Welsh reggae artist hits number one on iTunes chart

What do BBC Radio Wales DJ Aleighcia Scott and UB40 have in common?

Well, as of Friday, they have all had a number one single on the iTunes Reggae chart.

Scott, 32, from Rumney in Cardiff said she was ecstatic to have the first Welsh-language number one on the iTunes Reggae chart with her first Welsh-language song.

Her success comes five years after Welsh-language song Yma O Hyd topped the iTunes UK song chart.

She said it was "an honour" to have topped the chart and it was "unreal" that she had made "music history with my reggae roots and passion for my mother tongue".

Scott's album, Windrush Baby, made number one in the UK iTunes Reggae Chart in 2023.

"It's wild that it's getting plays all over the world, in Italy, America, Japan, Germany," she said, "it's crazy".

The Welsh-Jamaican artist said it was "so important" for her to represent both of her cultures – Jamaican and Welsh.

"I brought musicians from both worlds to make this track truly special.

"Mixing the music of Jamaica with the language and soul of Wales has been a dream come true."

Scott began her Welsh language journey after appearing on S4C's Iaith ar Daith show in 2023, where she was mentored by actress Mali Ann Rees, and a passion for the Welsh language followed.

Two years later she was chosen to become a coach on S4C's Y Llais, and has teamed up with fellow coach Yws Gwynedd, and his label Cosh, to release her track Dod o'r Galon, which was produced by Pen Dub.

Scott said she always sang when she was younger.

"I was always making up songs, and singing around the house.

"My parents loved music, neither can sing, but music was always around me, and growing up in a partly Jamaican household, it's part of their culture, so it was naturally embedded for me."

Scott said it was going to the local youth club, Riverside Warehouse, along with attending various shows, that made her realise she only wanted to do music.

Growing up, Scott said she went down the conventional education route, studying at school, college and university, but she was always trying to do music.

"I was going to youth club and recording, at 15 I started a YouTube channel, and then when I was 18, I started going to London to record, because there was nowhere in Wales where I could record reggae," she said.

After university, she got a job as a teaching assistant in an autistic school, but was still trying to balance her music.

That was until she went to a gig in Cardiff in 2015.

"Whenever I went to shows, I always carried a backing CD with me, and my friends knew this, one of them was DJing and asked if I had any CDs, I did, and I opened the show.

"The next day I handed my noticed in, as I realised music was what I wanted to do full-time, and I have been doing [it] ever since."

Despite Scott's success, she said she still goes to shows and people are confused when she speaks.

"People can't believe I am a black person with a Welsh accent, because music is so English centred, or London centred," she said.

"It is a battle, but there are people in Wales doing great things, and although things are changing, I want to keep pushing those barriers for the future generations.

"I know what it's like to be a Welsh artist, and a Welsh artist of colour, and neither is an easy thing so if I can help the next artists coming up, then that's what it is about.

"West Indian culture has had such an influence on British culture, from the Windrush, which is everything I stem from, so for me to have achieved this is huge, because it's everything that came before me.

"To have the first Welsh language number one on the iTunes Reggae chart is amazing. From singing at a youth club to having a number one, and proudly placing Welsh-language reggae on the international stage."