Gwenno Saunders

Gwenno Mererid Saunders (born 23 May 1981) is a Welsh musician and dancer. She is best known as a singer and keyboardist with The Pipettes, where she was known by the name Gwenno Pipette. She now performs as a solo artist.

Biography

Saunders was born in Cardiff. She is the daughter of noted Cornish poet and linguist Tim Saunders and Lyn Mererid, who is a member of the choir Côr Cochion Caerdydd and works as a translator. When she was growing up, her father spoke Cornish, her mother spoke Welsh.

From the age of 5 she attended the Seán Éireann-McMahon Academy of Irish Dance and was a cast member of Michael Flatley's productions of Lord Of The Dance and Feet of Flames by the age of 17, playing a lead role in a Las Vegas production of the former. In 2001 she had a role in the Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm on S4C, for whom she would later host her own programme Ydy Gwenno'n Gallu...?. She is fluent in Welsh and Cornish.

Music career

Pre-The Pipettes (2002–2004)

In the years before she joined The Pipettes, she had been a solo electropop singer, mostly in the Welsh and Cornish languages, releasing two solo EPs, Môr Hud (2002) and Vodya (2004) Saunders represented Cornwall in the Alternative Eurovision Song Contest, 2003, and won the People's Choice Award for her performance of "Vodya". In December 2004 Gwenno filmed the song "Ysolt y'nn Gweinten" by Celtic Legend for Classic FM TV. It is claimed to be the first video produced in the Cornish language, the text having been written by her father Tim Saunders with music by Cornish composer and ex Gary Numan keyboard player Chris John Payne.