The acclaimed Treorchy Male Voice Choir has performed a stirring version of Yma o Hyd to spur on Wales in their opening World Cup clash against the USA tonight. The Rhondda-based ensemble's alternative version of the Dafydd Iwan protest classic is meant to pay tribute to Gareth Bale's boys out in Qatar and to Wales itself as 'the land of song'.
It's the latest example of the decades-old song enjoying a whole new lease of life in recent months, Iwan having sung it on the pitch in front of around 33,000 fans at Cardiff City Stadium before Wales’ crucial World Cup play-off games against Austria and Ukraine earlier this year. Since then, it's grown in popularity and was actually selected as the official anthem for the Welsh team on the global stage.
Yma O Hyd - which means 'Still Here' - was first written by Iwan in 1983, a time of political and economic turmoil in Wales when the rise of Thatcherism saw many coal pits closing and thousands of men and women losing their jobs. You can read its lyrics in full, find what it means and why it's now sung at Wales' football matches here.
And the resurgence of the song even saw the 70-year-old singer at number one in the music charts back in June. The song made it to the top of the iTunes rundown after Welsh football fans launched a campaign to get it there.
And the love for it doesn't end there. Actor Michael Sheen also referenced it in an impromptu spine-tingling speech on the comedy panel show, A League of Their Own, a couple of months ago. The Port Talbot star's impassioned outburst, resulting from host Romesh Ranganathan asking him to deliver a hypothetical pre-match team talk to Wales' players, rightly went viral soon afterwards. You can get more football news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Sheen also went on to deliver the same call-to-arms in front of the national squad themselves at their Vale of Glamorgan training base. Wales boss Rob Page admitted that he found himself "welling up" when he watched the actor's speech on TV.
READ NEXT:
- The story of Yma o Hyd and how Welsh football fans left legendary folk singer Dafydd Iwan in tears 38 years after he wrote it
- Yma o Hyd full lyrics, meaning and why Wales football fans started singing it
- The full video for Wales' World Cup song by Dafydd Iwan has been released and it is epic
- Wales get warm welcome on arrival in Qatar as they touch down for World Cup adventure
- Michael Sheen criticises Prince William's World Cup message to England as 'entirely inappropriate'
