Hey people! 🙂
Today, let’s listen to some 90’s Welsh reggae! Welsh-language reggae may seem like quite an obscure thing to some, nevertheless, it’s definitely still a thing and a very interesting one in my opinion! I’ve already shared with you in the past some music by Geraint Jarman who put a lot of effort into introducing reggae to Welsh-language audience, and, more recently, I’ve also shared with you all several songs by the young artist Morgan Elwy who is also very enthusiastic about reggae. Today, it’s time for Bryn Fôn, whose solo music I’ve actually also already shared on here at the beginnings of my blog. Bryn is a very prominent figure on the Welsh-language music scene, was in particular during 80’s and 90’s. He was one of those many artists who contributed to making Welsh music, and thus Welsh language, more cool, and attract younger audience to it via contemporary music that would speak to them. One of Bryn Fôn’s projects was the band Sobin A’r Smaeliaid, which had a lot of fans in its time and I’m sure still does even though Sobin A’r Smaeliaid is no longer a thing. I myself like a lot of their songs too, even though I obviously didn’t know them when they were a thing as I wasn’t a thing then yet, lol, and even if I were it would be doubtful that I’d have any access to Welsh music at the time. They made mostly melodic rock songs with 80’s pop vibe to them. But there’s clearly some real need for reggae in Wales, because when they competed with this particular song in Cân i Gymru in 1990, they won, just like Morgan Elwy did last year with a reggae song as well. Perhaps that’s just what it takes to win Cân i Gymru – make a reggae song! 😀 I believe this was the first winner song in this contest with so much energy in it and generally such a distinctive feel to it and it’s not surprising that it must have made quite an impression. Bryn Fôn also won this competition again solo after a couple years, but that second time it was a pop song, not quite so ear-catching, at least in my opinion.
From what i gather, this song is a bit similar in lyrics to Geraint Jarman’s “Ethiopia Newydd” (New Ethiopia) because here we also have a comparison of Wales to Zion in Ethiopia and Wales is called “white Ethiiopia”.
My Inner MishMash 