Welsh Reggae Artist Number One on iTunes Reggae Chart

With her debut Welsh-language song, Scott, 32, of Rumney, Cardiff, expressed her happiness at having the first Welsh-language number one on the iTunes Reggae list. 

The Welsh-language song “Yma O Hyd” peaked at the top of the iTunes UK song chart five years before her achievement. She said that making “music history with my reggae roots and passion for my mother tongue” was “unreal” and that topping the list was “an honor.”

In 2023, Scott’s album Windrush Baby peaked at the top of the UK iTunes Reggae Chart. 

Scott stated, “It’s wild that it’s getting plays all over the world, in Italy, America, Japan, Germany.” Adding, “It’s crazy”.

According to the Welsh-Jamaican artist, it was “so important” for her to portray both her Welsh and Jamaican traditions.

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

She stated, “Mixing the music of Jamaica with the language and soul of Wales has been a dream come true.”

Following her appearance on S4C’s Iaith ar Daith show in 2023, where she received mentoring from actor Mali Ann Rees, Scott developed a fascination for the Welsh language and started learning the language. 

She was selected to coach S4C’s Y Llais two years later, and she has collaborated with fellow coach Yws Gwynedd and his label Cosh to release her song, “Dod o’r Galon,” which was produced by Pen Dub. Since her debut at Cardiff’s Big Weekend when she was seven years old, Aleighcia has been performing live. 

When she was little, she always sang, according to Scott. 

Scott stated, “I was always making up songs, and singing around the house.” She further mentioned, “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 claimed that she realized she just wanted to perform music after visiting the local youth club, Riverside Warehouse, and seeing other performances. 

Scott claimed that although she pursued traditional schooling as a child, attending school, college, and university, she never stopped pursuing her dream of being a musician.

“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 noted.

She continued to combine her singing career while working as a teaching assistant at an autism school after graduating from college. That is, until 2015 when she attended a performance in Cardiff.

“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.”

Adding, “The next day I handed my notice in, as I realized music was what I wanted to do full-time, and I have been doing [it] ever since.”

Aleighcia now hosts her weekly reggae program for BBC Radio Wales, having previously hosted the station’s inaugural Christmas reggae broadcast. 

Scott claimed that even with her popularity, she still attends performances and that when she talks, people are perplexed.

“People can’t believe I am a black person with a Welsh accent, because music is so English-centered, or London-centered,” she stated.

“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 future generations.”

Scott stated, “I know what it’s like to be a Welsh artist, and a Welsh artist of color, 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,” she remarked.