Awards joy for top trad musicians in the Highlands; MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards results revealed
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An online music initiative to lift people’s spirits during lockdown, a Black Isle correspondent and an Inverness Gaelic singer have scooped top awards.
Fiddle player Duncan Chisholm, who started the Covid Ceilidh on social media, and acclaimed singer Fionnag NicChoinnich were among the winners in this year’s annual MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards
Mr Chisholm, who lives near Inverness, was winner of the online performance category for the initiative which ran daily for four months while Ms NicChoinnich was Gaelic singer of the year.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the awards were announced in a virtual ceremony.
Ms NicChoinnich, who lives in Drummond with musician husband Brian Ó hEadhra and their teenage children, Orla and Ro, is an archive assistant at the Highland Archive and Registration Centre in Inverness.
From the Isle of Lewis, she has performed in bands and projects including a 2018 Netflix film, The Outlaw King, and the computer game, The Bard’s Tale IV.
But it is the first time she has won the award which she had to keep secret until the announcement on BBC Alba.
“It is an honour,” she said. “It is the fact that people decide and it is in this particular year – because of the pandemic, I think music is even more important to people.
“It is a lovely feeling to be recognised in some way.”
Due to the pandemic, she and her husband put a two-week tour of Canada on hold this year as well as other gigs.
“It has been frustrating,” she acknowledged. “But we are both lucky in that this is not our full-time work. There are so many in the industry who have had very little income.”
Duncan Chisholm was delighted with the win for Covid Ceilidh.
“This has been an incredibly challenging year, like no other in my lifetime,” he said.
“When lockdown happened, I think we were all feeling anxious and disconnected. As a musician it felt very important to nurture human connection in the only way I knew how.
“Posting daily traditional music on to social media I believe gave listeners genuine relief and something to feel uplifted by during some very dark days.
“I personally posted every day for four months and subsequently musicians from all over the world joined in and posted thousands of tracks which then ran into millions of views worldwide.
“It truly was a global community for those few months and a timely reminder of how important music is to all of us, what it can bring to our lives in terms of inspiration, solace, hope and companionship.”
Anna Massie – Black Isle Correspondent won Trad music in the media.
