Sonny Knowles is one of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

's most famous singers for six decades running.

He was born in Dublin to Tommy and Mary Knowles. His singing is centered around showband and cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 tunes. His early career began when he stumbled upon the clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

 and saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 at the Dublin Music School. As a young man he joined the Johnny Butler Band followed by Earl Gill's Band, the Pacific Showband and then Dermot O'Brien's showband. His decision to go solo at the peak of the cabaret era, opened up his career. Sonny had two songs in the 1966 Irish National Song Contest scoring nil points with both songs and finishing in equal 10th with himself. The two songs were The Menace fron Ennis and a galic entry chuaigh me suas don chluiche mor and in the Irish final of 1971 Sonny would again score 0 points with his song an fhaid a mhairim

Sonny has twice survived scares with cancer and after his most recent battle, has curtailed his lifestyle somewhat but still performs.