How the Irish novelty song that ‘toppled’ Céline Dion is making a comeback

An Irish comedic singer who “toppled” the likes of Céline Dion and The Prodigy in the charts 30 years ago has earned a whole new audience as the hit song has taken social media by storm.

Richie Kavanagh’s ‘Aon Focal Eile’, which plays on a four-letter swear word, has been re-released by the singer and his young grandson CJ to mark three decades since its Irish charts success. The clip has received over half a million views on TikTok alone as Kavanagh and his grandson sing the song side by side.

“I’m probably more popular now than I was when we had the number one hit,” said Kavanagh.

The County Carlow singer-songwriter spent seven weeks at the top of the Irish charts with Aon Focal Eile from March to May 1996 and the song went triple platinum. Even as Dion’s As You Loved Me and The Prodigy’s Firestarter were dominating the US and UK charts at the time, Kavanagh’s track had captured the attention of the Republic of Ireland.

Known for having a habit of pushing the boundaries with his lyrics, Kavanagh said the BBC avoided playing Aon Focal Eile on the airwaves. The 77-year-old said it was the BBC’s Irish presenter Terry Wogan who wanted to play the song but a producer put an finish to that saying: “I don’t want to capture early retirement.”

But that did not stop the song being a success and Kavanagh won the Irish Recorded Music Association Award for Best Single in 1996 for the song. The song’s success has kept Kavanagh “busy”, he joked.

How did the song become so considerable? Kavanagh has previously said he sang the song at shows and people would ask if he had recorded it. He said that when he did finally record it, those in studio told him “it would never get airplay”. However, Tony Kehoe was reportedly the first person to play the song on Southeast Radio based in County Wexford in 1996. Kehoe said: “I don’t take any claim from that because Richie is an absolute genius….”