Gemma Hayes

Gemma Claire Hayes (born 11 August 1977, Ballyporeen, Tipperary, Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter.

One of eight children, Hayes was surrounded by music from an early age, both from any of her seven siblings' bedrooms and being played by her father, a keyboardist in a local band. By the time she left for boarding school in County Limerick, Hayes was already proficient at piano and found that the music used to counter the boredom of living in a small village. Although she enrolled at University in Dublin, Hayes soon left to concentrate on music, working part-time in a laundrette during the day and playing the city's circuit at night.

Hayes signed to the French independent record label, Source Records in 2001, and issued the 4.35am EP and the Work to a Calm EP before releasing her debut album, Night on my Side, in 2002. In 2002 she won Best Female Singer at the Hot Press Awards. The album was nominated for the 2003 Mercury Prize but lost out to Ms. Dynamite's, A Little Deeper. After touring Night on my Side Hayes took two years out from the music industry; "All I do know is that I didn't want to listen to music at all. I stopped listening to the radio. It was like I'd overdosed on music".

In late 2005, Hayes returned with her second album, The Roads Don't Love You, and picked up the Best Irish Female Artist award at the 2006 Meteor Ireland Music Awards, while completing a small tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Shortly after this she left Source Records parent company EMI-Virgin as EMI-Virgin was undergoing an overhaul of artists and bands. During this time Hayes co-wrote the song "Hazy" with Adam Duritz.

On August 14, 2006 Hayes announced, via her MySpace profile, that she had begun work on her third album in the Black Box Studios in France, to be produced by her former guitarist, David Odlum. Hayes posted demo versions of a few of the songs on MySpace during recording, including "Out of Our Hands", "Home", and "This Is What You Do".

Hayes' third album The Hollow of Morning was independently-released on May 2, 2008 in Ireland, and debuted at number 12 in the Irish Albums Chart. Following this she signed a recording contract with the US record label, Second Motion where The Hollow of Morning was released in the US on 30 September 2008. Second Motion works with Daniel Lanois, Adam Franklin of Swervedriver, Brian Vander Ark and others.

On Thursday, February 13 2011, Gemma Hayes confirmed on RTE Radio 1's Today with Pat Kenny that her fourth studio album will be released in May 2011 this will be supported by a nation-wide tour of Ireland. It was later confirmed on gemmahayes.com that the fourth album is due for May release with a single due mid-Spring as recording in Ireland and France has nearly come to completion. Tracklistings and the album title have yet to be confirmed, though Gemma confirmed that 'Shock to the System' will appear on the album. On March 15,2011 Gemma confirmed on her Twitter account that a track called Noise will feature on the album.

On April 10, 2011 Gemma confirmed through her website that the new album will be released on Friday, May 27, 2011 in Ireland. The album will be called Let It Break.