Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance. Downes' concept was to tap into the American marketplace's taste for Celtic music and culture by confecting a group that blended the Irish elements of Michael Flatley's music and dance with the structure of all-girl pop groups such as Spice Girls and Pussycat Dolls. In 2004, he recruited five Irish female musicians who had not previously performed together: vocalists Chloë Agnew, Órla Fallon, Lisa Kelly and Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, and fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt, and shaped them into the first lineup of the group that he named Celtic Woman. Downes chose a repertoire that would range from traditional Celtic tunes to modern songs.
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