Tolu Makay, Gemma Bradley, Shookrah, Zapho and more to play 'A Modern Ireland in Music' online concert

The X Collective, Ireland's newest collaborative community of artists and creatives, have announced a special online concert showcasing 'A Modern Ireland In Music'. Streaming on YouTube and Facebook this Sunday, August 9, at 10pm, the event is a collaboration with Irish Arts Center in New York, and will feature Chloë Agnew, Gemma Bradley, ELKAE, Tolu Makay, Shookrah, Shy Mascot, Zeenie Summers, Toshín and Zapho performing at The Grand Social, Dublin.

"Irish Arts Center is a national and international home for artists and audiences of all backgrounds who share a passion for the evolving arts and culture of contemporary Ireland and Irish America," says Rachael Gilkey, the director of programming and education at the centre. "We are thrilled to introduce our audiences to The X Collective whose energy and spirit of collaboration represent everything that is exciting and dynamic in modern Irish music.”

Founded by music promoter Emily Shaw (Oíche Events) and artist Ele Breslin (Zapho), The X Collective is a music production platform and a community of some Ireland’s most exciting emerging music makers. The collective has already welcomed 80 members to the platform.

“The X Collective is mass-collaborative in that the music and art produced is the combined efforts and work of it’s artists and creatives," Shaw explains. "It’s cultural in that it provides a space where different cultures are shared, explored, and nurtured through art, and it’s imaginative in that it promotes combined success rather than individualistic ideologies in striving for solidarity. Says Breslin, “As a music organisation we were made to modify how we work in this physically restrictive landscape - in particular adapting to a world without concerts and events. In a time of lost connection, our collective has continued to connect, create, and collaborate. Ireland needs a safe place where artists, most of whom have been negatively impacted by the crisis through loss of paid work, can reconnect while sustaining their livelihood and therefore find comfort from the pandemics aftershock.”