Dublin-born and now based in Paris, ESSIRAY is stepping into her next chapter with a sound that refuses to sit neatly in one lane. A former opera singer turned electronic pop artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist, she brings together classical technique, underground club influences and emotionally charged songwriting to create music that feels both instinctive and finely crafted.
For ESSIRAY, music is “fun, sexy, bad ass, high quality, fierce, feel good and thought-provoking”, a bold introduction from an artist still finding her way, but already clear on the energy she wants to put into the world. Her sound moves through electronic pop, UKG, jungle, drum and bass and live instrumentation, shaped by years of classical training, piano, composition and the discipline of performance. But it was a vocal injury, one that permanently changed her voice, that forced her to rebuild from the ground up. What first felt like a loss became a turning point, pushing her deeper into production, songwriting and experimentation.
Her new single Make It Happen captures that sense of reinvention. Written during a period of self-doubt and reflection, the track explores accountability, growth and the fight to believe in yourself even when confidence does not come naturally. Built around jungle rhythms, acoustic bass and layered harmonies, it balances sharp, clean production with the warmth and texture of ESSIRAY’s voice, now used not only for melody, but as atmosphere, rhythm and emotional expression.
Having already earned support from District Magazine, RTÉ 2FM, Hot Press, Nialler9 and Notion, and performed at festivals including Electric Picnic, Forbidden Fruit and Beyond the Pale, ESSIRAY is quickly becoming one of Ireland’s most exciting new voices. With Dublin giving her a creative foundation and Paris pushing her independence, she is building a world that is raw, open and full of movement. As Make It Happen begins a new run of releases throughout 2026, ESSIRAY is ready to share more of herself, more of her sound and more of the fearless energy that defines her next era.
For readers discovering you for the first time, who is ESSIRAY, and what do you want people to understand about you as an artist?
ESSIRAY’s music is fun, sexy, badass, high-quality, fierce, feel-good and thought-provoking. As an artist, I’m just a twenty-something Irish girl trying to find her way in the world, share her art and make music that feels true to me. It’s an evolution of everything I’ve experienced, and you can hear that in the sound, but you don’t need to know all of that to enjoy it. It’s the kind of music you put on, get lost in a bit and carry with you through your day. At its core, my music is positive, fun and, in general, just absolute tunes.
Your sound moves between electronic pop, UKG, jungle, drum and bass, live instrumentation and classical vocal technique. How did you find a sound that feels fully your own?
It was a lot of trial and error, and just putting myself out there. Collaborating, pushing boundaries, not sticking to one lane, and not being afraid to try things that don’t work and then try again. A big part of it was paying attention to what’s actually around me: what I’m listening to day to day, what makes my senses come alive, whether that’s in a club, at a gig, or even just going through my own playlists. It was about really noticing what genuinely resonates with me. Then it’s about combining that with what feels natural for me to make and perform. That’s where it starts to become your own. But it definitely takes time. It doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s something you grow into.
You began in classical music and opera before moving into electronic pop. What did that early training give you that still shapes the way you write, sing and produce today?
It gave me a lot. It gave me vocal technique, a real understanding of music, and discipline, like actually working hard for what you want to achieve. At the same time, because it was so structured and quite rigid when I was in that world, it kind of pushed me in the opposite direction creatively. When I started writing my own music, I had this constant urge to try something different, to push boundaries and not stay within one box. So I think it gave me both sides: the foundation and the control, but also that drive to break away from it and find something that feels more like me.
Your voice has been central to your journey, but a vocal injury permanently changed it. How did that experience challenge your sense of identity as a performer?
It completely changed how I approach performing. I had to accept that my voice was going to be different, and that it would take time and work to feel comfortable singing again. For a long time, I thought my voice was about hitting the hardest, most technical things, as if that was the peak of what I could do. But when I couldn’t do that anymore, it made me realise your voice is so much more than that. It’s not about pushing it to the extreme; it’s about exploring all the different textures, the edges and the way it naturally wants to move. It also brought me closer to expression. Instead of singing what’s perfectly written on a page, it became more about what feels real in my body and how I actually want to say something.
I had to sing a bit lower and explore different techniques, and that created a completely different sound to what I was used to. At the same time, I was also trying to find my own sound as an artist, so the two things kind of happened together. What felt like a loss at first actually ended up shaping something new, and in a way, they really complemented each other.
