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Ireland's Darren Kiely sings with soulful grit, writing heartfelt songs that have roots in traditional folk music, but are more aligned with modern folk-pop troubadours like Hozier and Dermot Kennedy. After relocating to New York in 2022, he debuted with the dramatic "How Could You Love Me" and continued building his catalog over the next two years. Tracks like "Ella" and 2023's "Time to Leave" made the upper reaches of Ireland's viral charts and in 2024, he released his first EP, From the Dark.

Growing up in a small County Cork village, Kiely was reared on Irish traditional music. He learned tin whistle and fiddle as a child and later focused on the guitar. Around 2019 he began to develop his voice, inspired by indie folk acts like the Lumineers and Mumford & Sons. His rough-hewn voice and earnest, passionate songs won him a small fan base at home, but his career began to take off after moving to New York in 2022. His debut single, the acoustic ballad "How Could You Love Me" found an audience back home where, along with his next two singles, it entered Ireland's viral charts. After a year in New York, he moved to Nashville to further nurture his songwriting. Tracks like "Lost and Found" and "Sunrise" appeared in 2023 and early the following year he became the flagship artist for Sony's Free Flight Records, a new non-country imprint launched out of Nashville. The label released Kiely's first EP, From the Dark, in May of that year, coinciding with a tour of Ireland. ~ Timothy Monger