Monday’s sold out and jam-packed Wales to the World celebration was without a doubt my funnest nite of 2022.
S4C, the Welsh-language broadcaster was our host at Manhattan’s Sony Theater.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were the delighted honorees for their support of Welsh football.
The American super-star actors had purchased struggling Wrexham Football Club and created the “utterly addictive” Welcome to Wrexham docu-series for Disney+.
Anthemn
I finally got it why “Wales” and “Song” are inseparable during a night of stirring performances by Broadway and recording stars.
The finale arrived way too soon when S4C’s guests raised the roof with Dafydd Iwan’s “Yma o Hyd” (“We’re Still Here!”), the Thatcher era resistance song that is Wales’ official anthem for its first World Cup campaign since 1958.
It’s a spine-tingler: Watch the official video here:
Unscripted
A very big thanks for my invitation and warmest welcome to:
- Non Griffiths S4C’s Head of Content Partnerships and Strategic Events (try that in Welsh: “Pennaeth Partneriaethau Cynnwys a Digwyddiadau Strategol”) and
- Iwan England, S4C’s new head of Unscripted, who will attend World Congress in Glasgow and also Realscreen ’23. Look out for Iwan!
Strategy
Chatting with Iwan about his expanding documentary focus, I was reminded of my positive experience with many smart documentary copro’s between S4C, Ireland’s Gaelic-language broadcaster TG4, BBC, Smithsonian Networks, and others.
I was consulting at that time with Enterprise Ireland.
Full Conversion
By the time I stepped out into the cold on West 46th, ominously New York’s “little Brazil,” I felt fully converted to Wales ’22… certain that my last-to-qualify Socceroos could never come up with a more inspiring nite on the Great White Way than Wales’ winning World Cup sendoff .
