Today sees the release of the new single from Iona Fyfe ‘The Wild Geese‘. The single, which is available on Bandcamp and streaming services also marks a successful campaign, led by Iona, for Spotify to add Scots to its list of languages.
Scots is one of Scotlands three national languages with over 1.5 million speakers (2011 census) and is recognised as a language by the European Charter for Minority Languages. Iona noticed that despite Spotify listing every other UK Minority Language including Manx, Irish Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, Scots was omitted. Iona’s music had been incorrectly categorised as English for several years. Iona, who grew up speaking in Doric, a vernacular of Scots, has released most of her music in Scots and studied for a degree in Scots Song at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She won the title of Scots Performer of the Year at the Scots Language Awards in 2020.
In December, Iona published an open-letter to Spotify asking them to add Scots to the list of languages, which received widespread public support. Read the open letter here: https://bit.ly/ 3bWQMzr
Iona received the support of Clare Adamson MSP, a long-time advocate of Scots Language preservation, who lodged a Parliamentary motion in the Scottish Parliament in support of the campaign to have Scots included as a listed language on Spotify and wrote to Daniel EK, CEO of Spotify USA Inc.
In February, Iona was representing Scotland at Folk Alliance International showcases in Kansas, but held virtually due to pandemic. The event held industry panels, where Iona discussed the commission of the Scots language and lack of resolution with Laura Ohls, Senior Editor at Spotify.
Despite a three month delay from Iona’s letter, Spotify have now added the language to its database.
Her new single The Wild Geese is available on every platform, and proudly categorised as Scots on Spotify from today. Download or stream here: https://threads.lnk.to/ifgeese
Below you can watch a video of Iona performing The Wild Geese with Michael Biggins, who won the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year.
To celebrate Spotify adding Scots as a language, Iona has curated her own playlist of her favourite songs in the Scots Language.
Website: https://ionafyfe.com/
Photo Credit: Elly Lucas