Emma Langford 10 year anniversary tour comes to Dolans for June 11, 2026

Emma Langford announces 10 year anniversary tour. Photo: Conor Kerr

Emma Langford announces The “Ten Years On And She Still At The Feckin’ Music, Isn’t She Very Brave All The Same, In This Economy” 10 year anniversary tour

In 2016, a moment of creativity and vulnerability by Emma Langford, captured on video, caught the imagination of the public and proved to be the launchpad for the decade that followed.

The song “Tug O’ War” was filmed on a broken iPad in her childhood bedroom in Limerick and shared online, generating a huge response – the then-26-year-old was encouraged to release the song as a single, and she subsequently crowdfunded her debut EP.

The enthusiasm of a newfound audience encouraged Langford to create and share more music, and opened up an avenue for a musical career which has seen the artist go from strength to strength over the last ten years.

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Her career, which she wryly describes as “a haphazard amble from one achievement to the next” has included multiple international tours taking in Germany, Switzerland, the USA, England, Scotland, Wales, Austria and Denmark.

She’s shared the stage and collaborated with household names like the world-class Moya Brennan, Eimear Noone, Wallis Bird, Una Healy, Derek Ryan, Stocktons Wing, Leslie Dowdall and RuthAnne to name a few. Her work has also been recognised with an RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award, numerous nominations and a Grammy nod in 2021, as well as various funding awards and residencies, a Businesswoman of the Year award, and of course the release of two independent studio albums, Quiet Giant and Sowing Acorns.

A key moment for Langford occurred in 2021, when she learned she was autistic. Her diagnosis played a considerable role in helping her to understand much of what she had struggled with socially, and within her industry. She uses her platform now to inform her following, and to advocate for understanding and acceptance of neurodivergence.

“How I write, how I perform, and who I am as an artist is of course tied to being an autistic woman – I’d nearly given up music so many times, because it always felt like I didn’t quite fit – but I know now more than ever how important it is to be here, to be visible, to take a seat at the table – and to do it on your own terms”

Her tour this year celebrates not just ten years of writing, recording and touring her original work, but the fact that she’s done it all her own way, with the support of a strong and enduring grass-roots following. She’s been buoyed along her way by her community, and has made it a priority to give back to them.

The title of her victory lap tour is drawn from a viral meme she created in 2019, and pokes fun at the ever-persistent, well-intended but slightly patronising question volleyed at independent artists the world over, since the dawn of, well, singer-songwriters… “and c’mere to me, are you still at the auld music?”

Emma Langford puts a contemporary spin on the sound of Irish folk; her songs present a unique look at her country’s folklore and history, bringing ancient stories into the present, and in so-doing, offering insight into some of life’s universal truths.

Her debut album Quiet Giant, earned her the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award for Best Emerging Artist in 2018. From her second album, Sowing Acorns, her much-loved ballad The Winding Way Down to Kells Bay and the epic acapella anthem Birdsong quickly climbed the charts, solidifying her place as a versatile and much sought-after singer-songwriter on the Irish and international music scene.

A powerful performance of Birdsong on the Tommy Tiernan Show on RTÉ in January of 2021 was a stand-out moment in Langford’s career, bringing her straight to the living rooms of the country, and showing the world who Emma Langford was.

Her live shows, dotted with folk tales and anecdotes, are praised as witty, engaging, and utterly enthralling, and she is often compared to Janis Ian, Joan Baez and Ani DiFranco not only in tone and lyricism, but for her uncompromising sense of self.

Her albums to date have been produced and mixed by the Grammy-nominated duo of Chris O’Brien and Graham Murphy at The Production Suite Dublin, and have involved a stellar cast of vocalists and musicians, the vibrant palette of which beautifully complements Langford’s own lyrical and vocal prowess.

Her current work sees her turn her focus to global issues, exploring animal cruelty, violence against women, and colonial violence in Hunting The Hare and Boys Will Be Boys. A proud intersectional feminist, her much-anticipated forthcoming album is intended to be a clarion call, with strong central themes of social injustice and of lesser-known women in history and mythology.