On March 3, Freemuse – the global organisation committed to freedom of expression for musicians and composers worldwide – is celebrating Music Freedom Day with a concert in Stockholm’s Concert Hall. The event will include the presentation of the Freemuse Award – won last year by outspoken Ivorian reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly – and the launch of Listen to the Banned, an album of music by artists from around the world who are censored in their homeland.

Freemuse has documented cases of music censorship in over 100 countries, and the album, released on the Norwegian Grappa label, features just a few of those voices and is compiled by Pakistani-Norwegian singer, composer and human rights activist Deeyah.

Listen to the Banned features Chiwoniso Maraire, who continues the Zimbabwean mbira traditions of her father Dumisani, and whose latest album Rebel Woman topped the World Music Charts Europe. She has been outspoken in her condemnation of police brutality in her homeland. Ferhat Tunç is a Kurdish singer from the far east of Turkey who has been arrested and imprisoned for his criticism of Turkish government policy towards the Kurdish minority. The album also includes Freemuse Award winner Tiken Jah Fakoly, Afghanistan’s Farhad Darya, Aziza Brahim from Western Sahara – a region claimed by Morocco and occupied by its military, and Kurash Sultan, from the restive far western Chinese province of Xinjiang where the Uighur people face repression and discrimination.

Tha album opens with a track from Iranian singer Mahsa Vardat, for whom the restrictions are more subtle and result from the simple fact of her being a woman. In Iran, a woman is not allowed to sing in public to an audience including men unless accompanied by a male singer. Her few international concerts to mixed audiences are a rare opportunity for her to experience complete freedom as a singer.

www.freemuse.org

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
•