Singer’s Welsh covers Tik all the right boxes
A MUSICIAN from Neath has become a radio sensation after her Welsh-language translations of pop songs were viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Tiktok.
Singer-songwriter Bronwen Lewis was featured on BBC Radio 1’s breakfast show with Greg James for two consecutive days after gaining a following for her versions of well-known hits.
The 27-year-old, originally from Seven Sisters in the Dulais Valley, has been performing bilingually for more than a decade – but her online covers of wellknown chart toppers have now gained her national attention.
The singer, who has previously toured with Max Boyce, hopes her performances will open up Welsh-language music to a new audience.
Bronwen, who first came to public attention with an appearance on TV show The Voice in 2013, started posting on videosharing social network service Tiktok last year.
After all in-person music events came to a halt due to the pandemic, Bronwen began posting her Welsh translations on the app. When her cover of George Ezra’s number 1 hit Shotgun went viral – it has been viewed more than 70,000 times to date – Bronwen quickly grew a following on the app.
Just days later, her Welsh-language cover of the Christina Perri song A Thousand Years was viewed more than 190,000 times and gathered 27,000 likes.
After an interview on BBC Radio Wales to discuss the videos, Bronwen was then featured on BBC Radio 1 on Thursday and Friday with presenter Greg James featuring her creations.
Bronwen said she had no idea her clips would be featured and is “so grateful” for the exposure.
“It was amazing,” said Bronwen, speaking after her first appearance. “A lot of people have said to me today ‘it sounded like you had paid for the promotion on there’ – he really went in. He kept mentioning my name and played two Tiktoks in full.
“I mean, to get three minutes on Radio 1 is like gold dust – so for him to do that he obviously loves the Welsh language and loved what I was doing. To have promotion like that to how many millions of people without even knowing or asking for it – I know nobody linked to Greg James – is just incredible. And that shows the power of Twitter and social media, doesn’t it.”
After posting a live reaction video to her being played on Thursday’s show, Bronwen was then invited on to the breakfast show on Friday morning to perform a new cover as well as play “wrong uns” – a game in which contestants must give the wrong answers to questions.
Speaking to Greg on Friday, Bronwen said it was “a dream come true” to be featured on the show.
“One of my friends was ringing me and I was, like, ‘why is she ringing so early?’ so I cancelled and then she messaged like “you’re on Radio 1” and my parents did too, and I was thinking maybe they’d got it wrong and thought someone must’ve made a mistake.
“I filmed my reaction because I thought I wanted to remember it for ever. It really was a huge deal. Something like Radio 1 always feels so out of reach. I’ve always done things independently, I don’t have a massive record label behind me, I haven’t got a management and agent but have always just thought that that is a million miles away.
“It just shows the power of social media and the power that if someone high up likes what you are doing they will back you all the way.
“And as well I was thinking of everyone at home listening, when he said ‘I hope any Welsh speakers out there are singing along’ and that was just such a moment for me, to hear Welsh-language music on Radio 1.”
Since appearing on The Voice, Bronwen has released an album as well as performed Bread and Roses in the Bafta-winning film Pride and toured with Max Boyce.
Bronwen said that while she has always promoted the Welsh language in her performances, seeing the reaction after being featured on the breakfast show and going viral has been amazing.
“You know I’ve been to big record labels after The Voice and been asked to keep the Welsh to a minimum, or been told that Welsh isn’t commercial and I’ve been told that for years and years and I’ve always thought ‘No, I’m going to carry on doing what I think is right and works’ so it’s a big moment of reflection for me today.
“I had 10 followers and that first one went viral and then I had like 10,000 followers overnight and I thought ‘This is mental.’
“Tiktok is the new place where you can actually start a career and I didn’t take it seriously enough, to be honest. There’s so many people on there now that I follow on all social media because I’ve found them on Tiktok. I honestly thought I’d just post pictures of my cat and my boyfriend for ever but I need to take it more seriously now.
“Shotgun went viral first and got 9,000 likes and that is amazing and then I did A Thousand Years and that got 27,000 likes and 190,000 views and I just thought ‘Wow, this is mental’ and so I started asking for requests then. Somebody requested Someone You Love, which is what Greg played.
“With Tiktok it’s complete chance if you go viral. Then one of my videos blew up, then another and it went from there really. You’ve got kids tagging each other and sharing it and saying ‘Look at this, it’s cool’ and that’s always what I wanted, for the Welsh language to be cool because it wasn’t cool for me in school, you know.”