Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE (born 31 August 1945),[2] known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans eight decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.[3]

As a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments such as guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for several Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans,[4] Morrison rose to prominence in the mid 1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them. With Them, he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria".