What started as a project for a FilmG competition for Limonead, real name Sinead Swann, has led to her music being enjoyed by tens of thousands of people and even an invite to perform at this year’s Belladrum Festival.
At 20 years old, the primary school pupil support assistant from Tain explained that her newfound internet fame sort of “happened by accident,” adding that she is very proud that she not only helped to promote Scottish Gaelic, but also showed that the language can be used in music outside its typical “traditional” genres.
Swann said that even though music is a big part of her life, she had never attempted to create any songs of her own, but the FilmG competition finally gave her the confidence to give it a go.
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“I like to sing, and I always thought I should do this, but I was always a bit too scared to, and then somehow I have accidentally put myself out there with Gaelic rap,” she told the Sunday National.
Swann’s debut song, Nach Buidhe Dhut, pulls from a variety of inspirations, including the “party funky vibe” of Dutch Eurovision singer Joost Klein, American superstar Billie Eilish, and the composer of the musical hit Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
One of the standout influences in Swann’s work is rap trio Kneecap, whose songs have helped popularise a revival of the Irish language.
“I was like, oh, it’d be quite cool to do a Gaelic rap, sort of like Kneecap, as there’s nothing really like that in Scottish Gaelic, so I was like maybe I should just make something like that and then do like a funky music video and make that as my entry,” she said.
Swann explained that writing the song’s lyrics came naturally to her as she had previously enjoyed writing poetry in her spare time, adding she wanted to see if she could “get some lyrics together” to make a Gaelic rap and then wrote the main dance catchline for the beat.
With the help of her partner, Cameron Ferguson, who helped with the track’s musical arrangement, the pair were able to create and record the song in the space of one day.
“We just sat and came up with the funky riff, and then it all just came together. The rest of the lyrics just flew in on top of the track,” she said.
Swann said that the lyrics, if translated to English, would be “nonsense” but wanted to “bring something new to Gaelic music”.
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“I did not want to be traditional at all. I didn’t want to sing about Gaelic,” she said.
“I just wanted it to be like a normal, funky nonsense rap, but in the medium of Gaelic.”
She explained that she doesn’t listen to “traditional” Gaelic music and that she wanted to show that the language didn’t have to be pigeonhole into a certain type of genre.
“It doesn’t have to be stuck in traditional music; it can be anything. As long as it’s in Gaelic, it’s Gaelic music,” Swann said.
She said the track was an “experiment” to see if Scottish Gaelic hip-hop would be something that resonated with people.
“I honestly had no intention of actually releasing it. I had no idea people would actually like it,” Swann said.
“I just wanted to see what would happen, and it just seemed to sort of blow up a bit, which is awesome.”
Sinead Swann posing while on set for her music video (Image: Sinead Swann/Limonead)
After releasing the song on TikTok, with one of the videos alone amassing more than 230,000 plays, Swann now has listeners from around the world, including people from Germany, Romania and the Netherlands.
Speaking about her aesthetic for her video to accompany Nach Buidhe Dhut, she said she was aiming for a “Y2K 90s kind of thing” with a hip hop vibe.
In the video, Swann can be seen dancing while singing along to her song, with a backdrop of Scotland flags, scarves, newspaper clippings, and even sporting a t-shirt that reads “I heart Nicola” with a picture of the former first minister.
Swann enlisted the help of a fellow Tain Gaelic unit member and filmmaker, Jack Weir, to shoot the video, where she went to different locations around the Highland village to dance and lip-sync.
“I hadn’t rehearsed at all for that video,” she joked.
“I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I just went in front of the camera and that’s what happened, and Cameron was like, I didn’t know you could do that. You’re a natural.”
She added: “I didn’t know what I was doing. I just kind of felt the vibe of the music.”
Nach Buidhe Dhut is Sinead Swann’s debut song (Image: Sinead Swann/Limonead)
Swann said the plan for the music video was to submit it to the FilmG competition and is hopeful her hard work will pay off.
“In my heart, all I want is an award at Film G,” she added.
After becoming an overnight sensation, the young artist said that she is still in “shock” with kids at her school even recognising her music video.
“It’s actually kind of overwhelming because I’ve gone from one day having this hip hop track that I thought, oh, this will be good in a film competition, to the next day being like, oh, this would be good on Spotify, so it’s a big jump, but it’s awesome,” she said.
“I’m really excited to keep this project going now because obviously I had no intentions to, but now I really do want to see where I can go with it.”
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Swann added that she is now busy coming up with more ideas for her music and is planning on writing more tracks.
With opportunities like BBC Introducing playing her song and Belladrum Festival asking for her to perform, Swann hopes to eventually start touring and playing her music live.
With listeners across Europe, Swann also hopes that her music will help put Scottish Gaelic in the world’s spotlight.
“I’m proud that I’m sort of spreading it that far,” she said.
Adding: “I mean, Gaelic is a really important part of our history. So why don’t we make it part of our future?”