Cool Cymru

Cool Cymru (Welsh: Cŵl Cymru) was a Welsh cultural movement in the 1990s and 2000s. The movement saw a rise in the popularity of Welsh music, with bands such as Catatonia, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals but also saw developments in Welsh politics, sport, visual art and TV and film.

Some commentators have linked the movement to a new cultural confidence in the nation and a more positive view of Wales outside the country while others have criticised it as homogenous and jingoistic.

The term Cool Cymru (Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales) is derived as a Welsh alternative to Cool Britannia (itself a pun on the British patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!"). Cool Britannia described the revival of British art and culture in the 1990s centred on London (as celebrated in a 1996 Newsweek cover headlined "London Rules"), emphasised British culture and used British symbols such as The Union Jack.

By 1998 many Welsh cultural figures were gaining prominence within the UK, at the same time the use of the term Cool Britannia had become maligned by some cultural commentators as a ubiquitous term for any part of British Culture. As such the term Cool Cymru gained popularity for the cultural figures and phenomena which were specifically Welsh or Welsh in origin. The term continues to be used by Welsh and British commentators long after the term Cool Britannia has fallen out of favour.

Commentators have alluded to both Cool Britannia and Cool Cymru as by-products social and economic issues that dominated the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. In Wales, this included the rejection of a devolved Welsh government in a 1979 referendum, the economic policies during the Premiership of Margaret Thatcher (which led to the 1984 Miners' Strike) and the eventual closure of collieries throughout the UK which resulted in the south Wales Valleys unemployment rates ranking amongst the highest in the whole United Kingdom well into the twenty-first century.

1997 United Kingdom general election in Wales saw the rise of New Labour across the UK. In Wales the election saw a landslide victory for Welsh Labour, winning of 34 out of 40 constituencies, a result which also saw the Welsh Conservatives lose all of their Welsh MPs, leaving them without representation in Wales for the first time since the 1906 general election. The new Labour government had promised devolution for Wales in its manifesto, with a referendum being held on 18 September 1997. Resulting in a narrow win in favour of a new Welsh Government

Five months after referendum, the band Catatonia released their album, International Velvet, and would perform the album's title track at the opening ceremonies of both the new government and the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The contemporary anthem would also be used by the BBC for sports trailers and was used to illustrate a post-referendum national confidence by academics and commentators both inside and outside of Wales as an example of Cool Cymru.

Other cultural impact of political developments included the Broadcasting Act 1990, which saw a wider remit given to the Welsh language TV channel S4C, commercial sponsorship of the National Eisteddfod of Wales reaching over £1 million for the first time, the establishment of the Newport Riverfront Arts Centre and a number of redevelopment projects in Cardiff that saw the construction of the Millennium Stadium, Wales Millennium Centre and the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay.