{"id":796022,"date":"2026-10-08T14:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T14:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796022\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T14:40:08","slug":"dafydd-owains-second-album-wins-the-2026-welsh-music-prize-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/796022\/","title":{"rendered":"Dafydd Owain\u2019s second album wins the 2026 Welsh music prize | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Singer-songwriter Dafydd Owain has won the 2026 Welsh music prize with his second album Ymarfer Byw.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The emotionally charged record, which also won Welsh language album of the year in August, beat albums by the likes of Gruff Rhys, the Royston Club and Art School Girlfriend to the prize of \u00a310,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Receiving the award at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Wednesday, Owain, from Caernarfon, north-west Wales, told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk\/2026\/10\/08\/dafydd-owain-wins-welsh-music-prize-2026-mary-hopkin-honoured-with-welsh-music-inspiration-award\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s just amazing, isn\u2019t it? Such talented, amazing artists on the shortlist. There\u2019s a multitude of people that contribute to creating any album, and it\u2019s not a solo project, even though we call it a solo project \u2026 I just hope, if anything, this album and this award mean I\u2019m able to create more music. But it\u2019s such a privilege to win in such esteemed company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">During his acceptance speech Owain spoke of his first performance at the same Cardiff venue as a 16-year-old choir member: \u201cI mimed the whole thing because I was &#8230; scared of making a bum note,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ck5ynxn6xypwo\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he recalled<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s weird to have an award for what\u2019s essentially singing now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Huw Stephens, who co-founded the prize in 2011, praised Ymarfer Byw\u2019s \u201cmusical excellence\u201d and Owain\u2019s \u201cvery personal and moving lyrics\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Past winners of the award, now in its 16th year, include Gwenno, Kelly Lee Owens and Deyah. Producer Don Leisure took home last year\u2019s award for his album, Tyrchu Sain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Swansea singer Mary Hopkin, who was one of the first artists signed to the Beatles\u2019 label Apple Records in 1968, was also honoured at this year\u2019s ceremony, receiving the Welsh music inspiration award for her contribution to music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Welsh music prize 2026 shortlist:<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">ADJUA \u2013 Everything Is Beautiful<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Aleighcia Scott \u2013 Taith<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Ani Glass \u2013 Phantasmagoria<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Art School Girlfriend \u2013 Lean In<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Cerys Hafana \u2013 Angel<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Chroma \u2013 25 Forever<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Dafydd Owain \u2013 Ymarfer Byw<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Dewin \u2013 Dan y Dderwen<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Gruff Rhys \u2013 Dim Probs<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Gwenifer Raymond \u2013 Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Local \u2013 Too Broke to Be This Busy<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Mari Mathias \u2013 Cyfarwydd<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Skindred \u2013 You Got This<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Bug Club \u2013 Every Single Muscle<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Royston Club \u2013 Songs for the Spine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer-songwriter Dafydd Owain has won the 2026 Welsh music prize with his second album Ymarfer Byw. The emotionally&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-796022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}