High Hopes

First there was a band called 21 Demands, from Swords on the Northside of Dublin, who hit No.1 in Ireland in 2007 with ‘Give Me A Minute’. That adventure having stalled, in 2012 they regrouped as Kodaline – and hit the jackpot. Released as the lead single from Kodaline’s first album, In a Perfect World, in 2013, ‘High Hopes’ stormed straight to No.1 in Ireland, knocking Passenger’s ‘Let Her Go’ off its perch. Accompanied by an emotion-packed video featuring Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, it was the song which confirmed Kodaline as a hit machine in the making, and which drove their international success. The Swords outfit have since gone on to deliver a string of international hits, including ‘All I Want’, ‘The One’, ‘Brother’, ‘Follow Your Fire’ and ‘Wherever You Are’. But ‘High Hopes’ remains the Dublin band’s signature song, attracting over 211 million Spotify streams, and 121 million YouTube views on the official music video alone. It has become one of the most instantly recognisable pop songs in 21st century Irish music.

The Story Behind The Song

Internationally, Ireland had always been renowned for producing music that drew on a deep well of real, and often tragic, human experience and emotion. In part at least that was a result of being grounded in folk and traditional music, and in songs that told the story of a people that had suffered colonisation and, during the 19th Century, famine. Even Ireland’s most successful contemporary performers, from Van Morrison through rockers like Rory Gallagher and Thin Lizzy to Sinead O’Connor in the 1990s had that stamp of authenticity. Historically, we didn’t do pop music with anything like the same kind of widespread appeal.

Kodaline (l to r): Mark Prendergast, Jason Boland, Steve Garrigan and Vincent May

All of that changed with the emergence of Boyzone in 1993. Under the tutelage of the band manager and music impresario Louis Walsh, they were effectively the first Irish manufactured pop act of the modern era. They achieved a huge level of success in Ireland and internationally. Their debut album went straight to No.1 in the UK and sold 1.2 million copies. In all they have had nine No.1 singles in Ireland and six in the UK, scoring hits all over Europe, in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Taiwan, among other territories.

Their success was followed by other Louis Walsh proteges – first B*Witched, an all-girl outfit – and then Westlife, who surpassed even Boyzone’s success, in an astonishing career-so-far. Westlife have the most No.1 debut singles in UK pop history (14 in all) and have sold a combined 25 million records in the UK, since their first release in 1999. It was that pop field into which a four-piece from Swords called 21 Demands stepped in 2007, entering the RTÉ television reality TV competition You’re A Star. They made it to the final, had a No.1 hit single with ‘Give Me A Minute’, but thereafter faded back into relative obscurity.

Maturing as musicians, and believing strongly in their songwriting talent, they changed their name to Kodaline in 2012. The band began to explore a brand new, rockier creative direction in their music with the release of The Kodaline EP. The following year, the four-piece – now composed of Steve Garrigan, Mark Prendergast, Vinny May and Jason Boland – released ‘High Hopes’ as the lead single from their debut album, In a Perfect World.

Kodaline, photographed for a Hot Press cover by MIguel Ruiz

‘High Hopes’ was written on the piano in Garrigan’s family home, during a difficult period in the singer’s life – following a break-up with his then girlfriend, as well as ongoing mental health struggles.

“The words just poured out of me,” he wrote in his 2021 autobiography, also entitled High Hopes. “It felt like I had opened some sort of valve and let all the pain and anguish flow into the words and the melody. The music just came to me. I must have written it in less than five minutes and when I was finished, it was there, in its entirety."

Sometimes, songwriters have to labour endlessly to bring an idea to fruition. Other times, it happens in a rush, like the first oil pluming from a newly-struck well. This was one of the latter occasions – and it was cathartic. Writing ‘High Hopes’, Garrigan said in the book, “would prove to be a massive turning point” for him, “on both a personal level and as a songwriter.”

In more ways than one. In March 2013, ‘High Hopes’ reached No.1 on the Official Irish Singles Chart – knocking Passenger’s major hit ‘Let Her Go’ down to No.2. The track also became Kodaline’s first Top 20 single in the UK, entering the chart at No.16. They had achieved that much sought-after songwriting holy grail: a song that is powerfully commercial, but also driven by an essential artistic need to say something urgent and important. They were on the high road.

The official music video for the single was also released in 2013, featuring Game Of Thrones’ Liam Cunningham, alongside fellow Irish actor Niamh Large. It also touched on mental health issues, in a way that would hugely engage audiences, adding to the band’s growing momentum. It has since clocked up over 121 million views on YouTube – and rising.

The band’s debut album, In a Perfect World, which featured ‘High Hopes’ alongside singles ‘Love Like This’, ‘Brand New Day’, ‘All I Want’ and ‘One Day’, was released in June 2013, and it debuted at No.1 on the Irish Albums Chart, establishing a new benchmark for the band

‘High Hopes’ had captured hearts and minds in Ireland in particular. The High Hopes Choir – Ireland’s first homeless choir, led by David Brophy – was the result, with the name taken from the song, which became a signature tune for them too. They were the subject of a series on Ireland’s national public service channel, RTÉ One, which aired in December 2014, and concluded with a charity gala concert in Dublin’s Christchurch Cathedral. The choir also released a version of ‘High Hopes’ in aid of several homeless charities, and performed the track on The Late Late Show in 2014 – as well as singing it alongside Kodaline on O’Connell Street in Dublin, in the run-up to Christmas.

“The fact that they chose our song – and they’re called The High Hopes Choir – is a huge honour,” the band told RTÉ at the time.

The song has also found new life on YouTube, with countless artists sharing their own interpretation on the video platform. A video of the young Cork busker Allie Sherlock performing ‘High Hopes’ on Grafton Street in Dublin has garnered nearly one million views, while Thai musician Billbilly01’s cover has clocked up over 2 million views. The song has also featured widely on television, including in Love Island, America’s Got Talent, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, the Aussie production Wonderland and in the trailer of Love, Rosie (2014).

Bolstered by the early success of ‘High Hopes’, Kodaline have gone on to earn a reputation as one of the leading Irish bands of their generation. Following 2013’s In a Perfect World, they released Coming Up For Air in 2015, Politics of Living in 2018 and One Day at a Time in 2020 – though ‘High Hopes’ remains a centrepiece of their lauded live shows, and continues to resonate with audiences around the world.