Edinburgh, Scotland – Gaelic songwriter Marcas Mac an Tuairneir returns to music this August with the release of his new single, O Rionnag Gu Rionnag, premiering 20th August and released internationally on 28th August.
‘O Rionnag Gu Rionnag’ grew out of songwriting sessions for the recent ‘Depositions’ commission for Celtic Connections, funded by Creative Scotland. For the critically acclaimed concert Mac an Tuairneir developed a suite of brand new songs alongside singer and longtime songwriting-partner Lochaber-based Rachel Walker, drawing inspiration from the poetry of Cork-based writer Anton Floyd. With lyrics from Mac an Tuairneir, the track was developed and produced by Mac an Tuairneir alongside other long-term collaborators, Mary Ann Kennedy and Nick Turner, and recorded at Lochaber’s Watercolour Music. Turner and Kennedy contribute their inimitable guitar solo and backing vocals to the track, respectively.
The new single’s title is taken from a definition in Dwelly’s Gaelic Dictionary. Literally from star to star, it evokes the magic of night as the span of time between the first star to appear in the evening sky and the morning star that signals dawn. The song’s English rendering, From Dusk ’til Dawn, carries the same arc, a night held between two points of light.
The single premieres on Beartas Ghuthan on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, alongside an early Bandcamp exclusive release. Pre-saves are already live on Spotify and other platforms worldwide, ahead of full international release on 28th August. It is already gaining traction on TikTok and Instagram across Scotland, introducing new audiences to GaelPop, the genre Mac an Tuairneir, Turner and Kennedy helped pioneer with the 2022 album Speactram, which earned him a nomination for Gaelic Singer of the Year.
A Gaelic manifestation banger at heart, the song is as much a love letter as a celebration of the celestial. It’s a queer love song for anyone who’s ever loved someone from afar – holding onto hope through the night, waiting for the stars to bring them home.
The track is a fresh showcase of Mac an Tuairneir’s gift for poetic lyricism, threading beautiful celestial imagery through its verses before its middle 8 opens out into an image of the rainbow and the Gilbert Baker flag. Musically, it marks a shift into Gaelic pop-rock, still built around his trademark gritty, soulful vocal, but carrying a touch of Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night – a nod to the synth-based sound of that late-80s, early-90s cusp.
Ahead of the release, Mac an Tuairneir will perform live at two dates, supporting Australian musicians and pioneers of Indigenous culture TraversX and DJ RedBelly:
Saturday 1st August — People’s Leisure Club, Edinburgh
Thursday 6th August — Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow
Both dates also feature Gaelic-language guest Àdhamh Ó Broin, known for his role on Outlander, as well as Samhuinn Watt.
The single marks a return to GaelPop after the Celtic Connections commission, coverage for his songwriting on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal’s Òran Ùr and a period of literary creativity, during which Mac an Tuairneir’s poetry gained significant recognition. He was co-winner of the Wigtown International Poetry Prize 2024 for his poem Homosexual, and has since secured Creative Scotland funding to write a major new collection of English-language poetry, alongside further Gaelic poems expanding Polaris, his critically acclaimed collection, shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s Scottish Poetry Book of the Year. A music video for O Rionnag gu Rionnag will follow in late August / early September – watch this space!
About Marcas Mac an Tuairneir
Marcas Mac an Tuairneir is a Scottish Gaelic singer-songwriter, poet, playwright, translator and freelance arts practitioner, working across Gaelic, English and Polari. He was shortlisted for Hands Up for Trad’s Gaelic Singer of the Year Award in 2022 and has won the Alan Forrester Trophy for new Gaelic Songwriting three times. He is Gaelic Editor of Northwords Now, an Associate of the Centre for Poetic Innovation at the University of St Andrews, and writes two monthly Gaelic Arts columns for The List. He holds the National Gaelic Award for Gaelic Arts and Culture (2023), the Lewis and Harris Association Gold Medal for Poetry at the Royal National Mòd (2023) and is the only winner of both Wigtown International (2024) and Gaelic (2017) Poetry Prizes.