‘Yma o Hyd’ soars in the charts as independence supporters push for no.1 spot
Patriotic folk singer Dafydd Iwan has been outselling the likes of Harry Styles and Lewis Capaldi as it reached no.1 in the iTunes singles charts on Sunday.
It follows an attempt by Yes Cymru supporters to get his song ‘Yma o Hyd’ to the top of the charts.
The move was inspired by a successful attempt in Ireland to get the Irish rebel song Come out Ye Black and Tans by the Wolfe Tones to the top of the charts.
Dafydd Iwan’s ‘Yma o Hyd’, which extols the survival of the Welsh nation over the centuries since Roman times, sat on Sunday afternoon at no.1 in the UK iTunes chart.
Fans hope to make another big push to reach the overall no.1 spot in the UK charts which are complied every Friday. The song can be downloaded here.
‘New talent’
The Wolfe Tones tune reached number one in Ireland on Friday after a government-organised event remembering the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police was cancelled following backlash.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan cancelled the commemoration following a public backlash due to the Royal Irish Constabulary’s association with the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries who committed atrocities during the War of Independence.
A drive to repeat the move with Yma o Hyd in order to draw public attention to the campaign for Welsh independence was then suggested on Twitter by Aled Gwyn Williams.
However, while the song reached no.1 on the iTunes chart, it would take as many as twice as many sales to get the song to the top of the UK singles chart.
Not everyone was keen on getting Yma o Hyd, which was first released in 1983, into the charts.
Punk rocker and Radio Cymru host Rhys Mwyn said that there were plenty of new Welsh bands whose songs could be promoted.
“If you are so keen on getting a Welsh Song to No 1 how about something current,” he said.
“The older songs are there but I want to wave the flag over the new talent which has messages about Wales as it is today – I’m sure Dafydd Iwan would agree.”
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All the Cymry have endured in 7 centuries is gentil to what comes.
You must survive it.
Yma o hyd in the year 2350…? Not without your iaith.
quite right A.P.I.B.I.E. no time for complacency – Don’t ever change dude! I like your style.
Yma o Hyd is a fantastic song, as timely and important as Saunders Lewis’s lecture Tynged yr Iaith, wonderful lyrics, with great meaning for the Cymry Cymraeg, but we need a new ‘anthem’ for a 21st century Wales.
Saunders was a European Catholic.
The Hungarians had Egmont blasting out their radios in ’56.
Remember we are Europeans!
Crazy idea I’m afraid. It will get nowhere near the upper reaches in the proper charts when they are released.
Awesome song mind……
This is the iTunes chart – not the UK chart – should be going for this instead!
well for all those who thought we couldn’t – we did it! Yma OHyd no.1. Believe in the Cymru.
Although I had been a big fan of Dafydd Iwan’s patriotic songs since the 1960’s, I have always considered the song Yma o Hyd to be misleading and delusional – and that is even more the case now because we will not be here much longer as a nation following Dafydd Iwan’s treacherous act of visiting Charles Windsor at his holiday home in Myddfai. The visit was deliberately facilitated by the English State and monarchy and their ‘Welsh lackies’ to ensure that Charles and those that are to follow him as successive English “Princes of Wales” are accepted by Cymric… Read more »
I get the impression that Dafydd Iwan, having now got old, has … well, mellowed. Tends to happen, it’s just human nature.
Cymer anadl ddofn sian
Ie wir , mae ‘na lawer o bethe dipyn mwy pwysig na caneuon Dafydd i godi crachen amdanynt. Os yw “brad” Dafydd mor dyngedfenol mae pethe wedi mynd yn anobeithiol ta beth, ond nid wyf yn cytuno a’r canlyniad hynny. Chwarae teg i’r hen foi mae ei alawon yn dal i fod yn “theme music” i lawer o weithgaredd cenedlaetholgar. Efalle bydde’n well tase Sian yn sgrifenu can berthnasol i godi calonau hefyd.
