Julie Fowlis is a multi-award winning Gaelic singer who is deeply influenced by her early upbringing in the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist. With a career spanning five studio albums and numerous high profile collaborations, her ‘crystalline’ and ‘intoxicating’ vocals have enchanted audiences around the world.

Nominated as ‘Folk Singer of the Year’ at the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and ‘Best Artist’ at the Songlines World Music Awards, Julie is an engaging live performer who has graced stages around the world, from village halls in the Highlands to Carnegie Hall in New York, from The Philharmonie de Paris to Shakespeare’s Globe in London. With performances at the World Festival of Sacred Music in Fez, Morocco, to collaborations with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, Julie is in much demand as an exponent for her native traditions.

She sang live at the closing ceremony of the Ryder Cup in Chicago in 2012 to a TV audience of 500 million, an event that was only eclipsed by singing live at the opening ceremony of the Glasgow XX Commonwealth Games in 2014, to a TV audience of over 1 billion people. Since of the release of her otherworldly album alterum in 2017, she has been touring with the world-class Transatlantic Sessions, performing sell-out shows in London, throughout the UK, the US, Canada and Europe and has recently completed work on a major 14-18NOW commission with Highland musician Duncan Chisholm, which commemorated 100 years since the Iolaire tragedy. She is also currently working on the much-anticipated project Lost Words Spell Songs – a collective and collaborative musical response to the intriguing and powerful book by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris.

She will forever be recognized for singing the theme songs to Brave, Disney Pixar’s Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning animated film, set in the ancient highlands of Scotland. It was a worldwide smash hit, and the song Touch the Sky was long listed for an Oscar in 2013.

Over the years she has been nominated and won several BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and Scottish Traditional Music Awards. She also made history as the first Gaelic solo artist to win a Scottish Music Award in December 2014. An artist with a genuine curiosity to explore other traditions and natural ability to cross genres, Julie has collaborated, recorded and performed with artists such as violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti, Grammy-Award winning James Taylor and singing star Mary Chapin Carpenter. Julie is also a sought-after presenter and contributor on radio and television, and is regularly invited to present for BBC TV and Radio, SKY ARTS HD and TG4 in Ireland.

A quiet torchbearer for her native tradition, Julie still finds time to deepen her knowledge of Highland and Gaelic culture, tradition and history through continued research and academic projects. In addition to her two degrees (a BA Honors in Applied Music and an MA in Material Culture & The Environment), she was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.