Happy 42nd Birthday to the Gaelic Folk sing Julie Fowlis.
Julie Fowlis is a multi-award winning Gaelic singer who is deeply influenced by her early upbringing in the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist. With a career spanning five studio albums and numerous high profile collaborations, her ‘crystalline’ and ‘intoxicating’ vocals have enchanted audiences around the world.
Nominated as ‘Folk Singer of the Year’ at the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and ‘Best Artist’ at the Songlines World Music Awards, Julie is a warm and engaging live performer who has graced stages around the world, from village halls in the Highlands to stages in New York, The Philharmonie de Paris and Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Recent invitations to perform have included a return to world-class Festival of Voice in Cardiff, the World Festival of Sacred Music in Fez, Morocco, to collaborate with the BBC Concert Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall for the Proms and to support Scottish icons ‘Runrig’ to an audience of 50,000 during their farewell concert weekend in August 2018.
She sang live at the closing ceremony of the Ryder Cup in Chicago in 2012 to a TV audience of 500 million, an event that was only eclipsed by singing live at the opening ceremony of the Glasgow XX Commonwealth Games in 2014, to a TV audience of over 1 billion people.
Since of the release of her otherworldy album ‘alterum’ in 2017, she has been in demand – touring with the world-class Transatlantic Sessions, sell-out shows in London and throughout the UK, and is currently working on a major new 14-18 commission with celebrated Highland musician Duncan Chisholm, commemorating 100 years since the ‘Iolaire’ tragedy.
She will forever be recognised for singing the theme songs to ‘Brave’, Disney Pixar’s Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning animated film, set in the ancient highlands of Scotland. The track was recorded when Julie was eight months pregnant with her second child, and has since been a worldwide smash hit, and the song ‘Touch the Sky’ was indeed long listed for an Oscar nomination in 2013.
Julie’s most recent studio album received glowing reviews, and over the years she has been nominated and won several BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and Scottish Traditional Music Awards. She also made history as the first Gaelic solo artist to win a Scottish Music Award in December 2014.
Julies voice sends shivers up your spine, I have chosen this spine tingling rendition of her at Thiepval Memorial in France singing “An Eala Bhàn” (“The White Swan) , written in the trenches during WWI by Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna of North Uist.
I think it only fitting I post the lyric for the song, first in Gaelic then the translation….
Gur duilich leam mar tha mi
’S mo chridhe ‘n sas aig bron
Bhon an uair a dh'fhag mi
Beanntan ard a’ cheo
Gleanntannan a'mhanrain
Nan loch, nam bagh ’s nan srom
’S an eala bhan tha tamh ann
Gach la air ’m bheil mi ‘n toir
A Mhagaidh na bi tursach
A ruin, ged gheibhinn bas-
Co am fear am measg an t-sluaigh
A mhaireas buan gu brath?
Chan eil sinn uile ach air chuairt
Mar dhithein buaile fas
Bheir siantannan na blianna sios
’S nach tog a’ ghrian an aird
Tha 'n talamh leir mun cuairt dhiom
'Na mheallan suas ’s na neoil;
Aig na 'shells a’ bualadh -
Cha leir dhomh bhuam le ceo:
Gun chlaisneachd aig mo chluasan
Le fuaim a’ ghunna mhoir;
Ach ged tha 'n uair seo cruaidh orm
Tha mo smuaintean air NicLeoid
Air m’ uilinn anns na truinnsichean
Tha m’ inntinn ort, a ghraidh;
Nam chadal bidh mi a’ bruadar ort
Cha dualach dhomh bhith slan;
Tha m’ aigne air a lionadh
Le cianalas cho lan
’S a'ghruag a dh'fhas cho ruadh orm
A nis air thuar bhith ban
Oidhche mhath leat fhein, a ruin
Nad leabaidh chubhraidh bhlath;
Cadal samhach air a chul
Do dhusgadh sunndach slan
Tha mise 'n seo ’s an truinnsidh fhuar
’S nam chluasan fuaim bhais
Gun duil ri faighinn as le buaidh -
Tha 'n cuan cho buan ri shnamh.
Sad I consider my condition
With my heart engaged with sorrow
From the very time that I left
The high bens of the mist
The little glens of dallaince
Of the lochans, the bays and the forelands
And the white swan dwelling there
Whom I daily pursue.
Maggie, don’t be sad
Love, if I should die -
Who among men
Endures eternally?
We are all only on a journey
Like flowers in the deserted cattle fold
That the year’s wind and rain will bring down
And that the sun cannot raise.
All the ground around me
Is like hail in the heavens;
With the shells exploding -
I am blinded by smoke:
My ears are deafened
By the roar of the cannon;
But despite the savagery of the moment
My thoughts are on the girl called MacLeod
.Crouched in the trenches
My mind is fixed on you, love;
In sleep I dream of you
I am not fated to survive;
My spirit is filled
With a surfeit of longing
And my hair once so auburn
Is now almost white.
Goodnight to you, love
In your warm, sweet-smelling bed;
May you have peaceful sleep and afterwards
May you waken healthy and in good spirits
I am here in the cold trench
With the clamour of death in my ears
With no hope of returning victorious-
The ocean is too wide to swim.