Cerys Matthews
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Cerys Matthews MBE |
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Matthews in 2008
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| Background information | |||
| Birth name | Cerys Elizabeth Matthews | ||
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11 April 1969 Cardiff, Wales |
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| Origin | Swansea, Wales | ||
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| Years active | 1990–present | ||
| Associated acts | Catatonia | ||
| Website | www |
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Cerys Elizabeth Matthews, MBE (/ˈkɛrɪs/; born 11 April 1969) is a Welsh singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster. She was a founding member of Welsh rock band Catatonia and a leading figure in the "Cool Cymru" movement of the late 1990s.
Matthews programmes and hosts a weekly music show on BBC Radio 6 Music and a show on BBC World Service, makes documentaries for television and radio and is a roving reporter for The One Show. She founded 'The Good Life Experience', a festival of culture and the great outdoors in Flintshire in 2014, with Charlie and Caroline Gladstone, writes a column for British Airways Highlife magazine and is author of Hook, Line and Singer published by Penguin and children's stories Tales From The Deep and Gelert, A Man's Best Friend, Gomer.
Matthews was born in Cardiff, the second of four children. The family moved to Swansea when she was seven. She attended St Michael's, an independent school in Llanelli, and Fishguard comprehensive school when she lived in the Pembrokeshire village of Trefin. She is fluent in English, Welsh, Spanish, and French. She has cited her childhood heroes as being and writers William Butler Yeats and Dylan Thomas.
She learned to play the guitar at the age of nine, sang Welsh folk songs and taught herself traditional songs from all over the globe including blues and Irish folk songs. She was a member of the West Glamorgan Youth Orchestra. She had a stint in Spain as a nanny, where she learned to speak Catalan.
Catatonia was formed in 1992. She subsequently sang lead vocals on, and co-wrote the music and lyrics for, the band's hits. Songs she co-wrote included "You've Got a Lot to Answer For", "Mulder and Scully", "Dead From the Waist Down", and "Road Rage". Matthews also played guitar on the earlier material before second guitarist Owen Powell joined the band. She also performed a single with the band Space named "The Ballad of Tom Jones", which tells the story of two lovers who want to kill each other, but then hear a Tom Jones song that defuses their homicidal feelings. Matthews later collaborated with Jones to record a version of Frank Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on Jones' album Reload. Matthews was voted the "Sexiest Female in Rock" in a 1999 readers' poll in the now defunct magazine Melody Maker.
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