Happy Burns day abdy! A wee reminder that if you’re celebrating Burns day – his poems, tunes, and songs, then you are celebrating Scots – a language in its own right. Here’s a video of Westlin Winds, filmed for St Margarets in Braemar with Michael Biggins on piano. If you’re looking for a Burns Nicht, look no further. The show I programmed and presented for Oor Vyce Virtual Burns Nicht is going live at 20:00 UK time over on the Oor Vyce Facebook and YouTube.

On Christmas Eve at 18:00 GMT, I’m releasing a video of me reading The Nicht Afore Christmas. Scots translation by Irene McFarlane. Illustration by Rosemary Cunningham. Published by Tippermuir Books. Don’t forget to click “Set Reminder” Facebook: https://bit.ly/3nGToGh YouTube: https://bit.ly/2LVnY0Z

Last night I was trying to submit my Scots translation of In The Bleak Midwinter to Spotify‘s playlist pitch tool. A question on the form is “What languages are the lyrics in?”. Despite having Gaelic and other minority languages as options, Spotify did not offer Scots as an option, and I couldn’t submit my song for consideration in the correct language. I made contact with SpotifyCares only to be told that they were “not able to confirm if or when your specific request will be addressed” but they were “building new features and tools for you to use”. Scots isn’t a technical tool or feature, it is a language in which people speak and sing in and release music into Spotify in. And Spotify should treat it as such and add it to the list of languages.

Read the article here: http://www.scotsman.com/news/people/spotify-urged-recognise-indigenous-scottish-languages-scots-singer-3070589