Featured stories about Music
Stories about Music
19 February 2020
Nigeria’s Victor Olaiya: Trumpeter and ‘evil genius’ of highlife music (1931-2020)
"They thought I moved highlife music out of the ordinary. My highlife was a little bit out of this world, beyond explanation..." — Victor Olaiya
Trinidad & Tobago Carnival's steel pan competition in photos
There's only one place you can hear the best steelbands in the world compete against one another: the annual Panorama competition during Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival.
6 February 2020
Bengali, Pakistani, and Amazon indigenous women perform ‘The rapist is you’ song
The flashmob by Chilean collective Las Tesis is still making waves around the world.
29 January 2020
Africa's creative industries get a half-billion-dollar boost by big banks
“Because of underinvestment in the creative and cultural industries, Africa is largely absent in the global market of ideas, values and aesthetics," said Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank.
20 January 2020
Baul singer Shariat Sarkar arrested in Bangladesh for ‘insulting’ Islam
Baul singer Shariat Sarkar is accused of making comments which hurt the “religious sentiment” of Muslims. He says that there is no evidence forbidding music in Islam.
19 January 2020
Zanzibar says goodbye to legendary ‘king of kidumbak,’ musician Makame Faki
Legendary Zanzibari musician Makame Faki Makame has died at the age of 77. He was hailed as the king of kidumbak and a master of taarab, Zanzibar's "national sound."
19 December 2019
Cultures clash after release of Trinidadian soca music video featuring cricketer Ali Khan
“In ‘Me Gusta’, Destra is trying to represent something global, and other cultures are reading it in different ways.”
28 November 2019
Tanzanian rapper scolded for lyrics about nation's cashew crisis
Roma Mkatoliki's hit song criticizes the government's 2018 decision to deploy the military to purchase cashew nuts from farmers in an attempt to force an increase in market price.
24 October 2019
Kanye West's use of Jamaican symbols sparks national dialogue on ‘branding’
"Successive political administrations have never fully appreciated the economic value of the brand ‘Jamaica’ nor the symbols that [represent] that brand including its flag and its coat of arms..."
15 October 2019
Is Rihanna Barbadian or Jamaican? Jamaican Twitter claims the superstar as their own
Barbadian Twitter users poked fun at the Jamaican Dollar exchange rate, so Jamaicans did the next best thing — they claimed Rihanna.
22 September 2019
Zanzibar's one and only music academy on the brink of closure
For the 1,800 talented students who have trained at the DCMA, this is the only musical home they know, where they can learn and grow as professional musicians and artists.
12 September 2019
‘Glory to Hong Kong': The anthem of a protest movement
Tens of thousands of Hongkongers are participating in flash mob performances of the new protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” in the streets and in shopping malls across the city.
31 August 2019
Rendition of Trinidad & Tobago's national anthem strikes wrong note with the country's president
The performance of the anthem may have been different, but was it inappropriate, or as the president suggested, disrespectful?
30 August 2019
Tanzania's first and only classic car club pays homage to Remmy Ongala, old school musical legend
Oldschool Rides Tanzania, a club devoted to restoring and celebrating vintage cars in Tanzania and the region, organized a classic car show to honor Tanzanian music legend Remmy Ongala.
27 August 2019
‘Kingston Creative’ breathes new life into Jamaica’s downtown district
With the involvement of 100+ volunteers and more than 20 community groups, Kingston Creative is reinvigorating Jamaica's capital with its ongoing #PaintTheCity mural project.
25 July 2019
Media in North Macedonia claim a Russian band has plagiarized a song by Balkan superstar Toše Proeski
A series of online articles in North Macedonia have blamed the Russian rock group Zemlyane for plagiarizing a 2007 song made by authors from Croatia for the late Macedonian pop...
20 July 2019
Vietnamese-American musician's song in support of Hong Kong anti-extradition protesters goes viral
"As a Hong Konger, I am touched....Thank you for giving us strength to carry on."
8 July 2019
‘No Visa Mix': Tanzanian singeli stars denied visas to US music festival
"For those of you who still think of artists escaping to America, think about it again. It doesn’t make sense and you’ll lose the chance to see amazing performances."
17 May 2019
Jamaica’s ‘Voices for Climate Change’ spreads its message with music
One forward-thinking NGO is promoting smart environmental practices by harnessing artistic talent to do outreach and raise awareness about climate change.
13 May 2019
Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina: ‘Even in Russia, social media is still an effective method for uniting people’
Masha Alyokhina talks art, activism, and feminism in Russia -- and why a new cold war is coming.