After that injury, you rebuilt yourself through production, songwriting and experimentation. Was there a moment when you realised that what felt like a setback could become the beginning of something new?
Yeah, definitely. It was after about a year, maybe a year and a half, of teaching myself production and songwriting. I realised I’d actually built a real skill, even if it wasn’t perfect. That was a big shift for me because, suddenly, I wasn’t relying only on my voice anymore. I had other ways to express myself, and that changed everything. I think I recognised quite early on that what had happened might actually be the best thing for me creatively. If the injury hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have pushed myself to learn those skills in the same way.
A big moment was when I could actually take something from my head and get it down, even roughly, into a track. Recording, sampling and shaping a sound so it felt close to what I was imagining, even if it wasn’t perfect. Once you can do that, everything opens up. The idea can evolve, whether that’s on your own or with other people. It also meant I didn’t have to rely on someone else to bring my ideas to life. I could start them myself, and that’s huge. For me, it’s not about perfection. It’s about getting the idea out and giving it a starting point. That’s when I knew this could actually become something really good.
Make It Happen feels like a statement of self-belief. What was happening in your life when you wrote it?
I actually wrote Make It Happen about two years before it came out, and at the time I was going through a lot internally. I was starting to really face my own self-doubt and the habits I had that were kind of holding me back. There’s a line in the song about being done chasing things to escape what I can’t feel, and that came from recognising how easy it is to distract yourself instead of actually dealing with what’s going on. It was also about taking my own advice. I realised I was always there for my friends, telling them what they needed to hear, but not always applying that same honesty to myself.
Then there’s the other side of it, which is accepting that I’m not perfect. I spiral sometimes, I have ADHD, my brain moves a lot, and I had to come to terms with the fact that it’s not about fixing everything or becoming this perfect version of yourself. It’s about learning how to manage it and work with it. So the song became about that balance: holding yourself accountable, but also giving yourself a bit of grace. Understanding that growth isn’t linear, and you’re going to have moments where you fall back into old patterns, but that doesn’t mean you’re not moving forward. At the core of it, it’s that reminder to yourself that you can make it happen, no matter what challenges you’re facing.
The song is about having the belief to make things happen for yourself. Has self-belief always come naturally to you, or is it something you have had to fight for?
No, not at all. Self-belief has definitely not come naturally to me. I think for a long time I was kind of faking it. I’d keep going and keep pushing, but deep down I didn’t always actually believe in myself. I’m a very driven person and I’ll work hard for what I want, but that doesn’t always mean the belief is fully there.
It’s something I’ve had to build over time, and honestly, it’s still a constant work in progress. I have to check in with myself and make sure I’m not slipping back into that mindset, because it really does affect everything. That’s why this song is so personal to me. It’s not like I’m celebrating having it all figured out; it’s more a reflection of something I’ve struggled with and am still working through. But I can say it’s a lot stronger now than it used to be. And I think it’s something I’ll probably always be working on, because it matters. It’s worth fighting for.
The track blends jungle-tinged rhythms with acoustic bass and layered harmonies. What feeling were you trying to capture in the production?
Yeah, this is definitely a jungle track, but I wanted to approach it a bit differently to what I’d done before. With some of my other tracks, like Bullshit and Let’s Go Driving, I love that really full, slightly fuzzy, almost old-school sound, where everything feels quite layered and busy. But with this one, I actually wanted to strip things back a bit. The main idea was to let the jungle drums breathe more, to isolate them so you really feel that rhythm, and then have the acoustic bass play off them. The bass has a completely different texture to the more electronic bass I’ve used before, so it gives it this more live, grounded feeling.
So instead of everything competing, it’s more like each element has space. The drums, the bass and the vocals sit really clearly on top of one another. In the chorus, I wanted that shift into a different break, so you really feel the change in energy. It kind of pulls you into a new moment in the track. Overall, I wanted it to feel super clean and sharp, but still have that jungle energy, where all the elements are bouncing off each other in a really natural way. Vocally, I always layer a lot of harmonies, so even though the instrumental is more stripped back, there’s still depth and texture coming through in the vocals.
You are Dublin-born and now based in Paris. How have those two cities shaped your creativity, independence and sense of self?
