Taylor Swift has had several surprising Irish ties across her 12 albums.
From referencing Co Wicklow in her "Midnights" song "Sweet Nothing" to enlisting Graham Norton, Cillian Murphy, and Domhnall Gleeson in her latest music video "Opalite," Taylor seems to love this country of ours.
And with the Irish language on the rise, we wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up throwing in a cúpla focail in one of her songs on the next album.
However, Meath artist Lisa Murray may have that part of the market cornered — as a throwaway TikTok comment saw her launch herself to stardom.
Born and raised in the little-known Gaeltacht of Baile Ghib, Lisa tells Extra.ie she was raised with a lot of Irish and music in her household.
"I started playing piano when I was seven or eight," Lisa explained. "But once I got to about 10, every time I’d make a mistake I’d just write a little song instead of [fixing] the mistake I made.
"My early songs were just Avril Lavigne songs in a different font," she joked. "But I did a lot of different things musically throughout my teenage years — musical theatre, playing in bands — and then I went on to study music and Irish for my degree as two separate subjects."
After completing her Master’s in Valencia, Lisa continued making music, although she never made the connection between the music and the language until late 2024, when she released her debut single "Uaighneach."
"Something just kind of clicked for me [making music As Gaeilge]," she said. "I was like 'this makes so much sense.' I’m actually surprised that it took me this long to fuse those parts of my personality!"
While promoting the song, a throwaway comment pointing out the resemblance between her and a certain pop megastar gave her an idea that would see her go viral.
"I made a TikTok promoting my song, somebody commented: 'Gaeilgeoir Swift.' I was like: 'Oh my god, that’s it. I’ve hit the niche.'"
From there, she responded to the comment with an Irish translation of "You Belong With Me" from Taylor’s album "Fearless," where she was lauded with praise for the clever translations and more requests — leading to her doing covers of "August," "The Fate of Ophelia," and "Opalite" among other songs.
@lisawiththefringe Replying to @quavomhe Gaeilgeoir Swift allegations confirmed 🫡🫶🏻💚 #gaeilge #seachtainnagaeilge #taylorswift #swifties #irishlanguage #gaeilgeoir ♬ original sound - Lisa Murray ☘️ Ceol as Gaeilge
"It’s funny, you get such a wide mix of people [commenting on the videos]," Lisa said. "You get some people who are like 'oh my god, I love Taylor Swift, but this just made me love her more,' or people who comment 'I hate Taylor Swift but this is Irish so it’s actually good.'"
While there are, of course, language barriers for some words (for example, there isn’t a word for ‘bleachers’ so Lisa substituted it with just regular ‘stands’), Lisa adds that finding substitutes can always be an interesting way of finding new ways of speaking Irish.
"Sometimes you’re scratching your head for certain words, especially when they’re very Americanised, but it’s funny because the songs that are more straightforward as Béarla can be harder to translate while other songs that might seem more complicated are far easier to translate. It really depends."
While Lisa has struck gold with her translations — even branching out to do Irish covers of Hozier, Mariah Carey, and the Beatles — she added that her original music is still where she’s focused, with her teasing that her debut album, Abhaile, will be released later this year.
@lisawiththefringe What other Beatles songs do you want to hear as Gaeilge? ☀️☘️🇮🇪 #asgaeilge #irishlanguage #gaeilge #gaeilgetiktok #thebeatles ♬ original sound - Lisa Murray ☘️ Ceol as Gaeilge
"There are some really amazing things happening this year," she tells Extra.ie. "I’m working on my debut album at the minute. I started doing all the Irish language stuff when I was living in London and I’ve now moved home.
"The full story’s about emigrating and then returning and finding your Irishness through being away — I think that’s something that happens to a lot of people; as soon as we leave Ireland we become more patriotic," she joked.
"It’s all bilingual; most of the songs are in Irish and some are bilingual in there too — that’s my big cornerstone project for 2026, hopefully out in October."
Lisa’s album "Abhaile" will be out later this year, while she can be found on TikTok and Instagram, @LisaWithTheFringe.
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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