Damhnait Doyle

Damhnait Doyle [DAV-net] (born December 9, 1975 in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. The phonetic spelling of her first name (which is Irish) also serves as the title of her 2003 album. She was a member of Atlantic Canadian band Shaye from 2003–2009 with Kim Stockwood and Tara MacLean (2003–2007). Along with Blake Manning, Stuart Cameron and Peter Fusco, she formed a new band called The Heartbroken which was active since 2009.[1]

Doyle took singing, guitar and clarinet lessons as a child, and released her debut album, Shadows Wake Me, in 1996. The lead single was “A List of Things”, and the album garnered a Juno Award nomination[2][dead link] and several East Coast Music Award nominations for Doyle. She toured Canada with Steve Earle in support of his album I Feel Alright.

In 2000, Doyle released her follow-up album, Hyperdramatic which included the single “Tattooed”, “Never Too Late”, directed by Rob Heydon was nominated for Video of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards.[3][dead link] In 2001, Doyle won four ECMA’s, including Video of the Year and Female Artist of the Year.[4][dead link]

In 2003, Doyle’s third album, Davnet, was released. The CD was produced and co-written by Gordie Sampson at Lakewind Sound Studios, his Cape Breton recording studio. The first single was “Another California Song”, written by Doyle and Sampson. The video featured Doyle’s Shaye bandmates Kim Stockwood and Tara MacLean. A video was also released for “Traffic”.

In Christmas of that year, she went to Kabul, Afghanistan, to sing for the Canadian troops there, on the Christmas special Rick Mercer’s Christmas in Kabul.

She has worked with Alexz Johnson, co-writing two songs on Songs from Instant Star, then four on Songs from Instant Star Two. She recorded two songs on Songs from Instant Star 3: “Just the Beginning” as well as “Darkness Round The Sun” and two songs on Songs from Instant Star 4: “The Music” and “I Still Love You”. The song “Say What You Will” was featured in the Degrassi: The Next Generation episode “The Bitterest Pill”, where the school held a memorial for a J.T. Yorke, who was fatally stabbed in the prior episode.