A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, the author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, known as Burns Night (Scots: Burns Nicht; Scottish Gaelic: Oidhche na Taigeise; also called Robert Burns Day or Rabbie Burns Day. However, in principle, celebrations may be held at any other time of the year. Burns suppers are held all around the world.
Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015.
Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer and actress. She came into the public eye in an episode of the first British musical reality television series The Big Time: Pop Singer, which recorded her attempts to gain a record deal and her eventual signing with the EMI label. Easton's first two singles, "Modern Girl" and "9 to 5", both entered the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart simultaneously. She became one of the most successful British female recording artists of the 1980s.
Michael Marra was a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician from Dundee, Scotland. Known as the Bard of Dundee, Marra was a solo performer who toured the UK and performed in arts centres, theatres, folk clubs and village halls. While mainly known as a songwriter, he also worked extensively in theatre, radio and television. His songwriting was rooted in Scottish life and he found an audience within and beyond the folk music scene, which led to him working as a support musician for performers including Van Morrison, The Proclaimers, Barbara Dickson and Deacon Blue. His song "Hermless" was somewhat humorously suggested as a potential Scottish national anthem.
Archie Macdonald Fisher is a Scottish folk singer and songwriter. He has released several solo albums since his first, eponymous album, in 1968. Fisher composed the song "The Final Trawl", recorded on the album Windward Away, that several other groups and singers, including The Clancy Brothers, have also recorded. Starting in the mid-1970s, he produced four folk albums with Makem and Clancy. He also performed with them and other groups as a backup singer and guitarist. He hosted his own radio show on BBC Radio Scotland for almost three decades.
Liz Lochhead Hon FRSE is a Scottish poet, playwright, translator and broadcaster. Between 2011 and 2016 she was the Makar, or National Poet of Scotland, and served as Poet Laureate for Glasgow between 2005 and 2011.
Anne Lorne Gillies is a Scottish singer, writer, and activist.
Sadenia "Eddi" Reader MBE is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known for her work as frontwoman of Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards. In 2003, she showcased the works of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.
Karine Polwart is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised for her solo career, winning three awards at the BBC Folk Awards in 2005, and was previously a member of Malinky and Battlefield Band.
Janey O'Neil Buchan was a Scottish Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Glasgow constituency from 1979 to 1994.
Muriel Janet Gray FRSE is a Scottish author, broadcaster and journalist. She came to public notice as an interviewer on Channel 4's alternative pop-show The Tube, and then appeared as a regular presenter on BBC radio. Gray has written for Time Out, the Sunday Herald and The Guardian, among other publications, as well as publishing successful horror novels. She was the first woman to have been Rector of the University of Edinburgh and is the first female chair of the board of governors at Glasgow School of Art.
Moana Maree Maniapoto is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and documentary maker. Widely considered one of New Zealand's most successful indigenous acts, her music is described as a fusion of traditional Māori haka, chants and taonga puoro, with contemporary soul, reggae and classical styles. Moana was briefly married to New Zealand politician and radio personality Willie Jackson, during which time she was known as Moana Maniapoto-Jackson; they divorced in 2001. In 2016, Moana was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.
James Oswald (1710–1769) was a Scottish composer, arranger, cellist, and music publisher, who was appointed as Chamber Composer for King George III and also wrote and published many Scottish folk tunes.
Robyn Archer, AO, CdOAL is an Australian singer, writer, stage director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, in Australia and internationally.
Belle Stewart, born Isobella McGregor, was a Scottish Traveller traditional singer. Her biography, Queen Amang the Heather: the Life of Belle Stewart, was written by her daughter, Sheila Stewart, and published in 2006.
"A Man's a Man for A' That", also known as "Is There for Honest Poverty" or "For a' That and a' That", is a 1795 song by Robert Burns, written in Scots and English, famous for its expression of egalitarian ideas of society, which may be seen as expressing the ideas of republicanism that arose in the 18th century.
Fiona Kennedy Clark, OBE, DL is a Scottish singer, actress, and broadcaster, and the daughter of Scottish and Gaelic singers Calum Kennedy and Anne Gillies. As a child, she appeared with her parents as they performed as a family, and this developed into a successful solo career.
Sheena Blackhall is a Scottish poet, novelist, short story writer, illustrator, traditional story teller and singer. Author of over 180 poetry pamphlets, 15 short story collections, 4 novels and 2 televised plays for children, The Nicht Bus and The Broken Hert. Along with Les Wheeler, she co-edits the Doric resource Elphinstone Kist, and has worked on the Aberdeen Reading Bus, as a storyteller and writer, also sitting on the editorial board for their children's publications in Doric, promoting Scots culture and language in the North East. In 2018 Aberdeen University awarded her the degree of Master of the University. In 2021 she was appointed SPL’s poetry ambassador for the Scots language.
Emily Lyle is a Scottish ballad scholar and senior research fellow in the School of Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Betsy Whyte, née Townsley (1919-1988), was a Scottish traveller. She was an accomplished singer and a noted virtuoso of traditional Scottish storytelling. Recordings of her performances are held in the permanent collection of the School of Scottish Studies, part of the University of Edinburgh. She wrote her autobiography in two parts: Yellow on the Broom, published in 1979, and its sequel, Red Rowans and Wild Honey, published posthumously in 1990.
