Buncrana father and daughter musical duo honoured at awards ceremony in Holland

A talented father-daughter musical duo from Buncrana have been honoured with an incredible three awards at an international ceremony in Holland.

Hugh P and Maria Doherty are well-known faces and voices right across the north-west. Their music and melodies have been a beautiful soundtrack to hundreds of weddings, funerals, dances, concerts and community events for many years.

With millions of views online, they are known across the world and were big winners at the recent, prestigious Red Carpet Awards in the Netherlands.

The duo were honoured with accolades for ‘Extraordinary Voices Duo’, ‘Gospel Duo’ and ‘Wedding Songs Duo’ – and they also performed on the night.

The awards represent decades of hard work and entertainment, beginning when Hugh P started singing at a young age and through his time performing in groups such as ‘Roadrunners,’ ‘The Friends’ showband from Derry, which toured all over Ireland, England and Germany, ‘The Capri’ in Buncrana, and many more, up until the present day, with his daughter, Maria.

He explained: “I’ve been playing music all my life, from my first band when I was 17 – I always had a love for music and wanted to start a band, so I tried to gather up any boys that had instruments. In those days, it didn’t matter if you could play, as long as I could round up enough boys who owned an instrument.”

“I formed different bands over the years and then Maria and I began singing together 17 years ago. We started playing music together at Mass in our local chapel every Sunday. Maria had one tin-whistle tune when we started!”

Maria studied music at university, but said that performing with her daddy ‘has really taught me a million times more than my Masters.’

“I play music for many other things as well, so we’re always on the go – whether it’s for 1,000 young people at a Catholic Festival in Kildare for Youth2000 or for the Mayor’s Tea Dance for dancers in the Guildhall in Derry. We love to play at weddings and funerals also – going back to our beginnings starting in the chapel. We just love being a part of these most important and special moments in people’s lives – it's really an honour to be a part of them.”

Maria is also a familiar face on TV and radio, and presented a TV show on ‘Keep it Country’ for six years called ‘Maria’s Gospel Hour’.

Recently, Hugh and Maria began presenting a radio show every Sunday at 4pm on ‘Radio Maria’, where they play a selection of gospel songs intertwined with chat and requests.

They are also well-known for helping out charities, performing at events such as Relay for Life in Letterkenny.

They donated every penny from their first CD ‘A Living Prayer’ to charity; they have donated to the local hospice and also support an orphanage in Uganda.

Maria has previously visited the orphanage and told how it was ‘so beautiful’ to see the work that had been done through their music.

“So, a big thanks and well done to everyone who purchased our CD.”

Their CD, ‘A Couple More Years,’ which was a selection of their favourite songs, was also a big hit.

“We began to put some videos on YouTube and got an incredible response,” revealed Hugh.

“We couldn’t believe the viewership we received.”

Incredibly, one of their videos – ‘I Heard the Bluebirds Sing’ – is about to hit the 10-million view mark, and Maria said they have received ‘the most beautiful comments from all over the world.”

They even posted a CD to Honolulu recently.

Hugh P and Maria were invited to perform at the ‘Red Carpet Music Awards’ in recognition of their musical talents, travelling over with their friends, Eddie and Angela.

They were delighted to also win three awards, beating off stiff competition from artists around Europe, Australia, Africa, the United States and Canada.

They closed the show by performing two of their songs, ‘A Living Prayer’ and ‘I Heard the Bluebirds Sing’. They received an award for both these songs.

Hugh and Maria thanked everyone who has ‘been so supportive to us – our friends and family and all those who have sent us beautiful, kind messages.’

“Also to those who have ever booked us to sing at their events, to the radio DJs who play our songs and also to the judges and organisers of the Awards Show, Gaby and Peter – we are so grateful to everyone for being a part of our music journey!”

The duo has another CD in the pipeline and their plans for the future include reaching out to even more fans.

Maria said: “We had been hiding our light for a long time, as they say, and finally we have realised that people really want to hear our music and that we need it get it out there!”

“So, we’re going to try and make more music for everyone – we think, as Irish people, we’re the worst at shying away! This has been such an encouragement to see the lovely messages from people who really love our music.”

“Also, the number of people from all over the world seeking more – we really do want to create more music for everyone.”

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Hugh confirmed that they’re planning to release their new CD ‘hopefully before Christmas’ and are planning some upcoming shows.

The new CD, Maria added, ‘will be a selection of some beautiful gospel songs we’ve chosen that we really hope everyone gets something out of.’

You can find Hugh P and Maria’s award-winning songs on YouTube – Hugh P and Maria Doherty. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with what they’re doing next. If you’d like to book them for an event or get in touch, email: maria-doherty@live.ie