Cerys Matthews is a songwriter, author and radio programmer.
In 2022 her BBC Radio 4 music show, ‘ADD TO PLAYLIST’, won the Prix Italia and Prix Europa. On BBC Radio 2 , she programmes and hosts the Blues Show , winning UK Blues broadcaster of the year 2022 and 2023 and her cross-genre/cross-topic radio show is the most listened to show on BBC 6 music and won the Radio Academy Award in 2013.
Cerys has been a world music collector since she was a young child growing up in Wales. She has curated and composed for theatres, including the Tate Modern and the National Theatre, London and was artistic director for the opening ceremony of the World Music Expo 2013. ‘Where the Wild Cooks Go ‘ was published by Penguin- its an acclaimed ‘folk’ cook book which celebrates recipes, music, poetry, proverbs and history across 15 countries, and , again on Penguin , her singalong book-‘Hook, Line and Singer’, was a Sunday Times bestseller. 2024 sees Pushkin Press publish ‘Out of Chaos Come Bliss’ : Dylan Thomas poetry from the beginnings to the end, compiled and with notes by Cerys.
Cerys was a founder member of million selling band Catatonia, is a vice-president for Shelter, president of CPRW, The Welsh Countryside Charity and patron of the Dylan Thomas Society and Ballet Cymru.
