Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish musician, singer, and songwriter whose recording career began in the 1960s. His albums have achieved commercial success in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK Top 40, as well as internationally in countries including Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Morrison has scored top ten albums in the UK across four consecutive decades, most recently with "Latest Record Project, Volume 1" (2021). Eighteen of his albums have reached the top 40 in the United States, twelve of them between 1997 and 2017. Since turning 70 in 2015, he has released over one album per year on average. His awards include two Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, the 2017 Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting, and inductions into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was knighted in 2016 for services to the music industry and tourism in Northern Ireland. Morrison began performing as a teenager in the late 1950s, playing guitar, harmonica, keyboards, and saxophone with various Irish showbands, covering popular hits of the era. Known to fans as "Van the Man", he gained prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Belfast R&B band Them, with whom he co-wrote and recorded "Gloria", which became a garage rock staple. His solo career began under the guidance of producer Bert Berns, with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" (1967). Following Berns's death, Warner Bros. Records acquired Morrison’s contract and allowed him three recording sessions for "Astral Weeks" (1968). Although initially a commercial failure, the album is now regarded as a classic. "Moondance" (1970) solidified Morrison’s reputation as a major artist, and he continued to release critically acclaimed albums and perform live throughout the 1970s. Morrison’s music combines elements of soul and early rhythm and blues with longer, spiritually inspired compositions influenced by Celtic tradition, jazz, and stream-of-consciousness narrative. "Astral Weeks" exemplifies this approach. The combination of these styles has been described as "Celtic soul", and his music has been noted for achieving "a kind of violent transcendence". Studio albums Blowin' Your Mind! (1967) Astral Weeks (1968) Moondance (1970) His Band and the Street Choir (1970) Tupelo Honey (1971) Saint Dominic's Preview (1972) Hard Nose the Highway (1973) Veedon Fleece (1974) A Period of Transition (1977) Wavelength (1978) Into the Music (1979) Common One (1980) Beautiful Vision (1982) Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983) A Sense of Wonder (1985) No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986) Poetic Champions Compose (1987) Irish Heartbeat (1988) Avalon Sunset (1989) Enlightenment (1990) Hymns to the Silence (1991) Too Long in Exile (1993) Days Like This (1995) How Long Has This Been Going On (1995) Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison (1996) The Healing Game (1997) Back on Top (1999) You Win Again (2000) Down the Road (2002) What's Wrong with This Picture? (2003) Magic Time (2005) Pay the Devil (2006) Keep It Simple (2008) Born to Sing: No Plan B (2012) Duets: Re-working the Catalogue (2015) Keep Me Singing (2016) Roll with the Punches (2017) Versatile (2017) You're Driving Me Crazy (2018) The Prophet Speaks (2018) Three Chords & the Truth (2019) Latest Record Project, Volume 1 (2021) What's It Gonna Take? (2022) Moving On Skiffle (2023) Beyond Words: Instrumental (2023) Accentuate the Positive (2023) New Arrangements and Duets (2024) Remembering Now (2025) Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge (2026)