Johnny McDaid

Johnny McDaid (born 24 July 1976) is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. He is a member of Snow Patrol and a former member of Vega4. McDaid has written songs with artists including Westlife, Pink and Robbie Williams. He is a frequent collaborator with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and co-wrote the pop song "Shape of You".

Early life Johnny McDaid was born on 24 July 1976 in Dublin, Ireland and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland . He is one of seven children of John and Pauline McDaid, Carnhill,

McDaid went on to play guitar and piano and sing backing vocals in the alternative rock band Snow Patrol. While on tour with Snow Patrol, McDaid was developing his style of writing and working with artists in a variety of genres, scoring a hit with Example's "Say Nothing" which reached number 2 in the UK singles chart in 2012.

In January 2013, McDaid and Gary Lightbody performed at the "Sons & Daughters" concert in Derry, McDaid's hometown, to mark the opening of the city's UK City of Culture year. In early 2013, McDaid moved to Nashville, Tennessee with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran to work with him on his second album. Sheeran and McDaid are close friends and later moved to Los Angeles together to continue working on Sheeran's second record. Sheeran's X album was released in June 2014 with McDaid having co-written seven of the songs, including "Photograph", which won a BMI Pop Award, and hit song "Bloodstream", which was nominated for Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 2016 Ivor Novello Awards. The album was nominated for Album of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards, McDaid's first Grammy nomination. While the album did not win the Grammy, it did go on to with the 2015 BRIT Award for Album of the Year.

While spending much of 2016 working with Ed Sheeran on his third studio album, McDaid also co-wrote "Love My Life" with Robbie Williams and Gary Go from Robbie Williams "The Heavy Entertainment Show" album. The first two singles from Ed Sheeran's ÷ album came out in January 2017 and included McDaid's co-written "Shape of You" which has since become the most streamed song of all time with over 3 billion streams. McDaid produced 3 tracks and co-wrote 8 on the album. "Shape of You" went on to win BMI Pop Song of the Year as well as the Ivor Novello award for Most Performed Work.

In 2017 McDaid co-wrote Faith Hill & Tim McGraw's single "The Rest Of Our Life", Anderson East's single "All On My Mind", and Jamie Lawson's "Can't See Straight". Additionally, McDaid co-wrote Pink's single "What About Us" from her album Beautiful Trauma. The single, co-written with Pink and Steve Mac, and debuted at No1 in 26 Markets globally. DJ Snake released his single "A Different Way" featuring Lauv, which was the third Ed Sheeran, Steve Mac, Johnny McDaid collaboration to be released. In November 2017, McDaid became an Honorary Fellow of The Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool.

Released in 2018, McDaid co-wrote and produced Keith Urban's single "Parallel Line" and co-wrote Shawn Mendes "Fallin' All In You" from his self-titled and third studio album. In 2018, Snow Patrol released their 7th studio album titled Wildness. The album debuted as #2 on the UK album charts. He also won the IMRO Outstanding Achievement Award with which he was presented in February 2018.

In 2019, McDaid co-wrote "Broken & Beautiful" by Kelly Clarkson, which was featured in the film UglyDolls. McDaid also co-wrote and produced Alicia Keys "Underdog" and "Authors Of Forever" from her seventh studio album 'ALICIA'.

McDaid spent the majority of 2020 and 2021 working with Ed Sheeran on his = album on which he ended up as a producer on 9 songs, a co-writer on 10, including the UK #1 singles "Bad Habits" (nominated for Song of the Year at the 2022 Grammys) and "Shivers".

In 2026, McDaid co-wrote “Animal” by Katseye with Sheeran, Omer Fedi and Blake Slatkin.

Personal life McDaid began dating actress Courteney Cox in late 2013. The couple announced their engagement on 26 June 2014. In 2019, Cox stated that they had ended their engagement but remained in a relationship. Their separation was confirmed in June 2026.

McDaid has a tattoo on his left arm reading ("When I need to get home you're my guiding light"), an Irish translation of the song "Guiding Light" by fellow Northern Irish musician Foy Vance. Ed Sheeran and Vance both have the same tattoo, as does McDaid's younger sister Maev. The song was written for McDaid's father, who died in July 2011. "Guiding Light" was recorded with Sheeran featured on vocals and Vance on vocals and piano.

Songwriting and production credits