Iona Fyfe (born 16 January 1998) is a Scottish singer from

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlement ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

known for singing Scots folk songs and ballads. In 2016, she was a semi-finalist of the

BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award The BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award is an annual competition for young folk musicians in the United Kingdom. It was first awarded in 1988 as the Young Tradition Award, taking its present name in 1998. Recent winners of the award include Brighde ...

and, in 2017 and 2021, was a finalist of the

BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician The BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician competition has run annually since 2001. It exists to encourage young musicians to keep their tradition alive and to provide performance opportunities, tools and advice to help contestants make ...

award. In 2018, she won "Scots Singer of the Year" at the

MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media and ...

. In 2019, she won "Young Scots Speaker o the Year" at the inaugural Scots Language Awards, winning "Scots Performer o the Year" in the 2020 Awards, and "Scots Speaker o the Year" in the 2021 Awards. She has advocated for official recognition of the

Scots language Scots ( endonym: ''Scots''; gd, Albais, ) is an Anglic language variety in the West Germanic language family, spoken in Scotland and parts of Ulster in the north of Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots). Most commonly ...

, successfully petitioning

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

to add Scots to their list of languages. Fyfe is a National Director of the Traditional Music and Song Association and serves as a committee member of the Musicians' Union Scotland.

Biography

Fyfe was born on 16 January 1998 and was raised in Huntly. She started learning poems in the Doric dialect of Scots as a child. She spent time in her youth in the company of

bothy ballad Bothy ballads are songs sung by farm labourers in the northeast region of Scotland. Bothies are farm outbuildings, where unmarried labourers used to sleep, often in harsh conditions. In the evening, to entertain themselves, these bothy bands s ...

ers such as Jock Duncan, Joe Aitken, and Geordie Murison, people that Fyfe considers to be her "adoptive family". After singing folk songs and bothy ballads, Fyfe auditioned to join the

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

at the age of 16, being accepted. She graduated in 2019 with a First Class Honours degree in Traditional Music. Fyfe is a communications officer of Scots language advocacy group Oor Vyce, and often speaks about getting Scots to be a "legal language". Her work in promoting the Scots language was recognised with awards from the Scots Language Awards in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Music

Fyfe sings in English and

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

Scots, and translates English songs into Doric. She is a member of the Iona Fyfe Trio. Her music has been played on

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 November 197 ...

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

, and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. Her choice of country and western was inspired by Jane Turriff, who came from the north east of Scotland and recorded an album of country and western covers. Her first solo album, ''Away From My Window'', was recorded with various other artists, such as

Tim Edey Tim Edey is an English multi-instrumentalist and composer who grew up in Broadstairs, Kent and is now based in Perthshire, Scotland. In 2012 he was Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and, with Brendan Power, Best Duo. He was aw ...

and Luc McNally. In December 2020, Fyfe released her Scots translation of

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Brit ...

's Christmas song, ''In the Bleak Midwinter''. After she was unable to choose Scots as the language for her song's metadata, she publicly asked music streaming service

to add Scots to the languages available to describe uploaded songs. In March 2021, Spotify added Scots to their list of languages. In 2016, Fyfe was a semi-finalist of the

. In 2017 and 2021, she was a finalist of the

award. Also in 2017, she won the Molloy Award. In 2018, she won "Scots Singer of the Year" at the

. In January 2021, Fyfe signed a petition opposing the UK government's plans to exclude professional musicians from their list of workers permitted to enter the EU without a visa, claiming the plans would make touring Europe "financially unviable". In April 2021, Fyfe released a rendition of The Northern Lights, the unofficial anthem of

Aberdeen F.C. Aberdeen Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen, Scotland. They compete in the Scottish Premiership and have never been relegated from the top division of the Scottish football league system since they were ...

, after being commissioned by the club.

Discography

Fyfe has released two albums and two EPs of her songs. 2015: ''The First Sangs''
2016: ''East EP''
2018: ''Away From My Window'' (Cairnie Records)
2019: ''Dark Turn of Mind'' (Cairnie Records)

Awards

2017 - Molloy Award
2018 - Scots Singer of the Year - MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards
2019 - Young Scots Speaker o the Year - Scots Language Awards
2020 - Scots Performer o the Year - Scots Language Awards

External links

*
Interview with Iona Fyfe

The Northern Lights sang by Iona Fyfe

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fyfe, Iona Scots-language culture 21st-century Scottish women singers People from Huntly People from Aberdeenshire People associated with Aberdeenshire 1998 births Scottish folk musicians Scottish folk singers Alumni of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Living people Scottish LGBT singers Bisexual singers Bisexual women