Spotlight On... Iona Fyfe

Glasgow-based, Aberdeenshire-raised folk singer Iona Fyfe has quite a lot of accolades tucked firmly under her belt. A semi-finalist for the BBC Radio Scotland Young Folk Award (2016) and finalist twice over for BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician (2017 and 2021), in 2018 she won Scots Singer of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. What really makes Fyfe stand out is her devotion to the Scots language. In her music she's particularly passionate about modernising it, bringing it into the 21st century, whether that be through her own original music, reworking old traditional songs or rewriting songs by contemporary pop stars like Taylor Swift.

This month she's performing a number of times in Edinburgh – as a solo artist for a three-day run at the Fringe, as well as alongside her band as part of Wide Days' Made In Scotland showcases. In addition to Fyfe, the showcases will feature an eclectic array of rising Scottish talent, from confronting sibling duo comfort to Zoe Graham's effortless indie-pop, via jazz outfit Nimbus Sexte, indie-punks Gallus, neotraditional folk group Gnoss and more, all set to play across two nights at La Belle Angele. We catch up with Fyfe to find out more about her music, love of the Scots language and forthcoming appearances in Edinburgh this month.

Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself, and how you got into music?
I’m a folk singer from Aberdeenshire, now based in Glasgow after graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a degree in Traditional Music. I first started reciting Doric poetry, and then singing when I was around five years old. My parents and aunt would take me to folk clubs, festivals and sing-a-rounds hosted by organisations such as the Traditional Music and Song Association. There was a lot of intergenerational singing and passing down of songs. Getting into music was a really natural progression.

I love your commitment to the Scots language in your music – why is it so important to you?
Growing up, we didn’t have Paddington in Scots, or full Scots translations of Harry Potter like children have now. If you were into Scots language, there was poetry but nothing age-appropriate. My parents got ‘the belt’ for using Scots in school and although things have changed, there’s a lot of tokenisms in terms of Scots in education. Children should feel empowered to use the language. With over 61% of respondents in Aberdeenshire saying they spoke Scots, it’s certainly not a dead language, but it is certainly a language that attracts a lot of class stigmatism and discrimination.

After studying Scots Song, I was acutely aware that legally it wasn’t recognised as a language, even though songs like Guise o' Tough are very much in a language that is only barely mutually intelligible with English. In 2020, I helped to launch Oor Vyce, the campaign for an official Scots Language Act, which would recognise Scots as a legal language as well as Gaelic. The bill was introduced last year and will hopefully become law before the end of this parliamentary term.

You’ve just released a Scots version of Taylor Swift’s Love Story – can you tell us more about that?
Studying ancient Traditional Ballads, in my final year of university I found myself researching ‘commercial’ artists like Bob Dylan and Nick Cave who popularised some ballads. As part of this, I translated some of their works into Scots. In 2021, the Scots Language Centre ran a ‘Scots Warks’ project, where they commissioned artists to explore their praxis of the Scots language. This was a great excuse to translate Love Story to show that the Scots language doesn’t need to only be connected exclusively to Traditional Music. With the Welsh language, you have bands writing original music in the language but in almost every genre. As part of this project, I released The Cauld, which got Radio 2 airplay – which I was buzzed about! For Love Story, I decided to wait and release it to celebrate Taylor bringing the Eras Tour (I went!) to Edinburgh.

You’re about to perform at La Belle Angele for Wide Days as part of their Made In Scotland showcases. Can you tell us what we can expect from the performance?
There’s going to be some traditional material, some self-penned material and potentially a bit of Nick Cave in Scots! I’m bringing Dan Brown on keys and Rory Carter on mandolin, so it will be stripped back and intimate. The show will be so good – four very versatile artists. Gnoss also studied at Conservatoire at the same time as me!

Later in the month you have a short solo run at the Acoustic Music Centre as part of the Fringe. Can you tell us more about that?
I’m excited to get back to the Fringe. The Acoustic Music Centre has a programme of folk legends like Archie Fisher playing at it! I’m doing three shows on 21, 22 and 23 August and will be performing just myself and piano. The show will have some traditional ballads, some Woody Guthrie songs rewritten, and some new music I’ve been working on from the James Madison Carpenter Collection. Carpenter was a folklorist and collector from Mississippi who travelled to the UK, and notably Aberdeenshire. He recorded ancient ballads from some source singers that other collectors didn’t get to, so I’ve been modernising these songs!

And finally, what does the rest of the year look like for you, what's next?
I have three weeks of shows in the US in September, which I’m really looking forward, then I’m going to get stuck into writing and recording!

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Iona Fyfe plays Wide Days' Made In Scotland Showcase, La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, 15 Aug; more information about the two Made In Scotland Showcase events and tickets can be found at widedays.com

Iona Fyfe also plays Acoustic Music Centre, Ukrainian Community Centre, Edinburgh, 21, 22 & 23 Aug; for more info and tickets, visit tickets.edfringe.com