Maria first came to people's attention earlier this year with the wonderful single All You Need. She's recorded live sessions with both John Kennedy at Xfm and Janice Long at Radio 2, both shows taken by the charm and beauty of Maria's songs.

Maria Byrne is an Irish singer-songwriter, originally from Cork and based for the last few years in London. She has turned her hand to a range of occupations over the years including welding hairline cracks in Rolls Royce Jet Engines. Discovering that she was much happier singing and writing songs, she taught herself to play guitar and took off to London in search of opportunity and a decent cup of tea.

Her uniquely phrased lyrics are based on arguments overheard on buses, intuitive slants on affairs of the heart and she even dared to bravely spin the lyric 'all you need is love' in a fresh direction on her debut single.

She counts such influences as Regina Spektor, Feist and Sinead O' Connor, channelling some of the brilliance of these artists but also standing up against her contemporaries, with a vocal talent that not only pleases the ears but also charms the heart.

She has gigs in both the UK and Ireland planned for summer 2010 with her full band - the Daves - and will be releasing her second single "Home" on Monday 16th August.