Calum Kennedy was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 singer.
Kennedy won a gold medal at the Mod (Scotland)

Mod (Scotland)

A mod is a festival of Scottish Gaelic song, arts and culture. Historically, the Gaelic word mòd refers to any kind of assembly. There are both local mods, and an annual national mod, the Royal National Mod...

, singing in Scottish Gaelic. His first major success outside Scotland was his winning the World Ballad Championship in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 in 1957.

He had his own television programme, and was voted "Grampian TV Personality of the Year". He was married to another Mod gold medallist, Anne Gillies, who died in 1974. He wore tartan on his LP covers.

Certainly his finest recording was Islands of Scotland recorded for the Decca Ace of Clubs label in the early 1960s. This contains a version of "Land o' Heart's Desire" among other fine songs in English.

The BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 produced a programme in the early 1980s called Calum Kennedy's Commando Course, which documented (in hilarious fashion, although this was originally unintentional) a disastrous tour around the Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 in an old bus. As more and more of his cast left the tour, a red marker pen was shown erasing them from a promotional poster. Kennedy was not happy about this programme being shown, as he felt it ridiculed him, but it has since gone down as a piece of classic television.

Kennedy's daughter Fiona

Fiona Kennedy

Fiona Kennedy is a Scottish singer, actress and broadcaster, and the daughter of Scottish and Gaelic singers Calum Kennedy and Anne Gillies. As a child she appeared with her parents as they performed as a family, and this developed into a successful solo career.Kennedy has moved on to other areas...

 is also a singer and was for a time co-host of the long running BBC children's series Record Breakers

Record Breakers

Record Breakers was a British children's TV show, themed around world records and produced by the BBC and originally presented by Roy Castle with twin brothers Norris McWhirter and Ross McWhirter. It was broadcast on BBC1 from 15 December 1972 to 21 December 2001...

with Roy Castle

Roy Castle

Roy Castle OBE was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. He attended Honley High School, where there is now a building in his name...

, and his granddaughter is the model and actress Sophie Kennedy Clark.

External links

• obituary by Brian Wilson
• Beltona Record Company (A Scottish website featuring Calum's recordings)
• - Biography, Photos and Obituary at About Aberdeen
• - Calum Kennedy CDs