DANIEL DUKE
Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Indie folk-pop, Acoustic
Location: Edinburgh, UK
Discography: Brother (2016)
Record Company: Little Victories (Independent)
Website: http://www.danielduke.co.uk/
For our next showcase artist we travel to the beautiful city of Edinburgh the current home of award-winning Northern Irish singer-songwriter Daniel Duke. Daniel appeared in the blind audition stages of The Voice UK 2015, and his unique take on The Proclaimers 'I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)' won him three chair turns and a place on 'Team Tom'. With over 2 million views, his audition has proved to be one of the most popular of the series and it’s clear the audience connected with what he was doing on stage. Duke’s singing and songwriting have been compared to the likes of Jeff Buckley, Brett Dennen, Conor Oberst and Marcus Mumford.
Daniel also won first place in the folk/singer-songwriter category of 2015's International Songwriting Competition with his song 'Borderline'. The contest, judged by industry professionals and bands like London Grammar and Bastille, included Vance Joy and Kimbra in its list of winners.
2016 saw Daniel take the ‘unpublished prize’ of the Unsigned Only songwriting competition and is now being mentored by top music publishers. As well as this Daniel won ‘Best Unsigned Male’ in the Best of British 2016 'Unsigned Music Awards', voted for by listeners of the nationally syndicated BoB Unsigned Radio show.
The Irish Troubadour honed his skills busking on the streets of Belfast, and it shows in the sheer power of his voice and, what Folkroom Records describes as the “catchy, Fleetwood Mac-does-folk-sing-a-long-anthems” sound of his songs.
Two years of solid touring has allowed Daniel to hone his live performance into an art-form. Whether playing solo or with his twin brother and their raucous backing band, Daniel holds the audience in the palm of his hand — soothing them with his soft, sweet ballads and rocking them with his upbeat, folk-pop hits. After racking up more than 3 million youtube views, Daniel was approached and signed by BBTV, the world’s largest Youtube network, with links to Fremantle Media, Huffington Post and Sony BMG.
After launching a hugely successful Kickstarter Campaign in January, Daniel’s debut album, ‘Brother’ was released on 29th April 2016. With glowing praise from the likes of Tom Jones, Rita Ora, Will.i.am, Olly Murs and Livingston Taylor, an army of dedicated fans behind him, it seems Daniel is truly onto something good. Keep an eye out for full band and solo tour dates throughout 2017.