EXCLUSIVE: Kodaline write 'Angel' for the teenage girl who died at their concert

It is four years since the video for Kodaline‘s ‘All I Want’ went viral and the song was streamed over 140 million times on Spotify alone, and the band recently proved they haven’t lost their ability to pen an emotional ballad when they released the bromance hit ‘Brother‘ back in June, co-produced by Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid.

Yet their most poignant song from their upcoming album, ‘Angel’, was written with a “heavy” heart, because it is a tribute to the teenage girl who died at their “biggest show” in their hometown of Dublin last year.

Ciara Lawlor, 17, fell ill in the crowd and medics desperately tried to save the Kilkenny teenager as the band played, but she died from pre-existing condition supraventricular tachycardia, which causes the heart to race out of control.

The Irish quartet came off stage elated by the show but were brought “back down to earth” when they were delivered the news of her tragic death.

They performed at Ciara’s funeral, singing Love Will Set You Free and High Hopes, and decided that writing a song about the youngster was the “only thing that we could do”.

Asked what their favourite song is from their forthcoming album, lead singer Steve Garrigan, 29, immediately said “Angel”.

Speaking about the experience for the first time, he told Yahoo Celebrity UK: “There’s a song called ‘Angel’, which is quite cool. It’s very sad. We played a show in Ireland it was the biggest show we ever played in our home town just to 40,000 people and we were on cloud nine and high as kites afterwards and just celebrating because it was so awesome, and such an amazing show and in our home town in front of so many people. Then we got some news that someone passed away in the crowd, a young girl had a heart condition.

“We didn’t know until after, our tour manager didn’t tell us when we were on stage. It knocked us back down to reality. The only thing that we could do was write a song about it.

“So we wrote a song about it and we went to visit the family and played the song for them. And then we said, look, we might put this on our album and they were like, ‘absolutely’.

“It was really heavy. They were lovely people and you know, they were so happy that we wrote this song.”

Filled with emotion, Steve added: “It’s just the story behind it.”

The group – who have teamed up with Tourism Ireland and Vevo to make a video about their hometown – announced today that they have cancelled their 2017 European tour, because they want to write more fresh music before hitting the road.

The third record will be the first collection of new music since 2015’s ‘Coming Up For Air’ which reached number one and achieved triple-platinum status in Ireland.

The band teamed up with Tourism Ireland and Vevo to make a video guide all about their hometown. They take their fans around their favourite bars, restaurants and places to hang out in the city.