Dublin shaped me in a lot of ways because it’s where I really built my sound and started performing. It’s where I played my first gigs, and it has such a supportive scene. It’s quite small in a way, so everyone shows up for each other. You feel encouraged to put yourself out there, and as a new artist, that’s huge. It gives you the confidence to share what you’re making without feeling judged, and you can really build a sense of community around you.
Moving to Paris was a different kind of shift. It was more personal. I needed to step out of what I knew, experience something new and kind of push myself into a different environment. Because my music is so connected to my life, that naturally changed my creativity too. In Paris, you have to create your own space. You’re going to open mics, meeting new people, talking about your sound and really trying to find your place again. It made me more independent and more aware of who I am as an artist outside of what I was used to. I think Dublin gave me my creative foundation, and Paris pushed my independence and sense of self. Having both of those has really shaped who I am now.
As a new artist, there can be pressure to define yourself quickly. Do you feel freedom or pressure in introducing ESSIRAY to the world?
Yeah, definitely both. There is pressure, especially at the start, because you’re trying to understand your own sound while also presenting it in a way that people can recognise. We’re in a time where everything is so tied to algorithms, so there’s this feeling of needing to say, “This is who I am, this is what I make.” Even if your sound is quite fluid, you do have to find a way to place yourself somewhere so people can connect to it.
But for me, it’s about finding the line where it still feels true. I don’t mind a bit of pressure. I actually think it can be helpful when you’re figuring things out. It pushes you to define your sound. Once I started to understand what felt like me, it became much easier to present that. At the beginning, I definitely felt more pressure because I didn’t fully know my sound yet. But now I feel more grounded in it, and at the same time, I’m not afraid for it to evolve. If I want to switch things up or explore something new, I will. So the pressure is there, but it mostly comes from me. Once I learned how to manage that, it started to feel more like freedom.
Your influences include FKA twigs, Confidence Man, Catching Cairo, PinkPantheress and Paradis, artists who all bend genres in different ways. What have they taught you about taking creative risks?
I think what all of those artists have in common is that they’re completely themselves, and they build a full world around their music. When I’m inspired by someone, it’s not just about the songs. It’s about how they express their art visually, how they perform, how they move and how they tell their story. With FKA twigs, for example, there’s such a raw emotion to everything she does. It’s physical, expressive and really experimental, but still connects in a strong way.
Then, Confidence Man brings something completely different. It’s pure joy. The energy, the dancing, the world they create; it makes you want to be part of it. That’s what inspires me. Not just how something sounds, but how it exists as a whole. It’s made me realise that taking creative risks isn’t just about the music. It’s about how you build your identity as an artist and how far you’re willing to push that.
You have already played festivals including Electric Picnic, Forbidden Fruit and Beyond the Pale, and supported artists such as Moonchild Sanelly, Miya Folick and GoldFish. What have those live experiences taught you about the kind of performer you want to become?
Honestly, every time I perform, it just reinforces what I want to bring, which is a mix of fun, energy and real emotion. I want my shows to feel like a party, something people can fully enjoy and get lost in, but also have moments where it pulls back and you really feel something. Whether that’s through the vocals or a more stripped-back section, that balance is really important to me. Playing those festivals and supporting artists has also shown me how important it is to just be genuine on stage. The performances that stay with you are the ones where you can feel the artist actually connecting with the crowd and being present in the moment.
That’s something I really care about: being authentic, enjoying it and appreciating that exchange of energy between me and the audience. At the core of it, I want people to have a good time, feel something real and leave with that positive energy.
Make It Happen begins a new run of releases throughout 2026. What kind of world are you building with this next chapter, and what should listeners expect from ESSIRAY next?
Yeah, this next year for me is really about putting more out into the world. I have a lot of music sitting there that I’m ready to share, and I want to start releasing more consistently. I’m also really open to collaborations, just working with different people and seeing where that takes the sound.
Beyond the music, it’s about building more of a world around ESSIRAY. Not just the tracks, but how that connects to everything else: my life in Paris, what I’m experiencing day to day, and how that feeds into what I create. I want it to feel more open, more raw, and I want to just have fun with it. It’s about sharing more of myself, not overthinking it too much, and letting people into that process.
So you can expect a lot more music, different sides of me, and that world continuing to grow over the year.
