Rea Garvey

Though scarcely recognized across his native Ireland, Rea Garvey became a familiar presence throughout Germany, the country he later called home. Widely identified with his role as lead singer of the alt rock quintet Reamonn, which disbanded in 2011, he was born in Tralee, County Kerry, in 1973. His first band, the Dublin-based Reckless Pedestrians, gave way to a move abroad in 1998; once in Germany he earned his living as a roadie and by selling T-shirts before assembling Reamonn, whose output included fifteen Top 40 singles and five Top Ten albums throughout the 2000s. At the same time he lent his voice to outside recordings, among them duets with Nelly Furtado on “All Good Things” and Mary J. Blige on “Each Tear,” guest spots on dance tracks by Jam and Spoon (“Be Angeled”), Paul Van Dyk (“Let Go”), and ATB (“Running a Wrong Way”), and songwriting contributions for the talent-show winners Nu Pagadi and Elli Erl. The year 2011 saw the arrival of his first solo single, “Can’t Stand the Silence,” together with its similarly titled album, and his appointment as a coach on the German edition of The Voice.