SANDI THOM FRONTRUNNER FOR SCOTLAND WORLD CUP

Photo from Sandi Thom Insta 

Scots singer Sandi Thom looks like a front runner to record the official Scotland team football anthem after she played her new track at a secret gathering in the First Minister’s official residence.
The Banff-born star, 44, was invited to Bute House in Edinburgh by John Swinney for an intimate evening celebrating the charity efforts of mental health campaigner Craig Ferguson, who is walking from Los Angeles to Boston for SAMH.
As well as key figures from the Scottish Government, the guest list included senior officials and representatives from the world of Scottish football, giving Sandi the perfect chance to pitch her song as the nation’s next big terrace tune.
Sandi, who shot to fame in 2006 when her debut single I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) knocked Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy off the top of the charts and went to number one in seven countries, performed a new track called ‘Oh I’m Proud To Be From Scotland’.
The tune is a love letter to the beautiful game north of the Border.
It traces Scottish football history from the Seventies right up to today and namechecks some of the biggest legends ever to pull on the dark blue jersey.
One guest at Bute House told the Daily Record: “Sandi played her song to the party after being invited as one of the special guests. It’s a chronology of Scottish football history, name dropping all the key players from the 1970s to present day and it's called ‘Oh I’m Proud To Be From Scotland’.
“It went down really well. Everyone in the room could picture it being sung by Scotland fans. It’s got a rousing chorus that the Tartan Army will love.”
Another insider added: “Scottish football is part of who we are. To have a song that celebrates that history and to hear people singing it back is a winning formula.” 
Sandi also played the track on her phone privately for Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell in a bid to secure official approval for the song to become Scotland’s team anthem for the 2026 World Cup campaign.
If it gets the green light, it will join a proud tradition of Scottish footie anthems including 1998’s Don’t Come Home Too Soon by Del Amitri, 1986’s Big Trip To Mexico by the Scotland World Cup Squad and 1978’s Ally’s Tartan Army by Andy Cameron.
This time, competition for the coveted slot is fierce. 
Other contenders include We Are Scotland… World Cup 2026 by Martin Considine, Calum MacPhail’s as-yet-unnamed 2026 song and a new Scotland track being lined up by Scottish boyband Just The Brave.
For Sandi, the chance to represent her country on the world stage comes at a pivotal moment in her life and career.
The singer became one of the UK’s first viral music stars when she livestreamed a series of gigs from her basement flat and built a global fanbase online.
That surprise success led to major label backing and a worldwide distribution deal despite the fact she had no traditional sales history before Punk Rocker exploded.
In 2016, after the birth of her son Logan Cali with former husband Matt Benson, Sandi made the decision to step back from the spotlight to focus on motherhood and her passion for animal welfare.
She has since devoted herself to volunteer work and has helped rehome hundreds of street dogs.
Sandi describes herself as ‘somewhat of a rebel with a cause’ and has never lost her connection with her audience. Her music has now wracked up over 70 million streams on Spotify alone, and she regularly hears from fans who discovered Punk Rocker as teenagers and are now returning to her songs as adults.
With Logan now ten, Sandi says she feels ready to return to her first love performing and writing with a fresh sense of purpose.
Landing the Scotland anthem would be the perfect way to mark that comeback.
This year is already shaping up to be one of the most important of her career.
Sandi is celebrating the 20th anniversary of I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker with a packed schedule of live dates.
She is set to appear on the main stage at both Heartland and Party At The Palace festivals and will hit the road for a 25-date UK tour, revisiting the song that changed her life.

JAMES MCAVOY AT GLASGOW FILM FEST

Pic James McAvoy Instagram 

Actor James McAvoy will attend Glasgow Film Festival’s closing gala for the UK premiere of his directorial debut, California Schemin'

Theshowbizlion.com enjoys popping along to the red carpet every year for the film fest and this year will be no different. 

James will be joined by cast members Samuel Bottomley (How to Have Sex), Scottish star of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Séamus McLean Ross and Paisley-born BAFTA Scotland Award-winning Lucy Halliday (Blue Jean). Watch the new trailer here.

Scotland-based Chilean-Belgian film director Felipe Bustos Sierra (Nae Pasaran), will return to GFF for the UK premiere of Everybody to Kenmure Street, the festival’s opening gala film on 25 February. This comes after the title was awarded the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance at the Sundance Film Festival. Also attending the premiere will be Glasgow-based political activist and human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar and Glasgow Councillor Roza Salih, who co-founded the Glasgow Girls in 2005 at the age of 15.

A selection of hot new talent and ground-breaking filmmakers will also appear on the red carpet at the 22nd edition of GFF, taking place between 25 February and 8 March.

Scottish talent to tread the red carpet includes 22-year-old identical twins from Bothwell, Ben McQuaid and Nathan McQuaid, who will attend the world premiere of their directorial debut, Welcome to G-Town (28 February). The micro-budget horror film, shot on location in Glasgow and poised to be an audience favourite at the festival, has had a third screening added to the GFF26 programme, after the first two screenings quickly sold out. Edinburgh filmmaker Sean Dunn will also attend the UK premiere of his Edinburgh-filmed black comedy The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford (4 March).

Glasgow-based Jack Archer, director of Gaelic-language documentary Sailm nan Daoine (Psalms of the People), will attend, as well as the film’s subject, precentor Rob MacNeacail (1 March). The UK premiere of Midwinter Break, based on Glasgow-based novelist Bernard MacLaverty’s book of the same name, will see the writer grace the red carpet, as well as the film’s director, Olivier Award-winner Polly Findlay (26 February).

