Archive for ‘News’

The Touareg rockers Tinariwen made London their last stop on Thursday before heading home to Mali. 

With support by José González, the show was packed and Tinariwen delivered a cracking show. The gig was a big one as they received both their Songlines Music Award for Best Group, presented by the one and only Jon Snow, and their Grammy for Best World Music Album.

In case you missed the show, you can see Jon Snow present their Songlines Award and a clip from their encore performance on our YouTube channel.  

Tags: best group, jon snow, mali, songlines award, songlines music award, tinariwen.

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, ushered in a new era on Wednesday when opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi capped a tenacious, decades-long struggle from political prisoner to office holder.

The only daughter of General Aung San, who led Burma to independence, was sworn in as a lawmaker for the first time, a key step in the country’s recent shift toward democracy after decades of repressive military rule.

After two decades of persecution as Myanmar’s most prominent dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her opposition to military rule, and nearly three dozen members of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), took the parliamentary oath of office.

The NLD won 43 of the 44 seats they contested in the April 1 by-elections and will remain a small, though highly symbolic, minority of the parliament. That could change dramatically come the next scheduled elections in 2015 if Burma remains on the path toward democratic reform.

The beautiful country – and it’s previously precarious political situation – remains close to my heart after a visit in January this year, which happened to coincide with Independence Day.

You can read more about my visit to the extraordinary country, and the music that I discovered there, in the current issue of Songlines (#84, June 2012).  

Tags: aung san suu kyi, burma, myanmar, union of myanmar.

Folk-pop grannies from the Volga set to send Eurovision 2012 into a spin
(Photo courtesy of Retrospective Broadcasters)

The question of where Europe begins and ends has always been hard to answer. When it comes to the Eurovision Song Contest, it seems everyone wants to be European. Last year’s victory for Azerbaijan’s Eldar & Nigar means the 2012 competition takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, and among the usual array of weird and wonderful acts is an entry from an equally far flung corner of Europe – the Buranovskiye Babushki.

Hailing from the Udmurt Republic in the Volga region of Russia, Buranovskiye Babushki (the Grannies from Buranovo) have won the right to represent Russia at the contest at the second attempt. These eight singers from a small village on the Volga entered the Russian heats in 2010 with the song ‘Dlinnaja Dlinnaja Beresta I Kak Sdelat Iz Nee Aishon’, finishing third. It was a suitably rural song about making a turban from the bark of a birch tree. Not to be discouraged, they entered again in 2012 with the perhaps more marketable ‘Party for Everybody’.

Sung in the Finno-Ugric Udmurt language, the lyrics anticipate the excitement of children coming home and the culinary preparations for their arrival. But what begins as an a capella folk song is interrupted by a crashing Eurodance beat announcing the English chorus.

The grannies, who are all in their 70s and 80s, began as a folklore choir singing in Russian and Udmurt, until 43-year-old choir leader Olga Tuktareva arrived from a nearby village to run the Buranovo social club 12 years ago. Not only did she get them singing only in their native Udmurt language, but also doing covers of Western pop songs too. Their traditional Udmurt costumes, complete with lapti (slippers made from the bark of lime trees), are handed down from generations to generations and form a distinctive part of the group’s appeal.

The idea to enter Eurovision was suggested by the late Russian folklore singing legend Lyudmila Zykina, whose birthday concert the grannies sung at after being spotted in 2008 by producer Ksenia Rubtsova singing an Udmurt cover of ‘Yesterday’ in the Udmurt capital Izhevsk. Zykina’s encouragement has already seen them tour around Europe and their financial success is being poured into a village project to rebuild the Russian Orthodox church destroyed during the Soviet era.

When they take to the stage in Baku on May 22 for first semi-final of the event, the BuranovskiyeBabushki will take the crown as the oldest competitors ever to grace Eurovision, pipping this year’s surprise UK entry, 75-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck. The combination of traditional Udmurt folk costumes and Eurovision bling is a truly surreal viewing experience.

Get a taste of what Baku has coming its way on the Songlines YouTube site.

Tags: babushki, buranovo, eurovision, folk-pop, russia, volga.

The June 2012 issue of Songlines – on sale April 27 – features a free covermount CD packed full of the best new sounds from around the world, plus 5 tracks selected by acclaimed actor Simon Russell Beale.

The issue also features the second free CD Back2Black Festival Sampler.

The Top of the World CD includes tracks from Irish folk legends The Chieftains; Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca; Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars; Solomon Islands pan-pipers Narasirato; Cajun supergroup The Band Courtbouillon; and the Angolan street sound of Batida, among others.

Pick up your copy here on the website, at selected WHSmith’s and at all good record retailers. Feast your ears on these all-new tracks:

* Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars ‘Gbara Case’ on Cumbancha
* Roberto Fonseca ‘Quien Soy Yo’ on Jazz Village
* The Chieftains ‘The Frost is All Over’ on Concord
* Diabel Cissokho ‘Karambaya’ on World Village
* Soumik Datta & Bernhard Schimpelsberger ‘Orion’ on Baithak Records
* Cathy Jordan ‘The Bold Fenian Men’ on Blix Street Records
* The Band Courtbouillon feat. Wayne Toups, Steve Riley & Wilson Savoy ‘The Bosco Blues’ on Valcour Records
* Batida ‘Alegria’ on Soundway Records
* Dulsori ‘The Beat’ on ARC Music
* Narasirato ‘Mane Paina’ on Smash

Plus Simon Russell Beale’s playlist:

* Mzetamze ‘Suliko’ on Wergo
* Kapela Eugeniusz Wilczek Band ‘Nuty Sabalowe, Pre Zielone Jare Zytko, Sabalowe’ on Polskie Radio
* Anatoli Kuular ‘Borbangnadyr with Stream Water’ on Smithsonian Folkways
* Tenores di Bitti ‘Anghelos Cantade’ on Real World
* Philip Koutev National Folk Ensemble ‘Kaji, Kaji, Angjo’ on JVC/Victor Entertainment

Tags: band courtbouillon, batida, Narasirato, roberto fonseca, sierra leone's refugee all stars, simon russell beale, songlines playlist, the chieftains.