BBC Alba is a joint-venture Scottish Gaelic language digital television channel which is broadcast by the BBC throughout the United Kingdom on satellite, online and Virgin Media on Demand. It is also available live on Virgin Media and Freeview in Scotland. The channel was launched at 21:00 on Friday 19 September 2008. The name Alba is the Gaelic word for Scotland and reveals the channel's other owner, MG Alba.

The station is unique in that it is the first channel to be delivered under a BBC licence by a partnership and is also the first multi-genre channel to come entirely from Scotland with almost all of its programmes made in Scotland.

On-air for up to seven hours a day, BBC Alba broadcasts nationally on satellite (Sky and Freesat). BBC Alba was added to Virgin Media's cable television service on 18 May 2011 but is only available in Scotland, with select content made available through their on-demand service for users resident in other parts of Britain. Some programmes from the last seven days can be viewed online on BBC iPlayer and the channel can also be watched live through iPlayer. After being approved by the BBC Trust, it has been broadcast on Freeview, in Scotland only, since 8 June 2011, making it available to all post-switchover households in Scotland. The channel is funded and operated jointly by MG Alba and the BBC. Whilst the partnership runs the channel, Gaelic programming on BBC Two Scotland will continue at least until digital switchover takes place. The Gaelic Digital Service will also include BBC Radio nan Gàidheal during downtime hours (alongside simulcasts of BBC Radio Scotland & BBC Radio Five Live) and online content.

John Powell (born 18 September 1963) is an English composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, in addition to his live-action collaborations with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass. His 2010 score for the film How to Train Your Dragon earned him his first Academy Award nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards. He was a member of Hans Zimmer's music studio, Remote Control Productions, and collaborated frequently with other composers from the studio, including Harry Gregson-Williams and Zimmer himself.

Powell was born in London. He originally trained as a violinist as a child, before studying at London's Trinity College of Music. He later ventured into jazz and rock music, playing in a soul band the Fabulistics. On leaving college, he composed music for commercials, which led to a job as an assistant to the composer Patrick Doyle on several film productions, including Much Ado About Nothing.

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (born 1978) is a musician and singer from County Kerry, Ireland. She is the lead singer from the traditional music group Danú. Her name is pronounced MWI-ren Nick OWL-eve.

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh grew up on Inis Oirr, the smallest of the Aran Islands, and Cape Clear Island, another small island off the coast of County Cork. Both of these communities are Gaeltachtaí (Irish speaking areas), and Muireann's first language is Irish. This was to affect her later career, due to her early exposure to Irish language song, especially in the Sean nós tradition. She began playing piano and fiddle at an early age, before progressing to the whistle and eventually the flute. Muireann's early musical experiences also included accompanying her father, respected traditional Irish fiddle player Feargal Mac Amhlaoibh, to sessions. When Muireann moved to the West Kerry Gaeltacht, she joined the national folk theatre of Ireland, Siamsa Tíre. During the six years she spent with them, she participated in several of their major performances. While in Kerry her singing developed, learning and gaining influence from local singers such as the Begley family, Áine Ní Laoithe and Eilín Ní Chearna. She spent four years in Dublin attending the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology earning a diploma in fine art. She then studied at the University of Limerick and was awarded an MA in Traditional Music Performance.