Loreena McKennitt has explored Celtic folk traditions and come up with a surprising crossover to pop success with her single and video "The Mummers' Dance" [600k QuickTime].

Far from an over-night sensation, McKennitt has spent the last 13 years devoted to world music, and has finally found mainstream success with her seventh album, which currently resides at number 17 on the "Billboard" album chart.

"The public has a greater curiosity and interest in music than I think they are being exposed to now," McKennitt told MTV News of the timing of her breakthrough. "I think this project is just one of many projects, and the public is interested in other things. At the same time, there are those that say the industry has reduced music to a fashion commodity, and there are those that consume it in that fashion and this may be tapping into those who consume music as a fashion commodity."

Whatever the motivation behind your interest, you can catch McKennitt on the road in Europe next week, and then in the U.S. during a brief tour in the spring.

• Loreena McKennitt

Loreena McKennit's "Mummer's Dance" [600k QuickTime], with it's etherial Celtic vocals and howling accordian, has become an unlikely video hit.

The Canadian vocalist had been classified as a world music act, but she's also surfaced on Billboard's modern rock charts and even the adult top 40, thanks to a "Mummer's Dance" remix by DNA, who you may recall did a funky revamp of "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega a few years back.

McKennit's music draws heavily on Celtic folk as well as other world music influences and incorporates instruments ranging from the harp to the Indian tamboura. Her lyrics also have traditional folk roots as in "Mummer's Dance," which is based on an old European tree-worshipping celebration.

"Mummers would appear sometimes in Ireland around New Year's, around the time of a wedding. At the time of the wedding they'd be referred to as the straw boys, and people would dress up in straw and costumes and they'd go to their neighbor's place -- they wouldn't say anything -- but they'd come in and dance the Irish equivalent of square dancing," McKennit told MTV News recently.

"It seems the origins are pre-Christian. And there's a great lineage of events ranging across Europe that are connected with the mummers' rituals."

McKennit plans to tour the U.S. this Spring.

• Loreena McKennitt