S4C’s Y Llais could help us all find our Welsh voice
Matt Howells
Forgive me, father for I have sinned and I have a confession to make.
I’m a middle-aged first-language Welsh speaker and I hate the Eisteddfod.
I detest rugby even more. I was never a member of the Urdd and I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than vote for Plaid Cymru.
The sound of male voice choirs is complete dirge and Gavin and Stacey is deeply unfunny. Where do I hand in my Welsh card?
No wait, I’ll be holding on to it for now. Something has changed my mind and given the controversy caused by the searing eviscerations in my previous articles on life in modern Wales, my flabber has been well and truly gasted, and I intend to reverse my inner Welsh ferret for you, dear reader.
Global Wales
Why? Because for the first time in what feels like decades, I have seen a true depiction of Wales on TV.
What am I talking about? S4C’s ‘Y Llais’.
For the uninitiated, the show is the Welsh version of the global singing TV show ‘The Voice’ which was conceived in the Netherlands before making its debut in the UK in 2012.
It’s been broadcast every year since, moving from BBC One to ITV, with a spin-off show for children.
Its winners have gone on to achieve more anonymity than people in witness protection but there’s something about those spinning chairs and the far more civilised nature of the production than other singing competitions and reality shows that keeps audiences coming back for more.
The first episode aired on Sunday evening, and it was a bit surreal to see a big budget show with slick production values on S4C.
Indeed, as a long-term viewer of the channel, I have grown increasingly concerned at the direction of its programming, with far too many light-touch, wallpaper entertainment shows and its pivot to what I would consider to be ‘woke’ content that simply doesn’t reflect its audience.
A quick scan of their catch-up service menu confirms my view that there is very little in the way of documentaries, shows that discuss the arts and literature, there is almost nothing for the academic, the intelligent, or the religious but I do understand that this is a tiny TV station which is both a national and community channel.
They will never please everyone and have to get viewers any way they can.
But I think ‘Y Llais’ may change this.
Inclusive
This was an organically inclusive programme, and the contestants featured in the first episode showed me more of Wales and the reality of Welshness than wall-to-wall coverage of the Eisteddfod does every August.
Given how small Wales is, it was refreshing that every face was new, something judge Yws Gwynedd himself expressed delight at.
Some were fluent Welsh speakers, some were ‘half-rice, half chips’ as I like to call them, and some didn’t speak a word but sang their heart out in perfectly enunciated Cymraeg.
Highlights included the Cofi/Kerdiff hip-hop duo, the hilarious lady from Port Talbot who murdered ‘Dacw Nghariad’ and the young mother and nurse who gave it her all, but sadly didn’t make it to the next round.
For me, the best was kept until last with 32-year-old Troedyrhiw primary teacher Emma Winter belting out judge Bronwen Lewis’ song ‘Ti a Fi’.
Bronwen herself competed in 2013 but wasn’t selected by the judges of the time but went on to have a successful career, most recently as a DJ on Radio Wales and as a TikTok star singing translated hits in Welsh.
‘Ti a fi’ has a beautiful melody with cloying lyrics, and was sung perfectly, with Sir Bryn Terfel being first to turn and congratulating her on her prefect Welsh pronunciation.
And there it was, a globally renowned opera singer addressing a humble valleys teacher in the kindest way, bridging one of the world’s most brutal linguistic divides.
It was, for want of a better word, magic.
And therein lies the success of the format.
Irony
Yes, it has your typical drinking-bleach-for-attention sob stories, but there is a warmth and humanity in this show that lends itself perfectly to Wales and the way we are.
There is a wonderful irony that such a global show could feel so unashamedly, potently Welsh.
That’s not to say the programme didn’t have its issues, such as the incongruous casting of Aleighcia Scott as a judge, whom I don’t believe has had the same success as the other judges and whose Welsh, even as a learner, isn’t really up to broadcasting standard, but one can only admire her sass and frisky attitude.
‘Y Llais’ reminds us in the most gorgeous way that we’re a total mess of a nation.
Fractured, fissured, and only half-arsed.
We’re divided by language, wealth, region, the list goes on. And we’re only 3.1 million people!
Wales drives me completely nuts (which is why I ended up moving abroad five times and am now living in Australia), but what a beautiful mess we are, and I think that’s something worth holding on to.
This is something that ‘Y Llais’ has managed to crack and I hope that it may inspire us to find our own individual voices as Welsh people, on our own terms.
A fix of home
For this Cardi who was bullied into playing rugby at school, forced into singing in choirs, and persecuted for being ‘the wrong type of Welsh’, this show is testament to what Welsh people are actually like, not who we should be.
Free from the constraints of a poorly attended pavilion in the middle of a random field, free of the incestuous stage of ‘Cân i Gymru’ with no Mistar Urdd in sight, this is Welsh television at its most accessible and entertaining.
In August, the National Eisteddfod comes to Wrexham.
You couldn’t pay me to go there and the way it’s presented as the nucleus of Welsh culture is deeply misleading and wrong. But now I know what to watch on TV if I want to see the real Wales and get my fix of home.
Diolch yn fawr, S4C.
Watch Y Llais on S4C Clic and iPlayer now.
