Celtic Woman is an all-female Irish musical ensemble conceived and created by David Kavanagh, Sharon Browne and
David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show
Riverdance. 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 line-up of the group that he named "Celtic Woman." Downes chose a repertoire that ranged from traditional
Celtic tunes to modern songs.