Chanig ar Gall was born Jeanne-Marie Guillamet on 5 May 1922 in the Saint-Cadou area of Sizun, a commune in Finistère, to a family of farmers from the Crozon Peninsula.
[1][2] In 1942, she married Charlez ar Gall, who at the time worked as a schoolteacher in nearby Argol, and they had two children.
[1] In 1971, the two became part of the first Breton magazine programme, ORTF Télé-Bretagne (now France 3 Bretagne)'s Breiz o veva, with Chanig herself as the announcer.
[5] Other works include Lagad an Heol, l'oeil du feu (a bilingual collection of poetry by Pêr-Jakez Helias) and contributions to Brud Nevez [fr], a Breton literary magazine.
[5] Chanig ar Gall died on 9 April 2012 in Brest, France, more than a year after her husband's death.