Featured stories about Music
Stories about Music
28 May 2020
COVID-19 tune educates, empowers Indonesia’s remote Marapu community
"Let’s just stay at home. Let’s wash our hands diligently to protect our health and lives."
22 May 2020
Slovenian protesters channel Katie Melua to explain anti-corruption bicycle movement
"There are 10,000 bicycles in Ljubljana. That's a fact. That's how mad the people are."
13 May 2020
‘Corona Ciao': Parody of old revolutionary song goes viral in the Balkans
Insult to revolutionary heritage, paean to middle-aged tavern-going privilege or just a bit of fun?
22 April 2020
Top Japanese pop stars upload music to YouTube to boost spirits during lockdown
With their spring and summer stadium tours canceled, a variety of Japanese pop superstars decided to help lift the spirits of fans who were now largely confined to home.
21 April 2020
Liberia's President George Weah sings his fight against COVID-19
Despite a message and movement solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 in Liberia, President George Weah still faces critique over a tanking economy and restricted media.
17 April 2020
Caribbean netizens take to ‘extempo’ music to spread COVID-19 safety messages
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, people from all over the region and throughout the diaspora are trying their lyrical prowess in a COVID-19 extempo challenge.
8 April 2020
Will the rejection of Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel's murder appeal make him ‘even more of a martyr'?
Exactly six years after Vybz Kartel was given a life sentence for the murder of Clive Williams, Jamaica's Court of Appeal upheld his conviction, but reserved judgment on sentencing.
26 March 2020
Tunes in the time of corona: A playlist from Trinidad & Tobago hits all the right notes
Two Trinidadian podcasters seek to virtually unite people amidst the COVID-19 outbreak by asking listeners to pick their favourite tunes — and explain why the songs are meaningful to them.
21 March 2020
‘The bars will spill over to songs of you': A Caribbean farewell to Kenny Rogers
"Depend on it, Kenny Rogers, when coronavirus leaves the long gambling-table of life, having taken too many of us with it, the bars will spill over to songs of you."
27 February 2020
Mitrovica Rock School unites young Albanians and Serbs in a segregated Kosovo city
In a segregated Kosovo city, where residents rarely talk to people of different ethnicity, a school restoring the rock music tradition of former Yugoslavia builds friendship between Albanians and Serbs.
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."
16 January 2020
From Indonesian exile to Czechoslovakian pop star: An interview with Rony Marton
Jaroni Surjomartono, an Indonesian scholar, arrived in Prague in 1963. He and hundreds of scholars were later banned from returning home after General Suharto rose to power.
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.”
18 December 2019
2019: A year of flipping scripts and changing narratives in Africa
2019, a year of changing narratives in Africa: Revolutions. Internet shutdowns. Tree-planting. Migration. Feminist songs. Media crackdowns. Cyclones and climate change. Opposition rising. Cultural icons dying. Illness, cures, and healing.
30 November 2019
‘Jump high and shake your manifesto': The rhythms of Trinidad & Tobago elections
For Trinidad and Tobago's politicians, the way to voters' hearts is often through song. A look back at some notable guest appearances by calypso and soca on the campaign trail.
