The Script

Formed in Dublin during 2007, the Script emerged as a self-styled "Celtic soul" group whose music fuses sleek contemporary R&B with sweeping pop-rock hooks. Drawing from an eclectic range of touchstones such as U2, the Neptunes, Timbaland, and Van Morrison, the trio first gained widespread attention through their chart-topping self-titled debut album. Their popularity endured across the United Kingdom, where subsequent releases including the 2010 set Science & Faith, 2017's Freedom Child, and 2019's Sunsets & Full Moons all reached the Top Five.

Guitarist Mark Sheehan and vocalist Danny O'Donoghue, who had earlier played together in the modestly successful Irish boy band Mytown, launched the Script after that outfit dissolved. The pair spent several years in Los Angeles honing production skills alongside Teddy Riley, the Neptunes, and Rodney Jerkins before returning to Dublin and enlisting drummer Glen Power. Their first single, "We Cry," earned substantial airplay in Ireland and Britain and drew praise from BBC Radio presenter Jo Whiley. Following a deal with Phonogenic Records, the group moved to London and issued their 2008 debut, The Script, which swiftly ascended to the top of multiple national charts and positioned them among the year's standout newcomers; they also earned a nomination for the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year. Momentum carried into 2009 as Paul McCartney and U2 invited them to support a series of sold-out concerts.

Science & Faith arrived in September 2010 and extended their reach by entering the Top Five in both Australia and the United States while claiming the number-one spot in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Summer 2011 brought headline arena dates across South Africa and a massive homecoming performance for 55,000 fans in Dublin that was later documented in the concert film Homecoming.

Early 2012 saw O'Donoghue broaden his visibility by serving as a coach on BBC1's The Voice UK alongside Tom Jones, Jessie J, and will.i.am. Later that year the band delivered their third album, #3—tracked at Studio 3, Sphere Studios, Battersea—which featured the single "Hall of Fame" with will.i.am. The record sustained their commercial momentum, landing inside the Top Ten in the Netherlands and at number 13 in the United States, while the single achieved Top Ten status in twenty-one countries.

A U.K. arena tour that sold out within a week the previous September took place in spring 2013, after which the group began demoing fresh material. That same year they brought Jamie Scallion's fictional band, the RockAteers, into existence by recording and streaming interpretations of songs referenced in his young-adult series The Rock 'n' Roll Diaries. In 2014, Sheehan, O'Donoghue, and Power readied themselves for major summer dates in the United States supporting OneRepublic and released their fourth studio album, No Sound Without Silence, led by the single "Superheroes."

Following a short hiatus, the Script resurfaced in 2017 with the singles "Divided States of America," "Written in the Scars," and "Rain," the opening tracks from their fifth album, Freedom Child. Two years later they issued Sunsets & Full Moons, which contained the single "The Last Time" and became their sixth consecutive number-one album in Ireland, setting the stage for the 2021 career retrospective Tales from the Script: Greatest Hits that also incorporated the new track "I Want It All."

Guitarist and co-founder Mark Sheehan passed away on April 14, 2023, at the age of 46. The remaining members regrouped as a four-piece and delivered their seventh studio album, Satellites, the following year.