Raymond Michael “Rea” Garvey (born 3 May 1973) is an Irish singer and guitarist. He was the frontman of the German band Reamonn, which split up in 2010. Alongside his solo career, he also works as a songwriter and singer with other musicians.
Life and career
Rea Garvey is the son of a police officer and grew up in the Irish town of Tralee with seven sisters. In 1998, he moved to Germany. He initially worked as a roadie and T-shirt seller at festivals. In 1998, he placed a newspaper advert looking for bandmates. Shortly afterwards, Mike Gommeringer, Sebastian Padotzke, Uwe Bossert and Philipp Rauenbusch came together and formed the band Reamonn.
Garvey was not only the lead singer of Reamonn, but also sang the Jam & Spoon hit ‘Be Angeled’, among other songs. The collaboration continued on the track ‘Set Me Free’. On the show ‘Alive and Swinging’, Rea Garvey performed classics by The Rat Pack alongside Xavier Naidoo, Sasha and Michael Mittermeier. The gala was organised in aid of his charity, Saving an Angel.
He is also active as a songwriter. Among other things, he wrote the lyrics for the song ‘Sweetest Poison’ by Nu Pagadi. He also composed the song ‘Ready Steady Go’, which was performed by Elli. Garvey also collaborated with the medieval metal band In Extremo and contributed the Irish lyrics to the song ‘Liam’. In 2005, Garvey contributed two songs to the soundtrack of the film Barfuss. One is a cover version of the Leonard Cohen classic ‘Hallelujah’, and the other is his own composition, ‘Walk with Me’.
In 2006, he recorded a version of the number-one hit *All Good Things (Come to an End)* with Nelly Furtado. In 2007, he recorded the track *Let Go* with Paul van Dyk, which appears on the latter’s 2007 album *In Between*. His song ‘Anna & Ludo / Hold Me Now’ also features on the 2007 soundtrack to Til Schweiger’s film ‘Keinohrhasen’. In 2008, he supported the Irish artist SJ McArdle as part of the IdeenSounds project, an initiative aimed at nurturing up-and-coming musical talent independently of the commercial rules of the music market. Together with SJ McArdle, he recorded the song ‘Turn the World’, which appeared on the first IdeenSounds compilation.
In March 2010, he served as a judge alongside Stefan Raab and the singer Joy Denalane on the show *Unser Star für Oslo*, which sought to select Germany’s entry for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. In 2010, he also produced the track *Each Tear* with Mary J. Blige, which appeared on her album *Stronger with Each Tear*. In 2011, he recorded the track ‘Running a Wrong Way’ with ATB, which features on ATB’s 2011 album Distant Earth. In September 2011, Garvey’s first solo album, Can’t Stand the Silence, which he produced together with Andy Chatterley, was released; this was followed in 2014 by the album Pride. His third solo album, Prisma, released in 2015, was first recorded at the Hansa Studios in Berlin, with Andy Chatterley once again serving as producer. The album Neon followed in 2018. Since 2019, he has been part of the judging panel on The Masked Singer. In 2020 and 2021, Rea made occasional appearances on the TV show Joko & Klaas gegen ProSieben. In 2021, he represented Ireland at the Free European Song Contest, which he went on to win.
The Voice of Germany
From November 2011 to February 2012, Garvey appeared as one of five coaches on the first series of the singing talent show *The Voice of Germany*. He was joined by British singer-songwriter Nerina Pallot as his co-coach. In the second series, he appeared as a coach and produced the winner with his mentee Nick Howard. After a year’s break, he returned for the fourth series in 2014 and was also part of the show in 2015 and 2019. In 2020, he formed a coaching team with Samu Haber. Together, they won the show with their protégé Paula Dalla Corte. After a year’s break, Rea returned to The Voice of Germany in 2022, taking his place in the red chair as a coach.
Social commitment
In 2000, he founded the Saving an Angel project together with Reamonn. In recognition of his social commitment, he was awarded an Honorary Echo at the 2010 Echo Awards in March 2010. Since 2011, he has been an ambassador for the Clearwater Project. As part of this project, water treatment plants are provided for people in the Amazon region of Ecuador whose natural environment has been destroyed by industry in the search for oil and gas. For this project, Rea Garvey received a Bambi in 2015 in the ‘Our Earth’ category. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he has been supporting the Bochum-Donetsk Society. He also donated approximately 250 tonnes of food to the society for war victims in Ukraine.
©Wikipedia