Cân i Gymru 2023: Alistair James gets the people’s vote for his song ‘Patagonia’

The song ‘Patagonia’ by Alistair James has won Cân i Gymru 2023.

Patagonia, written by Alistair James from Llanfairfechan and performed by Dylan Morris, was chosen as the winner by a live public vote by viewers of Cân i Gymru 2023 on S4C last night from the Arts Centre in Aberystwyth.

Alistair James grew up in Llanfairfechan, and now lives in Conwy. He presents a radio breakfast show on Capital FM Cymru and has been performing regularly since the release of his first album back in 2005.

This is the third time Alistair has appeared on Cân i Gymru (2008 and 2020) but his first year participating as a composer only. He was inspired after reading about the history of Patagonia and a list of names of people from north Wales taking the Welsh language to the other side of the world.

The last word

The 2023 competition was launched back in October 2022 with the closing date at the start of January.

A panel of four judges chose the eight songs that appeared in the final round of Cân i Gymru. This year, the panel this year was the singer and producer Eädyth, the musician and member of the group ‘Pedair’, Gwyneth Glyn, winner of Cân i Gymru four times and lead singer of ‘The Moniars’, Arfon Wyn, and the radio presenter and lead singer of Sŵnami, Ifan Davies.

Last night, the public had the last word by voting for their favourite song during the live show.

Perfformiad Dylan Morris o “Patagonia” gan Alistair James – ENILLYDD Cân i Gymru 2023 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🎉#CiG2023 pic.twitter.com/9wb973dUrX

— S4C 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@S4C) March 3, 2023

Collecting the Cân i Gymru 2023 trophy and the cash prize of £5,000, Alistair said: “This is for Russ Hayes, my producer, who has been through a hard time…This just means the world, thank you – thank you for voting, and for coming. Thank you!”

Cân i Mam by Huw Owen took second place and wins a cash prize of £2,000 and Cysgu by Alun Evans (Alun Tan Lan) came third with a prize of £1,000.

You can catch up with Cân i Gymru 2023 on demand on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer.