The Script

Dublin roots and the road to a record deal

Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan were friends in Dublin from their early teens and first worked together in Mytown, an Irish boy band formed in 1996. The pair pivoted to songwriting and production, travelling to Canada to collaborate with Dallas Austin, Montell Jordan and Teddy Riley, then spending several years in Los Angeles writing for performers including Britney Spears, Boyz II Men and TLC. After a US record deal collapsed, they returned to Dublin and formed The Script with drummer Glen Power, signing to Sony's Phonogenic imprint in 2005.

The Script made an early televised appearance in September 2007, performing We Cry on BalconyTV in Dublin. Support from RTE 2FM, Today FM and BBC Radio 1's Jo Whiley pushed the debut single, issued in April 2008, into the UK Top 20 and the Irish Top 10. The band had by then moved to London to record their first album for Phonogenic.

Breakthrough in Ireland and the UK, 2008-2009

Released in Ireland on 8 August 2008 and in the UK on 11 August, The Script entered the album charts in both countries at Number 1, holding the top spot in Ireland for five weeks. The Man Who Can't Be Moved reached Number 2 in Ireland, Denmark and the UK, and follow-ups Breakeven, Talk You Down and Before the Worst kept the record moving through 2009. Sony BMG's Irish office awarded the band a multi-platinum disc for more than 600,000 home sales of the album.

The band's live profile rose quickly: they opened for Take That at Croke Park, for U2's 360 degrees Tour date in Dublin, and for Paul McCartney at Citi Field in New York in July 2009. They received the World Music Award for Best-Selling Irish Act in 2008 and won Best Live Performance at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards in February 2010. A European Border Breakers Award for the debut album followed in 2009.

Science & Faith, #3 and the mainstream peak, 2010-2013

Science & Faith arrived in September 2010, lead single For the First Time reaching Number 1 in Ireland and Number 4 in the UK, while the album opened at Number 1 in both countries and climbed to Number 3 in the United States and Number 2 in Australia. The record delivered further singles in Nothing, If You Ever Come Back and the title track, and was supported by arena and festival dates across Europe and North America.

Danny O'Donoghue widened the band's reach in 2012 and 2013 as a coach on the first two series of The Voice UK, working alongside will.i.am, who guested on Hall of Fame. Released in August 2012 as the lead single from the album #3, the collaboration became the band's first UK Number 1 single, spending two weeks at the top. #3 topped the Irish albums chart, and the band collected Brit Award nominations for Best International Group in 2011 and 2013.

The Script's songs became staples of television, appearing in series such as 90210, Ghost Whisperer, The Hills, EastEnders, Made in Chelsea and The Vampire Diaries, while Hall of Fame and Breakeven travelled far beyond the UK and Ireland.

Chart consistency, 2014-2019

No Sound Without Silence, the fourth album, arrived in September 2014 led by Superheroes, a UK Top 3 single, and the band toured extensively through 2015 before taking an extended break, during which O'Donoghue underwent throat surgery. Freedom Child followed in September 2017, entering the UK albums chart at Number 1, with Rain providing another British Top 20 hit.

Sunsets & Full Moons, released in November 2019, became the band's sixth consecutive Number 1 on the Official Irish Albums Chart, a run the Official Charts Company and IRMA marked by naming The Script the Official Irish Charts' Artist of the Decade for 2010-2019. The recognition reflected more chart-topping singles and albums than any other homegrown Irish act across the decade.

Greatest hits, loss and a four-piece band, 2021-2025

Tales from The Script, a career-spanning greatest hits collection, was released on 1 October 2021 and debuted at Number 1 in both the UK and Ireland, giving the band their sixth UK chart-topper according to Sony Music UK. A worldwide tour followed in 2022. On 14 April 2023 the band announced that co-founder and guitarist Mark Sheehan had died in hospital aged 46 after a brief illness; Ireland's president, Michael D. Higgins, said Sheehan and the band had played an outstanding part in Irish musical success abroad.

The band returned in May 2024 with the single Both Ways and confirmed that long-time touring bassist Benjamin Sargeant and guitarist Ben Weaver would join Danny O'Donoghue and Glen Power as permanent members. Satellites, the seventh studio album, followed on 16 August 2024 through BMG, entering the Official Irish Albums Chart at Number 1 and the UK Albums Chart at Number 2. Touring included support slots on Pink's Summer Carnival dates and headline shows across Europe, Australia and Asia into 2025.

The User's Guide to Being Human, 2026

In May 2026 The Script announced The User's Guide to Being Human and shared its lead single, Man in the Arena, drawing on lines from Theodore Roosevelt's famous square-rigged speech about the critic in the arena. Recorded in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles, the eighth studio album was released on 14 August 2026 and entered the Official Irish Albums Chart at Number 1 the following chart week.

A tour of arenas in Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe follows in October and November 2026, with James Morrison supporting the Dublin and Belfast nights, and further shows are scheduled across Asia and Australia in March 2027. The band continues to perform two decades of songs alongside the new material, more than fifteen years after its debut album.