled Jones' radio show in 2009.
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