Efalle byddai’n werth i gefnogwyr Dafydd Iwan a’i gan Yma o Hyd atgoffa eu hunain o’r modd creulon bu i frenhiniaeth Lloegr ymdrin â Llywelyn a Dafydd ap Gruffydd a’u teuluoedd yn eu hymdrechion i ddinistrio llinell Brenhinol y Tywysogion Cymreig am byth, a’r ffordd gorau o wneud hyn, yn fy nhyb i, yw i rhywun osod cerddoriaeth bywiog i gerdd ardderchog Gerallt Lloyd Owen ‘Wylit Wylit Llywelyn’ ac yna gosod y gân yma ar itunes ar gyfer pleidleisio drosti. Byddai hyn yn yn sicr o mwy o fudd i’r frwydr Gymreig na’r gân gamarweiniol Yma o Hyd. Maybe, supporters… Read more »
please explain what you mean by ‘to vote on to hit no 1’? diolch john
Eitha’ syniad. Bydde gweu cerdd Gerallt gyda cerddoriaeth lled fywiog ( dim ryw fath o “drone”!) yn gwneud lot o synwyr. Oes ‘na gerddor yn y stafell ? neu drws nesa’ ?
yes there is. me.
“Stands for” Seen him lately, Siän?
Yn anffodus dyna oedd y drefn rheoli c.800 -1600 – wedi’r cyfan roedd y tywysogion cymreig yr un mor barod i ladd ei brodyr a carcharu perthnasau. Sdim pwynt ramanteiddio am werthoedd ISIS y Canol Oesoedd .. holl boint anthem yw codi ysbryd – sain credu bydde Wylit Wylit yn gweddu i sinaglong Sian
Boycott the song who’s central theme is the survival of Wales as a nation and the survival of the Welsh language? You can’t be serious? Are you an agent provocateur or something
That aspiration was all undone when Dafydd Iwan ‘hot footed it’ down to Myddfai to publicly shake the hands of Charles Windsor. I may not be around to see it but, time will prove me right . I don’t have to prove my credentials to you but everyone that knows me knows that I have spent my adult life campaigning for Independence for Cymru but, the Independence I’ve always campaigned for is the re-enstatement of our sovereign Independence of the type that will give work opportunities, decent housing, decent health services etc to every citizen of Cymru and not just… Read more »
Music and politics! Did you know that Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales has a poet in residence? Well yes indeed -Rufus Mufasa, who even has a rap response to the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget (2020-2021)! FDR became president for life of the USA with “Happy Days Are Here Again” and how much did Tony Blair’s electoral success in 1997 owe to “Things Can Only Get Better”? Until the year 2016, I thought it was Sarah Palin who scuppered the late Senator John MCain’s 2008 US presidential bid, but consider- Abba’s Dancing Queen – “# young and sweet only… Read more »
now – regardless of your feelings about dafydd or whether this is an appropriate song etc. etc. the reality is – this is an oportunity to thrust welsh independence into the limelight of the media. I have personally this afternoon spoken with various people at the bbc (wales and england) to ask why this is not reported and insisted as a licence payer that they include this on a news broadcast not just shove to the back of Cymru Fyw. Come on people get on the phone send an email take your pick but do something to keep the ball… Read more »
Its not Harry and Megan you need worry about, Dafydd Iwan’s treacherous actions last summer has ensured that we will get nothing but news on one royal visit after another into our country right up to the next Investiture. I am told that there were over 8,000 Cymric patriots at the Independence rally in Caernarfon where Dafydd Iwan declared his love for that castle that is still dripping with the blood of the Cymry prisoners and serfs that was used to create the mortar for it. Whilst he chose to ignore the barbarous means by which the Princes of Gwynedd… Read more »
are you a musician? If not why not find one to work with. I think you are a bit hung up on the wrong points. I am a republican and care not for any form of monarchy english or welsh. The ring of iron is still standing but crumbling, but WE ARE STILL HERE. Oh if you ask me nicely I might set it to music myself. Did my further ed at welsh coll. music & drama. Nobody is voting for anything – if you like the song buy it if you don’t – don’t . don’t stand on the… Read more »
If you feel that you can set Gerallt’s marvellous poem to music or compose any new Cymric republican songs then why not have a go. Here’s me asking nicely. What we need is a good battle song to show that we are still ‘fighting’ for Independence and not a ‘head in the sand’ delusional song about us ‘being still here’ when, if the rose coloured glasses are taken off and reality is faced, we are fast being assimilated.
my spelling becomes atrocious when i’m excited!
(Yawn…)
In your heart, Crackpot Pete.