John McDermott

John Charles McDermott is a Scottish-Canadian tenor best known for his rendition of Danny Boy. Born in Glasgow, Scotland on March 25, 1955, John moved with his family to Willowdale, Ontario, Canada in 1965. Growing up in a musical family, his only formal musical training was at St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto, Ontario in 1971 and 1972. ...show more

John Charles McDermott is a Scottish-Canadian tenor best known for his rendition of Danny Boy. Born in Glasgow, Scotland on March 25, 1955, John moved with his family to Willowdale, Ontario, Canada in 1965. Growing up in a musical family, his only formal musical training was at St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto, Ontario in 1971 and 1972.

After singing at weddings for a few years, he joined with several other choristers to form a group named The Mistletones in 1980. He also sang the national anthems at Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Maple Leafs games since 1988 and continues to do so. From 1984 through 1992 he worked as a circulation representative for the Toronto Sun, Conrad Black heard him singing at company parties. Black, along with other executives, financed McDermott's independent recording of "Danny Boy" in 1992, which was picked up and released in North America by EMI Music Canada.

Following this unexpected success, McDermott decided to pursue a professional singing career. John has annual concerts world wide, and can be seen from Toronto, to Boston, to New York, to Glasgow. McDermott performed his first concert at the Rebecca Cohn Theatre on October 5, 1993 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there he continued to tour the rest of Canada, performing as an opening act for The Chieftains. ...show less

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