Christopher John Davison (born 15 October 1948), known professionally as Chris de Burgh (English: /d ˈbɜːr/ d'-BER), is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and musician.

His maternal grandfather was Sir Eric de Burgh, a British Army officer who had been Chief of the General Staff in India during the Second World War.

[8] His father had substantial farming interests, and Chris spent much of his early years in Malta, Nigeria and the Belgian Congo, as he, his mother and brother accompanied Colonel Davison on his diplomatic and engineering work.

[9] De Burgh went on to graduate from Trinity College Dublin,[10] with a Master of Arts degree in French, English and History.

Chris de Burgh signed his first contract with A&M Records in 1974, and supported Supertramp on their Crime of the Century tour, building himself a small fan base.

This became a familiar pattern for the singer/songwriter, as every one of his 1970s albums failed to chart in the UK or US while they racked up big sales in continental European and South American countries.

Whilst (again) not a huge commercial success, the album and tour expanded the fan base, with de Burgh starting to attract a cult following.

[19] In 2007 a concert in Tehran was planned for mid-2008, together with local band Arian, which would have made Chris de Burgh the first western pop singer to perform in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

In 1994 he was found to have had an affair with his children's 19-year-old Irish nanny, Maresa Morgan, who was assisting the family while de Burgh's wife Diane was recuperating in the hospital from a broken neck suffered during a horse-riding accident.

Crawley wrote: "He departs the stage for 'Lady in Red', invading boxes and draping himself over audience members ... Certain toes will never uncurl after this experience, but it is almost admirable how unaltered de Burgh has remained by the flow of time.

"[36] In a lengthy, much-publicised reply to the critic, de Burgh made his feelings known, particularly in the postscript: We were wondering by way of explanation and, as you seem to portray yourself as a bitter and unfulfilled man, were you much teased by your school chums in the schoolyard and called 'Creepy Crawley'?

[37][38]AllMusic critic Greg Prato stated, "Depending on who you ask, Chris de Burgh either specializes in pretentious, bombastic art rock disguised as pop or is a master of penning soaring and majestic compositions.

"[39] When the staff of Melody Maker were putting together a lampoon edition of a new arts and music magazine, they chose de Burgh for the cover.

[43] In his favour, Mike DeGagne, writing for AllMusic, acclaimed de Burgh as "a genuine master of the soft ballad" and "one of the finest mood-invoking artists ever".