RENOWNED Irish choral group Anna - 'the original voices of Riverdance' - bring their haunting sound to The Riverfront in Newport next month on the only Welsh date of their 2005 World Tour.

Dublin-born composer Michael McGlynn founded the group back in 1987 and was joined by his identical twin brother John McGlynn in 1991.

After winning a National Entertainment Award for classical music in Ireland for their second album Invocations, they recorded and performed a short choral piece entitled Cloudsong which became the opening vocal section of the now famous Riverdance interval piece for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest.

In early 1995 the seven-minute filler became a full-scale show, a Grammy Award-winning album and a global phenomenon. The subsequent single spent 18 weeks at number one in the Irish Charts, and went top 10 in the UK Charts.

Since their departure from Riverdance - the Show in 1996 Anna has released nine albums, the most recent being Essential Anna which was nominated for a Classical Brit Award. They have performed all over the world, from Europe to the USA, Morocco to Canada.

They have also performed and recorded with artists as diverse as Barry Manilow, Secret Garden, Elvis Costello, Michael Crawford, Sinad O'Connor and the Chieftains.

They are due to perform in Newport on Friday, February 18, and tickets are available from the box office on 01633 656757.