Margo (singer)

Margo (born Margeret Catherine O'Donnell; February 6, 1951) is an Irish singer. She rose to prominence during the 1960s in the Irish country music scene and has had a successful career since.

Margo was brought up in the small village of Kincasslagh, County Donegal, Ireland. She grew up in a Catholic family, with her parents Francis and Julia (née McGonagle) O'Donnell, and her siblings: John (the eldest), Kathleen, James; and the youngest Daniel, who is also a singer. Her father died of a heart attack when she was young.

Margo started performing country music at a very young age in 1964 with a local showband, The Keynotes. She recorded her first single in 1968, "Bonny Irish Boy/Dear God", which was a success as was her second single, "If I Could See the World Through the Eyes of a Child/Road By the River", released in 1969 cemented her newfound stardom with fans. Margo has been a successful singer for five decades and has sold more than 1,000,000 records to date, and performed with Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. She presented numerous TV shows for RTÉ in the 1970s and has collected many awards during her long career.

Margo is sister to Irish singer Daniel O'Donnell, who got his start with Margo's band in the early 1980s while attending college in Galway. Margo was named "2007 Donegal Person Of The Year" and spent most of 2007 traveling the length and breath of the country acting as an ambassador to her native county.She makes her home in Annahale, Castleblayney, County Monaghan, where she has lived for the past two decades.

Albums

• Ireland's Country Queens: The Way Old Friends Do (with Philomena Begley) (PADDY CD 17)

• Nicola Tallan article on Margo, The Times; 2 April 2006