Dafydd Iwan

Dafydd Iwan (born 24 August 1943), is a Welsh folk singer and politician. He was the president of Plaid Cymru (2003-2010).

Dafydd Iwan Jones was born in Brynaman in Carmarthenshire, Wales, one of four boys. One of his brothers was the late actor Huw Ceredig. Dafydd Iwan is the elder brother of politician Alun Ffred Jones. His paternal grandfather, Fred Jones, was a member of the Bardic family Teulu'r Cilie, and a founding member of Plaid Cymru. He spent most of his youth in Bala in Gwynedd before attending the University of Wales, Cardiff where he studied architecture. He rose to fame as a singer-songwriter, writing and playing folk music in the Welsh language.

Iwan's earliest material was Welsh translations of songs by American folk/protest singers: Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan until he began to write his first ballads. The most prominent of these were political including the satirical song, "Carlo" ("Charlie"). This was written for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. Iwan has also written love ballads and variations on traditional Welsh folk tunes.

By the late 1960s he was receiving television coverage both for his music and for his political activities. He was imprisoned in 1970 for refusal to pay fines for defacing English language road signs as part of the fight for Welsh language rights, serving three weeks of a three-month sentence. This event was commemorated in his song Pam fod eira'n wyn? ("Why is snow white?"). His song Peintio'r byd yn wyrdd ("Painting the world green") was regarded as a "battle hymn" of the road signs campaign.

During the 1970s, Dafydd Iwan's political interests (and songs) took in such themes as Pinochet's Chile; Welsh Devolution; the Vietnam War and the Northern Ireland troubles. Later songs mention events such as the Tiananmen Square massacre (1989), the Gulf War (1990) and opencast mining in the south Wales valleys (1995). "Yma O Hyd" ("Still Here"), released in 1981.

...
Wikipedia