Getting the Eisteddfod bug
Well my biggest day at the Eisteddfod has come. Apart from presenting my programme for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two, I also have my own evening concert and today is the day.
It's a real challenge for me as a non Welsh speaker since everything, including all the arias I sing in Italian, German and English, has to be translated into Welsh. The real problem is that all the chat in between the songs obviously has to be in Welsh as well. I may need a little luck in this department!
Yesterday afternoon was the crowning ceremony. I picked up my translator headphones and in I went! I have to be honest, not really understanding the intricacy of free verse, I was expecting to be a bit - how shall I put it? - bored. But it was brilliant. The guy giving the adjudicating was more brutal than Simon Cowell and I was half expecting the Hoff and Amanda Holden to turn up and illuminate their big red Xs for every unsuccessful entrant.
The tension in the pavilion was palpable as it was time to announce the winner, but in a cruel twist for me and the audience everyone who enters does so under a pseudonym, so when the winner was announced nobody had a clue who he was.
The Archdruid said: "At the sound of the trumpets would O'r Tir Du please stand up?" The trumpets played, the search lights scanned the auditorium and Geraint Lloyd Owen stood up. The audience erupted and it was fantastic!
On a side note when the Archdruid and the winner of the crown left the pavilion they passed me and without thinking I curtsied. I think I'm getting the Eisteddfod bug.
For all the latest news, results and features from the National Eisteddfod visit the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's website.
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