Michael Graham (singer)
| Michael Graham | |
|---|---|
Graham (right) with Ronan Keating (left)
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael Christopher Charles Graham |
| Born |
15 August 1972 Raheny, Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Pop, soft rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter, actor, music producer |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Labels | Polydor UK |
Michael Christopher Charles "Mikey" Graham (born 15 August 1972) is an Irish singer-songwriter, actor and record producer, best known as a member of boy band Boyzone. In 2010 he was a contestant on Dancing on Ice.
The youngest of seven children, Graham was born to housewife Sheila and carpenter William, and raised on the Northside of Dublin with five older sisters and one older brother. He attended Billie Barry Stage School in Dublin and started his life in the public eye at an early age, appearing in television adverts for Mikado biscuits and the Irish Electricity Board, T-Mobile. Like his bandmate Shane Lynch, Graham had worked as a mechanic before finding fame as a singer; Lynch has stated in an interview that during the early days of Boyzone, he and Graham had a heated argument over exhaust pipes and did not speak to each other for fifteen years.
In 1993, Graham - who had previously been a member of the band Ivory - auditioned to be a member of a new boyband which would later be known as Boyzone, where he sang Meat Loaf's "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad". Although he was not chosen as part of the final line-up, manager Louis Walsh changed his mind after firing two members for their lack of commitment.
Graham gained a reputation as 'the quiet one' in the band. However, despite their success, he felt that Boyzone's pop-styles did not give him a chance to expand his own musical taste which included rock and folk. ("Creatively and musically, what I wanted to do personally wasn't what was required for the band's product, so that suppression of what I wanted led to low self-esteem.") Following Boyzone's split in 2000, he sank into depression, but gradually recovered. During his break from Boyzone, he trained as an actor in America, and studied Music Technology and Sound Production after his solo career as a singer failed.
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