Other British filmmakers attending include Ed Sayers, director of environmental feature Super Nature (28 February), BAFTA-winning Mark Jenkin (Bait), who will return to GFF for the Scottish premiere of his hotly anticipated science fiction drama Rose of Nevada (26 February), BAFTA-winning Stroma Cairns (Mood) for the Scottish premiere of The Son and the Sea (7 March), and BIFA-winning directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, who will return to GFF for the Scottish premiere of Broken English, about British pop icon Marianne Faithfull (26 February). 

Filmmakers from across the world will attend, including French screenwriter and director Alice Winocour (Proxima) for the UK premiere of Angelina Jolie-led drama Couture, which will also be attended by co-writer, Swiss filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Bron (28 February). NME Award-winning Irish filmmaker Gavin FitzGerald will attend the UK premiere of Lomu, his new documentary about rugby icon Jonah Lomu and Italian director Francesco Sossai will attend the UK premiere of GFF26 Audience Award shortlisted film The Last One for the Road (5 March), as well as the directors of Leonora in the Morning Light, Swiss/Czech filmmaker Lena Vurma and German filmmaker Thor Klein (28 February). 

Gavin FitzGerald, Irish director of Lomu about legendary rugby player Jonah Lomu, will attend (27 February), as well as Mexico City-based Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig, directors of Jaripeo, about the queer side of Mexican rodeo (1 March). Japanese filmmaker Yukinori Makabe will also return to the festival for the world premiere of his romance drama Sinsin and the Mouse, adapted from celebrated author Banana Yoshimoto’s short story of the same name (6 March). 

Acting talent who will grace the GFF red carpet include Call the Midwife star Natalie Quarry and Eastenders actor Ronni Ancona for the UK premiere of Think of England (6 March), 16-year-old BAFTA-nominated rising star Woody Norman (C'mon C'mon) for the UK premiere of My Father’s Island (2 March), and up-and-coming actor Leisa Gwenllian, lead of Effi o Blaenau, a Welsh drama having its world premiere at the festival, as well as a return to GFF by the film’s director, BAFTA Cymru-winning Marc Evans (3 March).

FrightFest, the horror festival known as the UK’s “Woodstock of gore”, taking place within GFF, will also see a selection of stars gracing Glasgow Film Theatre, with the UK premiere of The Restoration at Grayson Manor being attended by previously announced stars Chris Colfer (Glee) and Alice Krige (Star Trek) (6 March), and Red Riding being attended by acclaimed horror director and producer Neil Marshall (The Descent) (7 March).

GFF26 will host 126 films across 12 days, including 16 World, European and International premieres, 68 UK premieres, and 18 Scottish premieres, with titles from 44 countries and six continents.  

GFF is Scotland’s flagship film festival and is run by Glasgow Film, a charity which also runs Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT). The festival is made possible by support from Screen Scotland and the BFI Audience Projects Fund, both awarding National Lottery funding, and Glasgow Life, the charity which delivers culture, events and active living in Glasgow. 

STRICTLY DR PUNAM KRISHAN RETURNS AFTER CANCER

Pic dr Punam Krishan insta 

Strictly star Dr Punam Krishan has returned to work at her GP surgery do the first time since having breast cancer and says her diagnosis has forced her to stop and unlearn over twenty years of conditioning. 
As she revealed she had new insight, Dr Punam said: “Today’s a big day. Today I’m back in my GP for the first time since finishing my breast cancer treatment. And being here has really made me think about something that I hear a lot. I hear it from my friends, I hear it from patients, I hear it from my colleagues, so many people that just say, I can't take time off or I feel so guilty for resting or I should really just be pushing through.
And the thing is, that that guilt just doesn't help healing them. In fact, it often makes illness harder, and it makes recovery longer. And it's because we live in a society that essentially teaches us to push on, even when we're not well.
And that's especially true, I think, if you are a parent, if you are a carer or a professional, or the one who usually holds everything together, that guilt can really feel real. And I realise how deeply that message runs, even in me, honestly. It has taken a cancer diagnosis to force me to stop and unlearn over 20 years of that kind of conditioning.”
Practising doctor Dr Punam went on to say that she has learned  ‘healing actually requires unapologetic, proper rest.’
She added: “It requires proper time.And it requires a serious sense of duty of care to yourself first, and that's not something that I was ever really taught at medical school, especially as medics or healthcare workers, we are taught of duty of care to others to show up, to cope, to keep going no matter what. But the truth is, when you're not well, you just can't get 100%, and as as a doctor, that matters because my patients, they deserve me well, they deserve me present and able to care properly, not exhausted, not running on empty, even though lots of us can be guilty of doing just that.”
Smiling as she retained to  her office after being diagnosed six months ago, she added: “So I am easing myself back now slowly, intentionally, and without guilt.
And I wanted to share this for anyone else who's off work just now, anyone who is recovering from illness, anyone resting and feeling bad about it, please don't.
Like, you're not weak, you are not letting anybody down. You're doing exactly what your body needs to do right now.
It needs to heal. So slow down, tune inward. Your health matters, you matter.
And when you're truly well, you'll be able to give back in the way that you want to again.”
So today, I am back where I belong back to what I love in my GP clinic, and I feel so incredibly grateful to back on this side of the consultation table again. It's been a really, really tough six months, but I know that I've come back stronger with new insight as well, and I hope that that helps me take even better care of my patients.
So let's go.”