By Louise O’Reilly, CEO of Business to Arts
In the past year, Lisa Canny, founder and leader of the all-female trad collective BIIRD, has taken Irish traditional music to new heights. Through vision, resilience, and unapologetic originality, she has not only created a band but ignited a movement. Since their debut in London’s Trafalgar Square on St. Patrick’s Day 2024, BIIRD has had a meteoric rise, played to audiences of thousands, sold out headline shows, and amassed a global following online. Her exceptional musicianship and performances recently led to playing with Ed Sheeran and at Derry Girls Saoirse-Monica Jackson’s wedding.
While BIIRD’s performances electrify audiences by reimagining the Irish music session for a new generation, Lisa’s leadership is fearless and visionary. A seven-time All-Ireland harp and banjo champion and ethnomusicologist, she assembled and directs an 11-piece ensemble (with an extended family of up to 20 musicians), forging a creative powerhouse in a male-dominated sector. “I’ve wanted to do this since I was 19,” she told one interviewer. “It was always in the back of my head – to do something all-female in trad because it just doesn’t exist”. BIIRD is not only about preserving tradition, but about modernising it.
Canny set out to reposition trad as a vibrant, contemporary art form that belongs on the global stage: She is modernising the image of trad music and bringing it back to the fore of popular culture in Ireland and abroad. In BIIRD’s sound, aesthetic, and performance style, she has created a bold new space for Irish music that blends respect for heritage with cutting-edge artistry. Canny brought on Irish designer and stylist Ríon Hannora to create uniquely Irish, cutting-edge garments to cement BIIRD’s original look.
But her innovation has not been without resistance. Canny has spoken openly about criticism from traditionalist quarters: “Some people said I was a disgrace to the tradition… But I just don’t believe you can disgrace the tradition. Trad is bigger than all of us. It has stood the test of time and it will never die”. By reframing such adversity as a call to strengthen her vision, she has built something more resilient, inclusive, and powerful. Canny’s contribution extends beyond performance: she is reshaping the cultural narrative of trad music by championing women’s voices and celebrating the female perspective on stage and off. “BIIRD is about women. Women in trad. We want to celebrate the female perspective – on stage, in sound, in look and in energy.”
Her legacy is already clear. As one journalist captured, “It feels like we are creating a movement, not just a band.” That movement is Lisa Canny’s creation: a cultural shift that modernises Irish trad, empowers women, and captivates audiences worldwide. In this year and last, Lisa Canny has demonstrated the courage to innovate, the resilience to lead through adversity, and the vision to create a new legacy for Irish music. For her extraordinary leadership of BIIRD and the phenomenal success it has achieved, she is a truly deserving winner for Woman of the Year in Music.
