Known for her “crystalline” and “intoxicating” vocals, and deeply influenced by her early upbringing in the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist, multi-award-winning singer Julie Fowlis made history as the first Gaelic solo artist to win a Scottish Music Award. Along with her five studio albums, Fowlis 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—including the Oscar-nominated song Touch the Sky.
Nominated as Folk Singer of the Year at the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and Best Artist at the Songlines World Music Awards, Fowlis 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, Fowlis is in much demand as an exponent for her native traditions.
Fowlis 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 more than 1 billion people.
Since 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 with Highland musician Duncan Chisholm on a major 14-18 NOW commission, 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.
An artist with a genuine curiosity to explore other traditions and natural ability to cross genres, Fowlis has collaborated, recorded, and performed with artists such as violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti, James Taylor, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Fowlis 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, Fowlis 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 Bachelor of Arts Honors in applied music and a Master of Arts in material culture and the environment), she was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music by Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.