Garth Brooks: the most popular singer in Ireland?

American country singer Garth Brooks played five sold-out dates in September 2022 at Dublin's Croke Park, triggering a national Garth-mania. When he was asked in 2024 on a livestream about Ireland, he said he cries the whole time he watches footage of the 2022 gigs. What's the deal with this odd connection?

Brooks is a bonafide star, and he is the only artist in music history to have nine diamond-status albums, which surpasses the six earned by The Beatles and is recognition of how well his albums sell.

Garth Brooks is a man with a broad support base, and he even sang at Joe Biden's inauguration. The singer surprisingly lists 'Kiss' as one of his influences, and he has successfully welded rock with country music.

This country impulse is what makes him so appealing to Ireland. People from rural hinterlands see themselves in his songs. According to the Irish Times, 15% of the tickets were sold to Dubliners... with the rest coming from out of the big city.

Brooks is credited with popularizing country music in Ireland as a whole. This is how one Reddit user explained it when asked why Ireland loves him so much: "If you have to ask the question, you obviously were very young or weren't even born in the 90's when he became popular. Pretty much single handedly made country music cool to a new generation. Line dancing classes popped up everywhere and we even got a country and western TV music channel for a while. Good Times."

One of his biggest hits in Ireland was 'Friend's in Low Places' (1990). The song had been written on napkins before it was pitched to Brooks, who recorded it as his last ever demo. It spent four weeks at number one in America.

Brooks is never shy about declaring his love and gratitude to the Irish public, and that endears him to the nation. As tickets for his 2022 tour sold out, he tweeted: “IRELAND!!!!! Just waking up to the news!!!! Unbelievable !!!!! All my love to you!!! love, g.”

Irish fans also appreciate his storytelling and the emotion that cracks in his voice whenever he talks about Ireland. In return, the American legend celebrates Irish people for what he sees as their unrivalled gifts for love and empathy.

He first played Dublin in 1997, and people still talk about it to this day. Indeed, the American singer considers this tour as the best he's ever done. Brooks recently asked fans in a Facebook Q&A to send him any footage they had of the event. He joked that he didn't look cool in any of the official videos.

Irish fans bought 400,000 tickets - roughly 5% of the population - for his 2014 series of concerts, but the tour was eventually cancelled. Brooks said afterwards it was one of the saddest moments of his career.

Sales of cowboy hats skyrocketed when the five gigs were originally announced, but people living around Croke Park were less enthused about the prospect of live - and loud - music disturbing them. These complaints forced the city to pull the plug on two of the proposed concerts. As a result, Brooks decided to cancel the other three himself, and Irish fans were denied a chance to see their hero.

In 2024, he said the moment that stood out to him most from the 2022 concerts was when he performed the song 'The Dance.' "Should anyone get through The Dance without crying, because everyone in the crowd's crying? It's great," he said on Facebook.

Brooks is worth over $300 million, and there is no financial reason for him to tour. Furthermore, he prefers to spend time with his family and does not really need to go on tour.

When he went to Ireland in 2022, he spared no cost! Not only did he spend an "obscene" amount of money on his stage, he also opted to not have an opening act so he could give his loving Irish fans for more than two hours per night.

Now, Irish fans are waiting with bated breath to know when his next shows will be. They have been promised but not yet announced. Garth Brooks said in his livestream that they would be "worth the wait", though.

And while Irish fans wait for him to make a much-anticipated return, those willing to shell out the price of a plane ticket can see him in Vegas. He's playing the 'Garth Brooks/Plus One' in Caesars Palace all year.

Follow Showbizz Daily to stay informed and enjoy more content!