Muristek
Yma o Hyd: the defiant Welsh folk song that’s been 1,600 years in the making
Dafydd Iwan’s Welsh-language ballad tells a rousing story of national survival. Now, 40 years since its release, and with support for independence on the rise, it’s become a football anthem
In 1982, a Welsh-language folk singer from Brynamman, Carmarthenshire, called Dafydd Iwan sat down to write a song about his country. At the time Iwan “felt demoralised” about Wales. The main reason being a 1979 referendum, in which just under 80% of voters decided against forming a Welsh parliament, instead favouring the status quo: Westminster rule.
Iwan, a devout nationalist who was briefly imprisoned in the 1970s for defacing English road signs and would later go on to be the president of Plaid Cymru between 2003 and 2010, wanted to write a song to “raise the spirits, to remind people we still speak Welsh against all odds. To show we are still here,” he says. He called it Yma o Hyd (“Still Here”). The song consists of rousing acoustic guitar, backing vocals that sound like a small male voice choir, synthetic organ and a snare drum that evokes a marching band.
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