Latest news with #IsleOfLewis
BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Island DJ Levi Heron climbs the UK charts with viral song The Glen
A song remixed for his mum's birthday could see a DJ from the Isle of Lewis land himself at the top of the UK Heron, 29, from Stornoway added his own touch to a song, The Glen by the Scottish band Beluga Lagoon, which his mother Shona wanted him to perform for her remix has now earned him a recording contract with Sony Records and is climbing the UK top calls his style of 'Cèil-tech' a combination of Ceilidh and Techno music and has gained fans across the globe. The DJ told BBC Naidheachdan the song came about as a birthday present for his said: "It was her 50th birthday back in January, she asked me about a week before hand."She showed me the track and said 'do you think you could do a remix of this' and I thought, I'll try it."A few hours later he had most of it done. Audiences and record companies began to take interest in the song after Levi posted a short video on TikTok."Everyone started coming to my account and it got millions of views in two weeks."He posted it on YouTube and it has now received about four million plays."Record companies were calling me from all over for weeks."I had to get a manager and he's been handling it for me for the last few weeks. We got signed by Robots and Humans at Sony, it's bonkers!" Levi got his first set of decks when he was just eight years old, getting local gigs in his hometown but always had ambitions to "go further than Stornoway".Now millions around the world are listening to his song, and making videos to its signature dance - and Levi has left his job in the fish farming industry to make music continued: "Before we had kids, every month we'd be going away to a rave. Now people are starting to listen to my music instead of me going to listen to other people's music. It's unbelievable."The song is climbing the UK Top 40, sitting at number 34 in the midweek charts, climbing 12 places in just one week. But, competition for the top spot comes from another Scottish DJ, Calvin Harris and his latest tune, admits the overnight success has been "overwhelming" but "unbelievable".In the last few weeks he has played on stage with some of the biggest names in Scotland's rave says he's not sure what is next, but teased lots of collaborations with some big names in Scottish continued: "I'm trying to stick with the Scottish vibe. I've also got my own stuff coming out with accordions and fiddles."The Scottish theme, it's doing me well so far."
Malay Mail
09-05-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
‘Shame on you, Donald John': Scottish island where Trump's mother was born shuns her famous son
ISLE OF LEWIS (United Kingdom), May 9 — Donald Trump, who unveiled a trade agreement with the UK on Thursday, is proud of his roots on the windswept Scottish island where his mother grew up, but its residents are less enthused by her famous son. In contrast to the Trump brand's glitz and glamour, his ancestral home on the Isle of Lewis, northwest Scotland, is quite modest. The house, around 200 metres (220 yards) from the sea, is constructed from light grey plaster with a slate roof, in keeping with Lewis's austere and harsh landscape, sculpted by the Atlantic winds. Mary Anne MacLeod, Donald Trump's mother, was born on the island in 1912 and lived in the small village of Tong until the age of 18. Mary Anne MacLeod, Donald Trump's mother, was born in this house on the Scottish Isle of Lewis in 1912 and lived in the small village of Tong until the age of 18. — AFP pic Her son visited briefly in 2008 for a photograph and to meet some cousins, but it is hard to imagine a place more different from his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida or Trump Tower in New York. Trump may bring up his Scottish roots less often than his predecessor Joe Biden mentioned his Irish background, but he always speaks warmly of the country of his beloved mother, and the UK in general. He owns two golf courses in Scotland, and is expected to open a third soon. In 2018, Theresa May, then Britain's prime minister, gave him the family tree of his Scottish ancestors. 'It's great to be home, this was the home of my mother,' he proclaimed upon landing in Aberdeen, in northeast Scotland, for a 2023 visit to his golf courses. But on Lewis, where the locals are generally welcoming and talkative, simply mentioning Donald Trump's name is enough to impose a curtain of silence: it seems no one wants to talk about him. 'Shame on you' 'Have you seen the banner? That's what the majority of people think about him, but they don't want to talk about something controversial,' explained a Tong resident, who declined to give her name. The banner hangs in front of a shop in the harbour of Stornoway, the island's largest town, and reads in bold black letters: 'Shame on you, Donald John! #democracy'. The shop's owner Sarah Venus, who was born in the United States but later moved to Lewis, said she had received 'overwhelming support' from locals and US tourists. There is no need to add Trump's name to the banner, she explained, as passers-by know exactly who is being targeted, even though Donald John is a very common handle on the island, which has a population of fewer than 20,000 people. His mother's maiden name, MacLeod, is also the most common surname on Lewis. Venus criticised the president for his anti-immigration policies, even though 'his mother was a migrant'. To learn more about Mary Anne MacLeod, you need to meet Bill Lawson. He is a minor celebrity on the island due to his painstaking work, over decades, compiling the residents' family trees. MacLeod had several brothers and sisters, 'probably eight,' said the 87-year-old Lawson, adding that she was one of the eldest siblings. Her father – Donald Trump's grandfather – was a fisherman and farmer. Trump's great grandfather, Donald Smith, was a fisherman from the Scottish Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. — AFP pic 'At that time, you're living off what was available, so you get a small amount of living off the land itself. If the weather was suitable, if you had a decent boat, you did fishing,' explained Lawson. But there was a massive emigration from Lewis in the early 1920s as its resources were no longer able to sustain its growing population. 'It was big enough that the shipping lines sent ships to Stornoway. They all came into Stornoway and filled up with emigrants,' mostly heading to Canada and the eastern United States, said the amateur genealogist. Mary Anne MacLeod left the port of Stornoway in 1930 to join her sister in New York. It was there that she met real estate developer Fred Trump, whom she married in 1936, propelling her up the social ladder. Lewis residents are more likely to talk about Mary Anne MacLeod than her son, saying she returned to the island regularly until her death in 2000. One of her daughters, a sister of the president, 'was here quite a lot too. They did a lot of good work,' having donated £200,000 (US$265,000) to establish a care home, said Lawson. Donald Trump, however, is 'a stranger here', he added. — AFP
