Alana Henderson (born 6 October 1988), is a Northern Irish musician, cellist, singer and songwriter from

Dungannon Dungannon (, ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 16,282 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2021 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Counci ...

. She released her debut EP, ''Wax & Wane'' in 2013, and her single, ''Let This Remain'', in 2017. She is now living in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Early life

Alana Henderson was born in

, Northern Ireland. With her family from

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

, Alana grew up in a very music-friendly environment, and started singing and dancing from a very young age. Alana attended

St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon Saint Patrick's Academy ( Irish: ''Acadamh Naomh Pádraig'') is a voluntary grammar school located in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It formed on 1 September 2003 when the two single-sex Saint Patrick's Academies, which coexisted ...

and picked up cello there. Alana studied Law at

Queen's University, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, determined to become a lawyer, but in her words, "Law was incredibly dry, quite boring and I really began to feel frustrated and so I started songwriting." After completing the degree, she eventually left to become a singer-songwriter, just before her solicitor apprenticeship started.

Music career

2013: ''Wax & Wane''

On 11 March 2013, Alana released her debut EP ''Wax & Wane'', which also included "Song about a Song", "The Tower", and "Two Turtle Doves". The EP got generally positive views, including Lee Gorman of The Thin Air Magazine saying "an immensely promising first effort, which marks Alana Henderson out as one to watch". In 2013, Alana joined The Jepettos, a Northern Irish alternative band, in their single, "Water".

2014-2016: ''Windfall'', Touring with ''Hozier''

In 20 February 2014, Alana released an album called ''Windfall'', which is "a side–project, separate from my own contemporary writing, in which I recorded an album of re–worked, contemporary arrangements of traditional songs from the North of Ireland", according to her own words. The album was shortlisted for the Northern Ireland Music Prize in 2014. ''Windfall'' is currently not available on iTunes. Alana accompanied

Hozier Andrew John Hozier-Byrne (born 17 March 1990), known professionally as Hozier ( ), is an Irish musician. His music primarily draws from Folk music, folk, Soul music, soul and blues, often using religious and literary themes and taking politica ...

, an Irish singer-songwriter, on cello and vocals from late 2014 to early 2016. Together with Hozier, she played at over 300 shows, including

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Jayne County, To ...

, and a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

performance joined by

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...

. Apart from cello, Alana joined the duet with Hozier for his song "In a Week" on tour, when Karen Cowley, the original singer of the song, was not present. During the tour, Alana occasionally performed her original songs as an opening act for Hozier. In July 2015, Alana played a stripped back folk set with Hozier in

Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...

, which was "a highlight of the tour" for her.

2017: ''Let This Remain''

On 27 October 2017, Alana released her single "Let This Remain", which was her first musical release after 2 years of touring. In 2017, Alana recorded a duet song "Holllllogram" with Joshua Burnside, a Belfast-based singer-songwriter. The song was tracked in his debut album, ''EPHRATA''.

Acting career

In 2007, Alana starred in '' Seacht'', which was an Irish language television soap opera, and was broadcast by

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

and

BBC Two Northern Ireland BBC Two Northern Ireland is a Northern Irish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland as a variation of the BBC Two network. It is broadcast via digital terrestrial transmitters and from the SES Astra 2E satell ...

. She starred as Caroline, a singing cello player.

Discography

Studios

Extended plays

Singles

Music videos

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Alana 21st-century singer-songwriters from Northern Ireland 21st-century women singers from Northern Ireland Women folk singers from Northern Ireland 1988 births Women singer-songwriters from Northern Ireland People from Dungannon Living people Musicians from County Tyrone People educated at St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon 21st-century folk musicians from Northern Ireland