Galway dance troupe aims to impress Ed Sheeran

A group of Galway girls have taken to the Claddagh to win the heart of pop star Ed Sheeran in his quest to find céilí dancers to star in a video for his upcoming song Galway Girl.

Just three days after they posted a video of their routine online, it has garnered two million views. Already offers are piling in for the girls to perform at weddings and various events. But so far the man himself is keeping ‘shtum’.

They arrived into class at the Celine Hession Dancing School last week begging to create a new routine to an Ed Sheeran song after he announced he was on the lookout for dancing stars for a video of his new song which many believe will be filmed in the city.

The song Galway Girl is different to the hugely-popular hit of the same name written by Steve Earle when he lived in Galway in the 1990s.

Their teacher Gemma Carney said: “They did the majority of the routine themselves. They came up with it in a day, dancing to Shape of You and seamlessly blended it into A Lovely Madness by Beoga, the group that Ed Sheeran said he was working with.

“They practiced at our studio. We often dance to funky tunes anyway and Beoga is a group we have danced to ourselves. The filmed one version and thought it was terrible so they decided to work on their presentation and just have fun.”

The brother of dancer Lynn McNally – Shane McNally, a videographer and video editor – shot it over the course of an hour last Sunday, on a cold but beautiful day overlooking Galway Bay.

He decided to keep the initial blooper in during the editing as a bit of fun.

“I was roped in at the last minute. We didn’t expect it get as big as it has. There are two separate posts of it and people just kept sharing. So far it has attracted two million views and counting,” explained Shane.

The girls, aged between 16 and 18 and from the city as well as Lackagh, Athenry and Tynagh, have been dancing with the Celine Hession school since they were as young as four.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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