Gwenno

Gwenno Mererid Saunders is a Welsh musician from Cardiff, Wales, who performs under the name Gwenno. She grows up in a household where her father speaks Cornish and her mother speaks Welsh, and those languages later become central to her work.

Early career

Her performing career begins in stage work: by the age of 17, she appears in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance and takes a lead role in a Las Vegas production. She starts recording with two solo EPs, Môr Hud in 2002 and Vodya in 2004.

The Pipettes and solo albums

In 2005, Gwenno joins The Pipettes and stays with the group through several line-up changes, eventually leading it until the band breaks up in 2010. After that, she releases her first solo LP, Y Dydd Olaf, a Welsh-language album that first appears in 2014 on the label Peski. She signs to Heavenly in 2015, and the label reissues the album.

In 2018, she releases Le Kov, a Cornish-language LP. Her recorded work is associated with electropop, hauntology and indietronica, as well as indie pop.