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Oh dear! Matt is back! I recall a previous article of his being culturally divisive, and lo and behold, he doesn’t disappoint! After enjoying ‘Y Llais’ on Sunday, I was looking forward to reading a positive review of what I also found to be a slick, polished and thoroughly entertaining production. However, it’s a shame that he felt it important to balance this show’s virtues against perceived aspects of Wales’ culture and institutions by spewing vitriol. From S4C’s unintelligent ‘wallpaper entertainment’ programming; the ‘incestuous’ Cân i Gymru; the Urdd movement and national Eisteddfod; Plaid Cymru; male voice choirs; rugby to… Read more »
I don’t think you get it!
Well, maybe you could enlighten me!
Dw i ffaelu credu bod dau berson yn cytuno ‘da chi ond eto, dych chi heb ymateb i fi i esbonio! siomedig iawn!
Bod ganddo hawl i fynegi ei Gymreictod ar sail ei hun ac nid oes yn rhaid iddo bwyso ar sefydliadau neu chwaraeon neu draddodiadau i gyfiawnhau ei hunaniaeth.
Yn ei farn ef, mae ‘Y Llais’ yn adlewyrchiad tecach a brafiach o’r Gymru go iawn na’r Gymru sy’n cael ei gwthio arnom drwy’r system addysg, gwleidyddiaeth, a’r Eisteddfod.
Ac mae e’n llygaid ei le.
Rwy’n gwerthfawrogi eich ymateb, ond bydd yn rhaid i ni gytuno i anghytuno, mae gen i ofn. Fel Matt, rwyf hefyd yn ganol oed, ond pan o’n i’n blentyn, ro’n i’n byw yn ardal Abertawe, felly ni chafodd y Gymraeg na’r hyn yr ydym yn ei ystyried fel agweddau o ddiwylliant Cymreig eu gorfodi arnaf. Felly, mae ‘na ddewis! Fe wnes i’r dewis i’w gwneud nhw yn rhan o fy mywyd, a phwy ydw i nawr, ac mae fy mywyd drwy gydol fy oes, wedi bod yn gyfoethocach oherwydd hynny. Roedd gen i wir ddiddordeb i ddarllen erthygl yn adolygu… Read more »
Eto mae’r hyn sydd gennych i’w ddweud yn ategu safbwynt Matt. Profiad gwahanol iawn yw cael eich magu mewn pentref Cymraeg lle mae’r iaith yn fyw o’ch cwmpas. Dyna’r fagwraeth ges I ac roedd yna ddisgwyliadau pendant ynglŷn â hunaniaeth. Pawb at y peth a bo.
You clearly don’t know what its like to not fit in, and I’d suggest that you work on trying to accomodate different views and perspectives and not go down that primal “me don’t like other opinion so me go on attack” route. I happen to be born and raised here. My Dad’s family go back hundreds of years, but because of the randomness of life and different experiences and personalities, I don’t have or affect a strong accent (and I could do so easily). The exclusionary ways of narrow minded people here is not normal in other places. That’s why… Read more »
I’m really sorry James that you feel my comments about the article were an expression of intolerance of others’ opinions. That certainly wasn’t my intention. I merely wanted to express my disappointment that the article used the review of ‘Y Llais’ as a vehicle with which to criticise, what most consider to be inoffensive, cultural and social attributes of the country in which we live and love. Like you, my ancestry and connection to this land goes back hundreds of years, and it’s because my grandparents and parents, like the generations before them, passed on the language and traditions to… Read more »
I think all the people of Wales have a voice. However, in terms of the Welsh language media and institutions, I agree that it’s not always possible for non Welsh speaking voices to be heard. But their voices are more than represented elsewhere so I certainly don’t feel that they’ve been marginalised. By now, The Voice is a well known format the world over, so as a recognisable platform, it’s obviously going to attract non Welsh speakers and Welsh learners, so to see them participating and singing in Welsh, although welcoming, wasn’t surprising. Did it therefore make the programme more… Read more »
Same old tune in almost every song.
Big catch for them to land Bryn Terfel—a Welsh knight almost as big as Tom Jones. Bronwen is a godsend and a breath of fresh air for all things Welsh and the Welsh language, while Yws deserves his spot on pure merit after contributing so much for so long to the Welsh-language pop scene. But do we really need to ape British television 📺—caught up in the whole ‘Black Lives Matter’ phenomenon, which originated in America—and appoint one judge from an ethnic minority? The number of Welsh speakers who aren’t white is tiny, so I suspect this lady will be… Read more »
I agree. Kizzy Crawford is a mixed race Welsh singer and was popular 11+ years ago, before the woke wave hit. Her Welsh is also great and she would have been a far wiser choice.
A bit harsh saying she “murdered” the song. I thought she had a really strong voice. They also don’t really like the alternative or “quirky” singers, but these are the types of contestants that give these shows like this credibility. I’m glad that it showed a good amount of diversity in talent though. I also prefer to hear Welsh sung rather than spoken. So yeah, I’m intrigued to see what happens.
Rakie Ayola has the perfect response to people like Matt who complain about “woke” euphemistically
https://youtu.be/YlBZ1PYKPxU?si=mxIYSZkauqHX69o0
Explain what you mean, and then we can have that conversation.