Brian Kennedy (singer)  Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy (born 12 October 1966) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and author from Belfast. He scored a number of hit singles and albums in the UK and RoI during the 1990s and 2000s. He represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 and finished in 10th place. Brian is the younger brother of the late musician Bap Kennedy. Kennedy made his debut in 1988 as a chorus on the recordings of Van Morrison, an Irish singer / songwriter born in Northern Ireland. Kennedy came to prominence as one of Van Morrison's backing singers, appearing on a number of his albums, including "A Night in San Francisco", "Days Like This", "The Healing Game" and "Back on Top" and live in concert. Around this time, he also scored a minor UK hit album of his own with "The Great War of Words" (1990). This album featured the lead single "Captured" which was a minor hit in both the UK and Irish charts. In 1991, Kennedy was joined by Mark E. Nevin, formerly of Fairground Attraction to form the duo Sweetmouth. Their album, "Goodbye to Songtown" was released in August 1991 and featured the songs written by Nevin for a second Fairground Attraction album, which was never realised. In the mid 1990s, pop manager Simon Fuller took on Kennedy, signing him to RCA Records for his second solo album which saw greater success. Released in 1996, the album, "A Better Man" reached No.19 in the UK and spawned the hit singles "A Better Man" (No.28), "Life Love and Happiness" (No.27) and "Put the Message in a Box" (No.37), which also all became top 20 hits in Ireland. This was followed in 1999 by the album "Now That I Know What I Want", which met with less success. In 2001, he released his fourth album "Get On with Your Short Life", which rendered only a No.81 placing for its title track in the UK. Later that year, he performed on the original Secret Garden version of the song "You Raise Me Up", which went on to be recorded by many other artists, such as Josh Groban and Westlife. This was the song he sang at the funeral of the footballer, George Best in late 2005. His version was released again in December 2005 and early the following year became his biggest hit, released as the EP "George Best - a Tribute" with Peter Corry.