About Cerys Matthews

Cerys Matthews is a singer, songwriter, author and broadcaster. She won Gold at the 2013 Sony Radio Academy Awards for her popular BBC 6 music Sunday morning show, which she programmes and hosts. She is the One Show's cultural reporter and writes and presents radio and television documentaries on subjects as diverse as Cuba, early classical composers, shark fishing and early female blues players. A collector of songs for over thirty years, Cerys is a columnist for the number one world music magazine 'Songlines', and her sing along book, 'Hook, Line and Singer', published last year by Penguin, quickly became a Sunday Times bestseller. She is the author of children's stories 'Tales from the Deep' and soon to be published 'Gelert: A Man's Best Friend'. Cerys has curated for theatres and the Tate Modern and was artistic director for the opening ceremony of the World Music Expo 2013. She was awarded an inaugural St David Award for her services to culture this year from the First Minister of Wales. Also in 2013, Cerys wrote and presented a 6 part television series looking into the history of centuries old folk songs in her native Wales. In October 2014 Cerys releases an album of music and poetry by Dylan Thomas as well as an Archive Hour programme for BBC Radio 4 looking into her uncle Colin Edward's role in amassing a huge archive on this great lyrical poet. Cerys has created a brand new cultural festival, 'The Good Life Experience', which launched on September 20th. She is a judge for the Dylan Thomas Prize for young writers, and for the Forward Prizes for poetry. Her self produced album of traditional Welsh songs, 'Tir' is the biggest selling Welsh language album of the past ten years, the second volume, 'Hullabaloo' followed last year. Cerys was the founder member of multi-million selling band Catatonia and duets with Sir Tom Jones on the perennial winter favourite, 'Baby it's Cold Outside'. She is Vice President for the homeless charity, Shelter, Vice President of the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, is patron of the Dylan Thomas Society and Ballet Cymru, and is Arts Ambassador for the Linden Lodge School - a specialist school for sensory impairment. Cerys lives in West London with her husband and children.