Wallis Bird

Wallis Bird has been enrapturing audiences for over a decade, playing over 1000 shows in

that time worldwide. She has won multiple international awards including two Irish Meteor

Awards, and has also received a nomination for the Irish Choice Music Prize. Her

irrepressible energy on stage is one of her trademarks; even the Irish Times once noted it

could ‘kickstart an entire economy’.

On 27th May 2022, Wallis released her seventh studio album Hands – her most personal and

experimental to date. Also known as NINE AND A HALF SONGS FOR NINE AND A HALF

FINGERS – HANDS finds Bird turning the spotlight onto herself, raising issues that are

sometimes hard to confront. Among these are issues of trust, alcohol abuse, stagnation,

self-censorship and self-improvement, some addressed through personal recollections of

crucial moments accumulated over the last two years. Each, however, is delivered by a voice

uncommonly blessed with joy, ingenuity and empathy. Some will understand HANDS’

significance; they’ll have seen Wallis strumming an upside-down, right-handed guitar: “As a

child I fell under a lawnmower and cut all my fingers off,” Bird states simply. “Four were

reconnected. One was lost. This led me to relearn how to hold things, and, when the time

came, to play the guitar differently”. Having spent much of her life trying to exist despite its

restrictions, she’s reached a point where she recognises that it’s always been vital to her

lived reality.

Since the release of HANDS, Wallis has toured throughout Europe, the USA and the UK

earning rave reviews and even receiving a nomination for Ireland’s legendary music

magazine Hot Press’ musician of the year. 2023 has seen Wallis jump from her one woman

shows of her 2019 album “Woman” to special big band concerts. Wallis was invited to

perform alongside several Irish Orchestras and big bands for special shows around Ireland’s

treasured national theatres. Meanwhile, she has joined forces with German classical quintet

Spark to create their concert series Visions of Venus, showcasing 1000 years of female

music, from Schumann to Björk.