Interview: Lily Beau discusses her new Cymraeg single and the importance of black Welsh music

Ella Groves

A Welsh-Irish singer is releasing her first Welsh language single in five years this Wales Music Day 2026.

Cardiff-based artist, Lily Beau has already compiled a catalogue of career highlights including performing on the Eisteddfod main stage and working with Grammy Winning songwriter Amy Wadge.

Having left Wales to study music in London at just 16, Lily then worked at Sony for five years looking after other artists.

She returned to Wales during the pandemic to pursue her dream of being a singer-songwriter and is now using her music to platform Welsh language and culture.

‘Fell in love’

As with so many of us in Wales, music has always been a central part of Lily’s life.

Performing her first recital at 12 in the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for an audience of friends and family,

She said: “I always loved singing and then when I was about 12, my parents got me the plastic Yamaha keyboard and I started songwriting and my mum and dad were so encouraging, they’re actors, so they were quite open for me not to do anything other than being creative, which was lovely.

“And they said would you like to do a gig and I was like, yeah, absolutely. So mum arranged a gig at the Student Union at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she worked and it was family and friends only, but I just completely and utterly caught the bug.

“I mean, I didn’t look up from my hands once but I just totally fell in love with the idea of performing and music.”

Since then Lily has gone on to create music in both Welsh and English, releasing her first Welsh language track, ‘ Treiddia’r Mur,’ in 2018 and her first EP ‘Little Old Me’ in 2024.

On performing in the Welsh language Lily shared: “I’m fluent Welsh. My dad’s Irish, mum’s Jamaican English, and they moved to Wales and were like, if we’re going to raise the girls in Wales, let’s raise them to speak Welsh. And it is the best gift they’ve ever given me because it’s allowed me to play and learn on the job and do things I think otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to.

“I released a song years ago in Welsh called Treiddia’r Mur but it’s allowed me to do so many gigs and things in Wales that I’m like, I really want to honour what Wales has given me. So I’ve started doing Welsh adaptations of some of my English stuff and this is the first one in five years, which is really exciting.”

‘Representation’

Lily shared the importance of Welsh culture both in her music and in her life more generally, she said: “I think we are the land of song and Wales has really encouraged me to kind of be myself and I think I very much feel… as Welsh as I do black, and they feel like very important parts of my heritage and identity.

“And although I’m the first in my family to be from Wales and speak the language, it feels so ingrained in how I was brought up, I’m very lucky for how my parents saw Welsh culture.”

Yet Lily noted how, as a child, although singers such as Elin Fflur drew her into Welsh music she noticed a lack of black Welsh artists in the public eye.

She credited this lack of representation as a reason it is particularly important for her to create Welsh language music.

She said: “I feel with songwriting generally, I’ve always loved finding a different way to express something that maybe a lot of us are feeling.

“I feel like when I was growing up, I didn’t see many black Welsh artists and so it felt like there was a bit of a divide with what I wanted to be and who I was seeing. I didn’t see myself in the media.

“So to be able to find a really fun way of sharing my mad thoughts and world and quarter life crisis and all of that in the Welsh language feels a bit hopeful for me because there’s a few people who’ve started doing it like Kizzy Crawford.

“There’s all these artists who I just think are creating a black Welsh culture and I think that’s such a special place to be in so I’m very grateful to be able to kind of fly that flag.”

‘Backlash’

Yet Lily also shared how as a black Welsh artist there have been times when she has faced negativity surrounding her place in the Welsh music scene.

She said: “I’m very lucky. I feel very accepted within the Welsh kind of community. I’ll say that firstly.

“But it’s very… it wouldn’t be uncommon that there’s a comment or… there’s so many instances where things have happened where I get mixed up for other Black Welsh artists or, you know, yeah, we get mixed up a lot. I think that’s the main one. And then people often make these comments go, oh, I didn’t know that you existed or go what? Black Welsh speakers?”

But despite this Lily is refusing to focus on “the naysayers” and has continued to carve a space out for herself in the Welsh music scene sharing her hopes that she will be able to be the representation for others that she did not have for herself.

‘Proud’

Having achieved milestones such as performing at the Eisteddfod, working with Grammy Winning songwriter Amy Wadge, and winning Best New Artist at the Black Welsh Music Awards Lily’s career has gone from strength to strength in recent years.

Recalling playing the main stage at the Eisteddfod with an all-black band she described the experience as “so incredible and so empowering.”

She said: “It felt like an honour to be able to stand in such a Welsh space and represent a different part of the Welsh community. I’m just very proud.”

But perhaps her greatest achievement to date is winning Best New Artist at the Black Welsh Music Awards.

Discussing the experience she said: “I was nominated for two, Best Songwriter and Best New Artist and I just, I don’t know if it’s imposter syndrome, just didn’t think that Best New Artist was going to be a thing.

“The first EP has very much been me just proving to myself that I can do it and this next project feels very much like, okay, this is who I am. So I was like, oh, you know, maybe songwriter, that would be lovely. Then when Best New Artist came through, I just, I, again, didn’t play it very cool. I just cried.

“But it was a wonderful celebration of Black Welsh music. I got to play at the awards and play some new stuff, which was really great.

“As a part of the awards we, the winners, are performing at O2 Indigo on May 2 in London. So that’s the chance to even be able to showcase music beyond the awards is such incredible, incredible encouragement to receive.”

‘Dianc’

Lily’s latest milestone is the release of her first Welsh language single in five years – ‘Dianc’.

She says the song explores asking for patience as you learn to accept a softer kind of love and is thrilled that the release coincides with Valentine’s Day.

Written originally in English by Lily herself for her EP ‘Little Old Me’, the Welsh adaptation was put together by Lily and Cian Marc Lewis and produced by Nate Williams.

You can find Lily’s new song ‘Dianc’ on Spotify here. It is also available on most other streaming platforms.

‘What’s next?’

Lily shared some of her future plans for her music including how she is currently working towards a mini-album centred around what she describes as her “quarter-life crisis.”

She said: “It feels like this next project is going to be me arriving as who I want to be as an artist, image wise, music wise, and I’ll be exploring my quarter life crisis a little bit more, but in a really fun and joyful way.”

She has also shared her hopes that she will be able to perform again on the Eisteddfod Main Stage later this year.

More information about Lily, her music, and her journey as a Welsh singer can be seen on her Instagram or X.