Ballineen songwriter lights up New York on Times Square billboard

BALLINEEN’S Bill Maybury has described seeing his face on a billboard in Times Square in New York as ‘quite surreal’.

The talented songwriter visited the Big Apple this week in the company of his parents Tom and Trish, sisters Sarah and Clodagh and brother Neville to witness this once-in-a-lifetime event. Now based in London, Bill’s talent has been recognised by streaming platform Spotify, as their new worldwide Radar songwriter.

‘When I became Radar songwriter they told me that I would be up on a billboard in Times Square so I thought it would be a great excuse for us all to meet up. It’s the first time in eight years that we are all together so it’s been great catching up with them,’ he told The Southern Star.

‘It’s crazy and so surreal, I could hardly believe it and it was hard to take in. It was on rotation for 24 hours and must have cost a fortune. We had great craic taking pics of it too.’

A promotional video featuring Bill, which was shot in West Cork and Cork city last December, was recently released by Spotify and details his passion for music and songwriting and it shows him at Inchydoney beach and at his family home in Ballineen.

‘They have also launched a ‘Written by Bill Maybury’ playlist on Spotify and it’s been fantastic to be selected as their Radar songwriter. It’s great for my profile too and it’s Radar all over the world.’

Bill has written songs for numerous artists including Cian Ducrot, which feature on Ducrot’s UK number one album Victory from last year. He also wrote a song Love Like Us for boyband Next in Line at this year’s Eurosong. He signed a publishing deal last year in a joint venture between Sony Music Publishing UK and Songhouse Music.

He is currently working with singers including James Bay, Callum Scott and Mimi Webb, and it looks like the rest of the world will now know about Ballineen’s rising star.